[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c21 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21: Chapter VI. Asoka Maurya The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21 - **Language:** English ### Chapter VI. Asoka Maurya ### [c21.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.2) ACCORDING to credible tradition, Asoka-vardhana,¹ or Asoka, as he is generally called, served his apprenticeship to the art of government during the lifetime of his father, Bindusāra, as viceroy successively of the North-western frontier province and of Western India. He was one of several sons, and was no doubt selected by his father, in accordance with the usual practice, as \*Yuvarāja\*, or Crown Prince, on account of his ability and fitness for the imperial succession. ### [c21.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.3) ¹ \*Vishnu-Purāna\*. Aśoka is the correct Sanskrit form, but in Pāli and some Sanskrit MSS. the dental \*s\* is used. ### [c21.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.4) Taxila, the capital of the north-western viceroyalty, which probably included Kashmīr, the Panjāb, and the provinces to the west of the Indus, was in those days one of the greatest and most splendid of the cities of the East, and enjoyed a special reputation as the head-quarters of Hindu learning. The sons of people of all the upper classes, chiefs, Brahmans, and merchants, flocked to Taxila, as to a university town, in order to study the circle of Indian arts and sciences, especially medicine. The territory surrounding the capital was rich and populous, and, two generations earlier, had formed a small independent state, weak enough to be in terror of its neighbours, and yet strong enough to render Alexander valuable assistance. ### [c21.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.5) The Greeks, who considered the little state to be well governed, noted with interest, and without disapprobation, the local customs, which included polygamy, the exposure of the dead to be devoured by vultures, and the sale in open markets of maidens who had failed to secure husbands in the ordinary course.² ### [c21.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.6) ² Strabo, Bk. xv, chs. 28, 62. For the marriage-mart, compare the Babylonian practice (Herod. i, 196). Exposure of the dead to be devoured by vultures was, and still is, a Persian (Pārsī) custom (Herod. i, 140). It is practised to this day in Tibet, and was in ancient times the usage of the Lichchhavis of Vaisāli, who appear to have been either Tibetans or a cognate people (\*Ind. Ant.\*, 1903, p. 233). See also S. C. Vidyabhusena, 'The Licchavi Race of Ancient India' (\*J. A. S. B.\*, vol. lxxx, part I (1902), No. 2). ### [c21.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.7) The position of the city on the high road from Central Asia to the interior of India fitted it to be the capital of the north-west viceroy; and its strategical advantages are still recognized. Hasan Abdāl, close to its ruins, is a favourite ground for the manœuvres of the Indian army; and at Rāwalpindi, a few miles to the south-east, a huge cantonment guards the road to India against possible Alexanders advancing from the north-west. ### [c21.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.8) Ujjain, the capital of Western India, was equally famous, and equally suitable as the seat of a viceregal government. Reckoned to be one of the seven sacred cities, viz. Benares (Kāsī), Hardwār (Māyā), Kānchī (Conjeeveram), Ayodhyā (Oudh), Dvāravatī (Dwarka), Mathurā, and Ujjain (Avantikā), and standing on the road leading from the busy ports of the western coast to the markets of the interior, it combined the advantages of a favourite place of pilgrimage with those of a great commercial dépôt. The city was recognized as the head-quarters of Indian astronomy, and longitudes were computed from its meridian.¹ ### [c21.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.9) ¹ See the curious article 'Oojyne' in Yule and Burnell, \*Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words\*. ### [c21.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.10) The Ceylonese tradition that Asoka was residing at Ujjain when he was summoned to the capital by the news of his father's mortal illness may well be believed; although no credence can be given to the tales which relate that Asoka had a hundred brothers, ninety-nine of whom he slew, and so forth. These idle stories seem to have been invented by the monks chiefly in order to place a dark background of early wickedness behind the bright picture of his mature piety. Asoka certainly had brothers and sisters alive in the seventeenth or eighteenth year of his reign,² whose households were objects of his anxious care; and there is nothing to indicate that he regarded his relatives with jealousy. His grandfather, Chandragupta, 'a man of blood and iron', who had fought his way from poverty and exile to the imperial throne, naturally was beset by jealousies and hatreds, and constrained to live a life of distrustful suspicion. But Asoka, who was born in the purple, and inherited an empire firmly established by half a century of masterful rule for two generations, presumably was free from the 'black care' which haunted his ancestor. His edicts display no sense of insecurity or weakness from first to last; and the probability is that he succeeded peaceably in accordance with his predecessor's nomination. It is, however, possible that the northern tradition which testifies to a contest for the succession between Asoka and Susīma, his eldest brother, may be founded on fact. It has more historical appearance than the stories told by the monks of Ceylon.¹ ### [c21.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.11) ² 'Fourteenth year', according to the inscriptions, reckoning from the coronation. ### [c21.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.12) ¹ \*Asoka\*, 3rd ed., p. 249. ### [c21.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.13) Inasmuch as the reign of Asoka lasted for fully forty years, he must have been a young man when, in or about the year 273 B. C., he undertook the government of the vast empire which had been won and kept by his grandfather and father. Nothing is recorded concerning the first eleven or twelve years of his rule, which presumably were spent in the current work of administration. His solemn coronation did not take place before the year 269 B. C., about four years after his accession, and this fact is almost the only circumstance which supports the notion that his succession was disputed. The anniversary of his coronation was always celebrated with ceremony, and specially marked by the pardon and release of prisoners.² ### [c21.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.14) ² For the chronology see \*Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India\* (Clarendon Press, 3rd ed., 1920); which also gives a summary of the legends, and a complete translation of the inscriptions. ### [c21.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.15) In the thirteenth year of his reign, or in the ninth, as reckoned from the coronation, Asoka embarked upon the one aggressive war of his life of which a record exists, and rounded off his dominions by the conquest of the kingdom of Kaliṅga, the strip of territory extending along the coast of the Bay of Bengal from the Mahānadī to the Godāvarī. The campaign was wholly successful, and Kaliṅga became an integral part of the Maurya dominions. Two special edicts published a few years later show that the administration of the newly acquired territory caused much anxiety to the emperor, who, like all sovereigns, sometimes was not well served by his officers. The royal instructions, which enjoined just and paternal government, and specially insisted on sympathetic tactful treatment of the wilder tribes, were disregarded at times by officials, who had to be warned that disobedience of orders was not the way to win the favour of either heaven or their master. ### [c21.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.16) The kingdom of Kalinga had maintained a considerable military force, which was estimated by Megasthenes as numbering 60,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and 700 war elephants. The opposition offered to the invaders was so stubborn that the conquest involved immeasurable suffering. The victor records with sorrow that 150,000 persons were carried into captivity, 100,000 were slain, and that many times that number perished from famine, pestilence, and the other calamities which follow in the train of armies. ### [c21.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.17) The sight of all this misery and the knowledge that he alone had caused it smote the conscience of Asoka, and awakened in his breast feelings of 'remorse, profound sorrow, and regret'. These feelings crystallized into a steadfast resolve that never again should ambition lead him to inflict such grievous wrongs upon his fellow creatures; and four years after the conquest he was able to declare that 'the loss of even the hundredth or the thousandth part of the persons who were then slain, carried away captive, or done to death in Kalinga would now be a matter of deep regret to his Majesty'. ### [c21.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.18) The king acted up to the principles which he professed, and abstained from aggressive war for the rest of his life. About this time he came under the influence of Buddhist teaching, his devotion to which increased more and more as the years rolled on. The 'chiefest conquest', he declares, is that won by the Law of Piety, and he begs his descendants to rid themselves of the popular notion that conquest by arms is the duty of kings; and, even if they should find themselves engaged in warfare, he reminds them that they might still find pleasure in patience and gentleness, and should regard as the only true conquest that which is effected through the Law of Piety, or Duty.¹ ### [c21.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.19) ¹ Rock Edict XIII. ### [c21.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.20) Asoka from this time forth made it the business of his life to employ his unlimited autocratic power over a vast empire in the teaching, propagation, and enforcement of the ethical system, which he called the Law of Piety or Duty (\*dhamma\* or \*dharma\*), and had learned chiefly from his Buddhist instructors. ### [c21.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.21) In the seventeenth and eighteenth years of his reign he decided definitely upon his line of action, and proclaimed the principles of his government to his people in a series of edicts engraved upon the rocks, including Minor Rock Edict I and the Fourteen Rock Edicts, and laying down the general rules which must guide the conduct of the lieges. ### [c21.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.22) These extraordinary documents were followed by others specially concerning the conquered province of Kalinga, the purport of which has been referred to above. The earliest of the whole series seems to be Minor Rock Edict I, a short document, known in seven slightly variant forms. From it, as read with the longer compositions, we learn that Asoka was a lay disciple (\*upāsaka\*) for more than two and a half years after his conversion to Buddhism, and that during that period he did not exert himself strenuously.² But more than a year before the issue of his proclamations he had joined the Monastic Order (\*saṁgha\*) and had begun to devote earnest effort to promoting the cause of religion. The peculiar edict, known as the Bhābrū or Second Bairāt Rock Edict, in which the king enumerates seven passages of the scriptures as specially meriting the attention of both the clergy and the laity, apparently belongs to the same time.³ ### [c21.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.23) ² Compare the case of the king of Samaṭata (the delta of the Brahmaputra), in the seventh century: ‘Le roi de cet état s’appelait \*Holouo-ché-po-tch’a\* (Rajabhaṭṭa \[Watters, II, 188, and \*J. & Proc. A.S.B.\*, 1914, p. 87\]); ce souverain se trouvait être un fervent adorateur des trois Joyaux (triratna) et il jouait le rôle de grand \*ou-po-souo-kia\* (oupâsaka)’ (Chavannes, \*Religieux éminents\*, p. 128). ### [c21.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.24) ³ Bhābrū, not Bhābrā, is correct. The inscription comes from one of the Bairāt hills, distant about 12 miles from the camping-ground at Bhābrū (\*Prog. Rep. A. S. W. Circle\*, 1909–10, para. 10). ### [c21.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.25) In the year 249 B. C., when he had occupied the throne for about twenty-four years, Asoka made a solemn pilgrimage to the most sacred spots in the Buddhist Holy Land. Starting from Pātaliputra, the capital, he advanced northwards along the royal road to Nepāl, the course of which is marked by five great monolithic pillars,¹ through the districts now known as Muzaffarpur and Champāran, until he approached the base of the outer Himalayan range. ### [c21.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.26) ¹ Bakhirā ; Lauriyā-Ararāj (Radhiah) ; Lauriyā-Nandangaṛh (Mathiah) ; Rāmpurwā (2). ### [c21.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.27) Probably he then turned westwards, without crossing the hills, and first visited the famous Lumbinī Garden—the Bethlehem of Buddhism—where, according to the legend, the pains of travail came upon Māyā, and she gave birth to Buddha as she stood under a tree. At this spot his guide and preceptor, Upagupta, addressed Asoka and said : 'Here, great king ! was the Venerable One born.' A pillar inscribed with these words, still as legible as when they were incised, was set up by Asoka to preserve the memory of his visit, and stands to this day.² ### [c21.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.28) ² The latest revised translation is given in \*Asoka\*, 3rd ed., p. 221, with a facsimile of the text. ### [c21.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.29) In due course Saint Upagupta led his royal disciple to Kapilavastu, the home of Buddha's childhood, now in the Tarāi ;³ to Sārnāth, near Benares, the scene of the Master's first success as a preacher ; to Srāvastī, where he lived for many years ;⁴ to the Bodhi tree of Gayā, where he overcame the powers of darkness ; and to Kusinagara, where he died.⁵ ### [c21.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.30) ³ Probably Piprāwā in the north of the Basti district, on the frontier (Mukherji and V. A. Smith, \*Explorations in the Nepalese Tarāi, Arch. Survey, Imp. Ser.\*, vol. xxvi, Calcutta, 1897). The Kapilavastu of Hiuen Tsang certainly is represented by Tilaura Kōṭ and neighbouring ruins, in the Nepalese Tarāi, about 10 miles to the NW. of Piprāwā. ### [c21.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.31) ⁴ On upper course of the Rāpti, perhaps Sahēṭh-Mahēṭh on the boundary of the Goṇḍa and Bahraich Districts. Inscriptions discovered by the Archaeological Dept. seem to identify the site (\*Annual Rep. A. S.\*, 1908–9, p. 137). The difficulty is that the site does not suit the indications given by the Chinese pilgrims (see \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1900, pp. 1–24). ### [c21.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.32) ⁵ In Nepāl, beyond the first range of hills (\*J. R. A. S.\*, Jan., 1902), as I still think. H. H. General Khadga Shamsher Jang Bahādur agrees with me in placing Kuśinagara in Nepāl, and believes the site to be at the junction of the Little, or Eastern, Rāptī (Achiravatī) with the Gandak (Hiranyavatī). His position is farther west than that which I had selected, but almost in the same latitude, and is very likely to be correct (\*Pioneer Mail\*, Allahābād, Feb. 26, 1904). The discovery in the large \*stūpa\* behind the Nirvāṇa temple near Kasiā of an inscribed copper plate bearing the words \[\*parini\*\] \*rvāṇa-chaitye tāmra-paṭṭa iti\* has revived and supported the old theory that the remains near Kasiā in the east of the Gorakhpur District represent Kuśinagara (Pargiter, \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1913, p. 152). But that theory is untenable, because Kuśinagara was, and long had been, deserted in the time of the Chinese pilgrims, whereas building was continuous at Kasiā all through the Gupta period and afterwards. In all probability the establishment near Kasiā, which appears to have been subordinate to the monastery of the Decease at Kuśinagara, was also known as a \*parinirvāṇa-chaitya\*. See my article on Kuśinagara in Hastings, \*Encycl. of Religion and Ethics\*. ### [c21.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.33) At all these holy places the king granted liberal endowments, and set up memorials, some of which have come to light in these latter days, after long ages of oblivion. ### [c21.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.34) Although a modern student may feel difficulty in believing that Asoka could have assumed monastic vows and robe while still exercising autocratic control over a vast empire, there is no doubt about the fact that he did so. Nine centuries later the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing noted that the image of Asoka was clothed in a monk's garment of a particular pattern.¹ The incongruity involved according to our notions in an emperor turning monk, without abdicating, did not strike I-tsing, who was familiar with the exactly similar case in his own country of the Emperor Wu-ti or Hsiao Yen, the first of the Liang dynasty, who was a devout Buddhist, and adopted the monastic garb on two occasions, in A. D. 527 and 529.² A less exact parallel is supplied by the story of a Jain king of Western India in the twelfth century, who assumed the title of 'Lord of the Order', and at various periods of his reign bound himself by vows of continence and abstinence.³ A Buddhist monk is always at liberty to return to lay life, and it is probable that Asoka retired to a monastery from time to time for a short period, making suitable arrangements for carrying on the administration during his retreat. There is some reason to believe that Minor Rock Edict I and the Bhābrū Edict were issued while the emperor was thus in retreat at Bairāt. It is easy to understand that an all-powerful monarch could have arranged the apparent difficulty to his satisfaction in more ways than one. Asoka distinctly adopted the position of ruler of both church and state during the last twenty-five years of his life, just as Charlemagne did long afterwards in Europe. ### [c21.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.35) ¹ Takakusu, transl. of I-tsing, \*A Record of Buddhist Practices\*, p. 73. ### [c21.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.36) ² Giles, \*Hist. Chinese Liter.\*, 1901, p. 133; \*Ind. Ant.\*, 1903, p. 236. ### [c21.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.37) ³ Bühler, \*Ind. Ant.\*, vi, 154. ### [c21.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.38) In or about the year 243 B. C., when he had been on the throne for some thirty years, Asoka began the composition of a fresh series of documents, the Seven Pillar Edicts, which reiterated his earlier teaching and conclude with a formal retrospect of the measures adopted by him in furtherance of the ethical reforms which he had at heart. They also include a concise code of regulations concerning the slaughter and mutilation of animals, practices which he regarded with abhorrence. ### [c21.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.39) The retrospect, strange to say, takes no notice of the foreign missions. Nor does it mention the Council of Buddhist elders, which was held at the capital at some time in his reign mainly for the purpose of suppressing schism in the church. It seems likely that the Council may have been convoked after the publication of the Pillar Edicts, but I cannot explain the failure to commemorate the foreign missions which occupy a prominent place in the Rock Edicts. ### [c21.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.40) The fact of the convocation of a Council is attested by such a large body of tradition that it may be accepted without hesitation, even though none of the alleged details can be regarded as historical. The Sārnāth Edict (with its variants), which was specially directed against the cardinal sin of schism, was issued, I think, as a result of the Council's proceedings. I do not accept the Ceylonese date for the Council, namely, 236 A. B., equivalent, according to my chronology, to 251 B. C., and am of opinion that the Council assembled at some time in the last ten years of the reign.¹ ### [c21.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.41) ¹ For the references concerning each class of the Edicts, see Bibliography at the end of this chapter. It is impossible for me to discuss the credibility of the dates in the Ceylonese chronology in footnotes. See my observations on the Buddhist Councils in \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1901, pp. 142–58. ### [c21.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.42) The extent of the enormous empire governed by Asoka can be ascertained with approximate accuracy. On the north-west, it extended to the Hindū Kush mountains, and included most of the territory now under the rule of the King of Afghānistān, as well as the whole, or a large part, of Balūchistān, and all Sind. The secluded valleys of Suwāt (Swat) and Bājaur probably were more or less thoroughly controlled by the imperial officers, and the valleys of Kashmīr and Nepāl certainly were integral parts of the empire. Asoka built a new capital in the vale of Kashmīr, named Srīnagar, at a short distance from the city which now bears that name.¹ ### [c21.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.43) ¹ Stein, \*Rājataraṅginī\*, transl., Bk. I, v. 104; vol. ii, pp. 409, 411. The position of Asoka's capital is marked by the site known as Pāndrēthan, 'Old Town', situated about 3 miles above modern Srīnagar, to which the ancient name has been transferred. ### [c21.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.44) In the Nepāl valley, he replaced the older capital Manju Pātan, by a city named Pātan, Lalita Pātan, or Lalitpur, which still exists, 2½ miles to the south-east of Kāthmandū, the modern capital. Lalita Pātan, which subsequently became the seat of a separate principality, retains the special Buddhist stamp impressed upon it by Asoka. His foundation of the city was undertaken as a memorial of the visit which he paid to Nepāl, in 250 or 249 B. C., when he undertook the tour of the holy places. He was accompanied by his daughter Chārumatī, who adopted a religious life, and remained in Nepāl when her imperial father returned to the plains. She founded a town called Devapatana, in memory of her husband Devapāla Kshatriya, and settled down to the life of a nun at a convent built by her to the north of Pasupatināth, which bears her name to this day. Asoka treated Lalita Pātan as a place of great sanctity, erecting in it five great \*stūpas\*; one in the centre of the town, and four others outside the walls at the cardinal points. All these monuments still exist, and differ conspicuously from more recent edifices. Some minor buildings are also attributed to Asoka or his daughter.² included most of the territory now under the rule of the King of Afghānistān, as well as the whole, or a large part, of Balūchistān, and all Sind. The secluded valleys of Suwāt (Swat) and Bājaur probably were more or less thoroughly controlled by the imperial officers, and the valleys of Kashmīr and Nepāl certainly were integral parts of the empire. Asoka built a new capital in the vale of Kashmīr, named Srīnagar, at a short distance from the city which now bears that name.¹ ### [c21.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.45) ² Oldfield, \*Sketches from Nipal\*, ii, 198, 246–52; \*Ind. Ant.\* xiii, 412. The northern \*stūpa\* at Pātan is called Ipi Tūda by Mr. Bendall (\*A Journey in Nepāl\*, p. 12). Oldfield writes the name Epi, or Zimpi Tandu, and the Residency Clerk writes it Impi. Zimpi Taudu appears to be correct (Lévi, \*Le Népal\*, vol. i, pp. 263, 331; ii, pp. 1–3, 344). This building, although now inside the town, is outside the old line of walls. ### [c21.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.46) ¹ Stein, \*Rājataraṅgiṇī\*, transl., Bk. I, v. 104; vol. ii, pp. 409, 411. The position of Asoka's capital is marked by the site known as Pāndrēthan, 'Old Town', situated about 3 miles above modern Srīnagar, to which the ancient name has been transferred. ### [c21.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.47) THE EMPIRE of ASOKA 250 B.C. ### [c21.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.48) In the Nepāl valley, he replaced the older capital Manju Pātan, by a city named Pātan, Lalita Pātan, or Lalitpur, which still exists, 2½ miles to the south-east of Kāthmandū, the modern capital. Lalita Pātan, which subsequently became the seat of a separate principality, retains the special Buddhist stamp impressed upon it by Asoka. His foundation of the city was undertaken as a memorial of the visit which he paid to Nepāl, in 250 or 249 B. C., when he undertook the tour of the holy places. He was accompanied by his daughter Chārumatī, who adopted a religious life, and remained in Nepāl when her imperial father returned to the plains. She founded a town called Devapatana, in memory of her husband Devapāla Kshatriya, and settled down to the life of a nun at a convent built by her to the north of Pasupatināth, which bears her name to this day. Asoka treated Lalita Pātan as a place of great sanctity, erecting in it five great \*stūpas\*; one in the centre of the town, and four others outside the walls at the cardinal points. All these monuments still exist, and differ conspicuously from more recent edifices. Some minor buildings are also attributed to Asoka or his daughter.² ### [c21.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.49) ² Oldfield, \*Sketches from Nipal\*, ii, 198, 246–52; \*Ind. Ant.\* xiii, 412. The northern \*stūpa\* at Pātan is called Ipi Tūda by Mr. Bendall (\*A Journey in Nepāl\*, p. 12). Oldfield writes the name Epi, or Zimpi Tandu, and the Residency Clerk writes it Impi. Zimpi Taudu appears to be correct (Lévi, \*Le Népal\*, vol. i, pp. 263, 331; ii, pp. 1–3, 344). This building, although now inside the town, is outside the old line of walls. ### [c21.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.50) THE EMPIRE of ASOKA 250 B.C. Scale of Miles Rock Edicts \_\_\_\_\_ Δ Minor Rock Edicts .. X Pillar Edicts..... l Kingdom ......... K. ### [c21.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.52) Eastwards, the empire comprised the whole of Bengal (Vanga) as far as the mouths of the Ganges, where Tāmralipti,¹ the modern Tamlūk, was the principal port. The strip of coast to the north of the Godāvarī river, known as Kalinga, was annexed in 261 b. c. Farther south, the Āndhra kingdom, between the Godāvarī and the Krishnā (Kistna), appears to have been in some measure subordinate to the Emperor, though administered by its own Rājas. On the south-east, the N. Pennār river may be regarded as the limit of the imperial jurisdiction. ### [c21.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.53) ¹ Tāmralipti seems to be a Sanskritized form of Prākrit Tāmal-itti, which is equivalent to classical Tamil Tiramida, i. e. Dramiḍa. The original forms would have been Tiramiḍatti and Dramiḍadatti (K. P. Jayaswal in \*Ind. Ant.\*, 1914, p. 64). ### [c21.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.54) The Tamil states extending to the extremity of the Peninsula, and known as the Chola and Pāndya kingdoms, certainly were independent, as were the Keralaputra and Satiyaputra states on the south-western, or Malabar coast.² The southern frontier of the empire may be described approximately as a line drawn from the mouth of the Pennār river near Nellore on the eastern coast through Cuddapah and to the south of Chitaldroog (N. lat. 14° 13′, E. long. 76° 24′) to the river Kalyānapuri on the western coast (about N. lat. 14°), which forms the northern boundary of the Tuluva country.³ ### [c21.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.55) ² Rock Edicts II, XIII. ### [c21.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.56) ³ I cannot agree with Fleet (\*J. R. A. S.\*, 1909, p. 997 n.) that Minor Rock Edict II, of which three texts exist in N. Mysore, was addressed to a foreign power. Rock Edict II clearly states that the neighbouring or frontier states included the Cholas, Pāndyas, Keralaputra, and Satiyaputra. R. G. Bhandarkar (\*Indian Review\*, June, 1909) would place the Satiyaputra state near Poona, because families of several castes in the Poona district still bear the name Sātpute. But the edict groups the Satiyaputras with the Tamil powers, and I hold that their country may be identified with the Satyamangalam sub-division of the Coimbatore District and some adjoining territory (see note on p. 194, \*post\*). I still believe that the Maurya empire, including both territories directly administered and regions attached only by an ill-defined protectorate, extended to the south until it impinged on the frontiers of the ancient, well-established Tamil kingdoms. ### [c21.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.57) The wilder tribes on the north-western frontier and in the jungle tracts of the Vindhya mountains separating Northern from Southern India seem to have enjoyed a limited autonomy under the suzerainty of the paramount power. The empire comprised therefore, in modern terminology, Afghānistān south of the Hindū Kush, Balūchistān, Sind, the valley of Kashmīr, Nepāl, the lower Himalaya, and the whole of India Proper, except the southern extremity. ### [c21.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.58) The central regions seem to have been governed directly from Pātaliputra under the king’s personal supervision. The outlying provinces were administered by viceroys, of whom, apparently, there were at least four. The ruler of the northwest was stationed at Taxila, and his jurisdiction may be assumed to have included the Panjāb, Sind, the countries beyond the Indus, and Kashmīr. The eastern territories, including the conquered kingdom of Kalinga, were governed by a viceroy stationed at Tosali, the exact position of which has not been ascertained. The western provinces of Mālwa, Gujarāt, and Kāthiāwār were under the government of a prince, whose head-quarters were at the ancient city of Ujjain; and the southern provinces, beyond the Narbadā, were ruled by the fourth viceroy.¹ ### [c21.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.59) ¹ The Mysore versions of Minor Rock Edict I convey the commands of Asoka to the officials of a town named Isila, probably represented by an ancient site near the places where the inscriptions exist, through the Prince and officials of Suvarnagiri—that is to say, the commands received from Asoka were issued from Suvarnagiri by the Prince and high officers residing there. I understand that Suvarnagiri was somewhere in the south, and that the Prince was Asoka’s Viceroy of the Deccan. Fleet guesses that Suvarnagiri should be identified with Sōngir at Old Rājgir in Magadha, and on that basis elaborates a theory that Asoka was living in retirement at that place (\*J. R. A. S.\*, 1909, pp. 981–1016). I cannot find any evidence that Asoka abdicated, and I prefer to believe that Suvarnagiri (‘Golden Hill’) was situated somewhere in one of the ancient goldfields. Maski, where the Asoka inscription was discovered in 1915, is situated in a country which ‘abounds in numerous ancient gold workings’ (\*Hyderabad Archaeol. Series\*, No. 1, 1915), and was an important settlement even in the late neolithic period (\*Foote Coll. Indian Prehistoric\*, vol. of notes, pp. 31, 125, 126). ### [c21.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.60) Asoka was a great builder; and so deep was the impression made on the popular imagination by the extent and magnificence of his architectural works that legend credited him with the erection of eighty-four thousand \*stūpas\*, or sacred cupolas, within the space of three years. When Fa-hien, the first Chinese pilgrim, visited Pātaliputra, the capital, at the beginning of the fifth century in the reign of Chandragupta Vikramāditya, the palace of Asoka was still standing, and was deemed to have been wrought by supernatural agency. ### [c21.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.61) ‘The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all made by the spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture work, in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish.’ ### [c21.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.62) These stately buildings have all vanished, and their remains lie buried for the most part beyond hope of recovery deep below the silt of the Ganges and Sōn rivers, overlaid by the East India Railway, the city of Patna, and the civil station of Bankipore. The excavations in progress have already revealed enough to attest the substantial truth of the pilgrim’s enthusiastic description, and I myself have seen two huge and finely carved sandstone capitals—one with the acanthus-leaf ornament—dug up near Bankipore. ### [c21.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.63) The numerous and magnificent monasteries founded by Asoka have shared the fate of his palaces, and are ruined beyond recognition. ### [c21.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.64) The only buildings of the Asokan period which have escaped destruction, and remain in a state of tolerable preservation, are those forming the celebrated group of \*stūpas\*, or cupolas, at and near Sāñchi, in Central India, not very far from Ujjain, where Asoka held court as viceroy of the west before his accession to the throne. The elaborately carved gateways of the railing round the principal monument, which have been so often described and figured, may have been constructed to the order of the great Maurya, and certainly are not much later than his time. ### [c21.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.65) The massive monolithic sandstone pillars, inscribed and uninscribed, which Asoka erected in large numbers throughout the home provinces of the empire, some of which are 50 feet in height, and about 50 tons in weight, are not only worthy monuments of his magnificence, but also of the highest interest as the earliest known examples of the Indian stone-cutter’s art in architectural forms. The design is a highly improved adaptation of a Persian model, and the mechanical execution is perfect.¹ ### [c21.66](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.66) ¹ See \*Asoka\*, 3rd ed., pp. 117–24; \*A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon\*, pp. 20, 59–62, Pls. II, XIII, and Figs. 28, 29; and ‘The Monolithic Pillars or Columns of Asoka’, \*Z. D. M. G.\*, 1911, pp. 221–40. Sir J. H. Marshall speaks of the ‘extraordinary precision and accuracy which characterizes all Maurya work, and which has never, we venture to say, been surpassed even by the finest workmanship on Athenian buildings’ (\*Annual Rep. A. S.\*, 1906–7, p. 89). ### [c21.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.67) The caves with highly polished walls excavated in the intensely hard quartzose gneiss of the Barābar hills near Gayā by order of Asoka, for the use of the Ājīvika ascetics, an extremely ancient penitential order distinct from both the Jains and the Buddhists, recall Egyptian work by the mastery displayed over intractable material.² ### [c21.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.68) ² The Ājīvikas were not Vaishnavas, as has been supposed (Bhandarkar, ‘Epigraphic Notes and Questions’, in \*J. Bo. R. A. S.\*, vol. xx, 1902; and \*Ind. Ant.\*, 1912, pp. 90, 286). See also the summary of the doctrines of the sect in the \*Sāmaññaphala Sutta\*, transl. by Rhys Davids, \*Dialogues of the Buddha\* (1899, p. 71), and Hoernle's exhaustive article, \*s.v.\* in \*Encycl. Religion and Ethics\*, vol. i (1908). The Ājīvikas were the forerunners of the Digambara Jains, and practically identical with them. See \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1913, pp. 669–74. ### [c21.69](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.69) The most interesting monuments of Asoka are his famous inscriptions, more than thirty in number, incised upon rocks, boulders, cave-walls, and pillars, which supply the only safe foundation for the history of his reign, and must be briefly described before I can enter upon the discussion of his doctrine and policy. The more important documents, which expound fully both his principles of government and his system of practical ethics, supply many interesting autobiographical details. The shorter documents include dedications, brief commemorative records, and other matter; but all, even the most concise, have interest and value.³ ### [c21.70](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.70) ³ All the documents describe the Emperor by his titles only, with the single exception of the Maski inscription which specifies his personal name, Asoka. Its opening words are \*Devānampiyasa Asokasa\*. ### [c21.71](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.71) The area covered by the inscriptions comprises nearly the whole of India (see map), extending from the Himalayas to Mysore, and from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. ### [c21.72](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.72) All the documents are written in various forms of Prākrit, that is to say, vernacular dialects closely allied to both literary Sanskrit and the Pāli of the Ceylonese Buddhist books, but not identical with either.¹ They were therefore obviously intended to be read and understood by the public generally, and their existence presupposes a widely diffused knowledge of the art of writing. The inscriptions designed for public instruction were placed either in suitable positions on high roads or at frequented places of pilgrimage where their contents were ensured the greatest possible publicity. ### [c21.73](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.73) ¹ Grierson holds that Pāli, the language of the Southern Buddhist scriptures, is a literary form of the ancient language spoken at Takshasilā. This accounts for its striking resemblance to Paiśāchī Prākrit (\*Ind. Ant.\* 1915, p. 227 n.). ### [c21.74](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.74) Two recensions of the Fourteen Rock Edicts, inscribed on rocks at places near the north-western frontier of India, were executed in the script locally current, now generally known to scholars as the Kharoshṭhī; which is a modified form of an ancient Aramaic alphabet, written from right to left, introduced into the Panjāb during the period of Persian domination in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. All the other inscriptions are incised in one or other variety of the early Brāhmī alphabet, from which the Devanāgarī and other forms of the modern script in Northern and Western India have been evolved, and which is read from left to right.² ### [c21.75](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.75) ² Prof. Rapson is of opinion that 'the region in which both the Kharoshṭhī and the Brāhmī scripts were at home may be fairly identified with the Jalandhar District of the Panjāb' (\*J. R. A. S.\*, 1905, p. 810). ### [c21.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.76) The inscriptions readily fall into eight classes, which may be arranged in approximate chronological order as follows:— ### [c21.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.77) I. The Minor Rock Edicts, of which No. I is found in seven recensions, all probably dating from 257 B. C., a little before the Fourteen Rock Edicts. No. II may be somewhat later. ### [c21.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.78) II. The Bhābrū Edict, of about the same date as Minor Rock Edict I. ### [c21.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.79) III. The Fourteen Rock Edicts, in seven recensions, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth regnal years, as reckoned from the coronation, corresponding roughly to 257, 256 B. C. ### [c21.80](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.80) IV. The two Kalinga Edicts, issued probably in 256 B. C., and concerned only with the newly conquered province. ### [c21.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.81) V. The three dedicatory Cave Inscriptions at Barābar near Gayā, 257 and 250 B. C. ### [c21.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.82) VI. The two Tarāi Pillar Inscriptions, 249 B. C. VII. The Seven Pillar Edicts, in six recensions, 243 and 242 B. C. VIII. The Minor Pillar Edicts, about 240 B.C., or later. ### [c21.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.83) The first Minor Rock Edict presents more difficulties in interpretation than any other Asoka document. These difficulties are being solved gradually, and it is now certain that the edict does not include a date.¹ Its high value for the personal history of Asoka has been referred to above. Edict No. II is merely a short summary of the Law or \*Dharma\*. ### [c21.84](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.84) ¹ Three recensions of Minor Rock Edict I exist in Northern Mysore at localities near one another, namely, Śiddāpura, Jaṭinga-Rāmeśvara (14° 50′ N. lat., 76° 48′ E. long.) and Brahmagiri, and one in the Nizam's Dominions at Maski, 45 miles NW. from Śiddāpura. The other three are at Sahasrām (Sasseram) in the Shāhābād District, Bihār ; Rūpnāth, in the Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) District, Central Provinces ; and Bairāt in the Jaipur State, Rājputāna. Minor Rock Edict II is added to the Mysore texts only. ### [c21.85](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.85) The Bhābrū Edict is of the first importance in the history of the Buddhist Canon, because it enumerates seven passages in the scriptures which the emperor judged to merit the special attention of his people. All the passages have now been identified.² Asoka may have been residing at one of the Bairāt monasteries when he caused this unique document to be prepared. ### [c21.86](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.86) ² The Bhābrū Edict is incised on a boulder, now in Calcutta, which was removed from the top of a hill at Bairāt. Minor Rock Edict I is incised on a rock at the foot of an adjoining hill. ### [c21.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.87) The Fourteen Rock Edicts contain an exposition of Asoka's principles of government and ethical system, each edict being devoted to a special subject. The different recensions vary considerably, and some do not include all the fourteen edicts. The whole series, in all its varieties, is confined to remote frontier provinces, which were under the government of viceroys. The emperor evidently was of opinion that in the home provinces, under his immediate control, it was not necessary to engrave his instructions on the rocks, other and more convenient methods of publication being available. But many years later he perpetuated his revised code in the home provinces also by incising it upon several of the monolithic monumental pillars which it was his pleasure to erect in numerous localities.¹ The difficulty of obtaining the fine sandstone needed for the pillars may account for the fact that the area of their distribution is much smaller than that of the rock-inscriptions. ### [c21.88](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.88) ¹ The positions of the Fourteen Rock Edicts are: (1) Shāhbāzgarhi, in the Yusufzī country, 40 miles north-east of Peshāwar; (2) Mānsahra or Mānsērā, in Hazārā District (Uraśā), Panjāb, the Kharoshṭhī script being used at both these places; (3) Kālsī, in the Lower Himalayas, 15 miles west from Mussoorie (Mansūrī); (4) Sopārā, in Thānā District, near Bombay; (5) the Girnār hill, near Jūnāgaṛh, in the Kāthiāwāṛ peninsula; (6) near Dhauli, to the south of Bhuvanēśvar in the Cuttack (Kaṭak) District, Orissa; and (7) at Jaugaḍa in the Ganjām District, Madras. The last two places were included in Kaliṅga; and the two Kaliṅga Edicts are added as appendices to the Dhauli and Jaugaḍa texts. See map. ### [c21.89](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.89) The two Kaliṅga Edicts are special supplements to the series of the Fourteen Rock Edicts intended to fix the principles on which the administration of the newly conquered province and the wild tribes dwelling on its borders should be conducted. They were substituted for certain edicts (Nos. XI, XII, XIII) of the regular series, which were omitted from the Kaliṅga recension, as being unsuitable for local promulgation. ### [c21.90](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.90) The three Cave Inscriptions at Barābar in the Gayā District, the Goratha-giri of the Mahābhārata,² are merely brief dedications of costly cave dwellings for the use of a monastic sect known as Ājīvika, the members of which went about naked, and were noted for ascetic practices of the most rigorous kind. These records are chiefly of interest as a decisive proof that Asoka was sincere in his solemn declaration that he honoured all sects; for the Ājīvikas were extreme fatalists, having little or nothing in common with the Buddhists. ### [c21.91](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.91) ² See \*J. B. O. Res. Soc.\* I, 159–71. ### [c21.92](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.92) The two Tarāi Pillar Inscriptions, although extremely brief, are of much interest for many reasons, one of which is that they prove beyond question the truth of the literary tradition that Asoka performed a solemn pilgrimage to the sacred spots of the Buddhist Holy Land. The Rummindēī, or Padaria, inscription, which is in absolutely perfect preservation, has the great merit of determining, beyond the possibility of doubt, the exact position of the famous Lumbinī Garden, where, according to the legend, Gautama Buddha first saw the light. This determination either solves, or supplies the key to, a multitude of problems. The companion record at Niglīva, which is less perfectly preserved, gives the unexpected and interesting information that Asoka's devotion was not confined to Gautama Buddha, but included in its catholic embrace his predecessors, the 'former Buddhas'.¹ ### [c21.93](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.93) ¹ The Rummindēī ruins lie 4 miles inside the Nepalese border, and a little to the west of the Tilār river, in approximately E. long. 85° 11′, N. lat. 25° 58′. Padarīā is a neighbouring village. The Niglīva pillar, which apparently has been moved from its original position, now stands about 13 miles to the north-west from Rummindēī. For facsimile of Rummindēī inscription, see \*Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India\*, plate ii. ### [c21.94](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.94) The Seven Pillar Edicts, issued in their complete form in or about the year 242 b. c., when Asoka had reigned for some thirty years, and was nearing the close of his career of activity in worldly affairs, must be read along with the Fourteen Rock Edicts, to which they refer, and of which they may be considered an appendix. The principles enunciated in the earlier instructions are reiterated and emphasized in the later; the regulations enforcing the sanctity of animal life are amplified and codified; and the series closes with the most valuable of all the documents, Pillar Edict No. VII, preserved on one monument only, which recounts in orderly fashion the measures to promote 'the growth of piety' adopted by the emperor within his dominions during the course of his long reign.² ### [c21.95](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.95) ² The Pillar Edicts are found on six pillars: namely, on two at Delhi, of which one was brought from Topra near Umballa, and the other from Meerut (Mīraṭh); on one pillar at Allāhābād; and on one each at Lauriyā-Ararāj, Lauriyā-Nandangaṛh, and Rāmpurwā, all in the Champāran District of Tirhūt. ### [c21.96](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.96) The historical interest of the Minor Pillar Inscriptions was not recognized until after the discovery of the Sārnāth Edict in 1905, when it appeared that the Sāñchī and Kausāmbī Edicts, which had been known for many years, were merely variants of the better preserved Sārnāth text. Inasmuch as all the three documents deal with the penalties for schism \[Figure: THE BIRTH-PLACE OF BUDDHA (RUMMINDĒĪ PILLAR AND TEMPLE)\] ### [c21.97](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.97) in the Church, it is reasonable to assume that they represent the decision of the Council convened to suppress schism. The Queen's Edict is concerned with the Almoner's Department.¹ ### [c21.98](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.98) ¹ The Kauśāmbī and Queen's Edicts are incised upon the Allāhābād pillar in a way which shows that they must be later in date than the Pillar Edicts. ### [c21.99](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.99) The foregoing summary exposition will perhaps suffice to enable the reader to form some notion of the extraordinary interest attaching to the unique series of inscriptions issued by Asoka between the years 257 and 232 B. C., which is the only safe foundation on which to build a history of his momentous reign. But tradition has its value as a secondary source of information, and a few words in explanation of the character of the traditional evidence for the Asokan history are indispensable. ### [c21.100](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.100) The rank growth of legend which has clustered round the name of Asoka bears eloquent testimony to the commanding influence of his personality. In the Buddhist world his fame is as great as that of Charlemagne in mediaeval Europe, and the tangle of mythological legend which obscures the genuine history of Asoka may be compared in mass with that which drapes the figures of Alexander, Arthur, and Charlemagne. The Asokan legend is not all either fiction or myth, and includes some genuine historical tradition; but is no better suited to serve as the foundation of sober history than the stories of the Morte d'Arthur or Pseudo-Kallisthenes are adapted to form the bases of chronicles of the doings of the British champion or the Macedonian conqueror. This obvious canon of criticism has been forgotten by most writers upon the Maurya period, who have begun at the wrong end with the late legends, instead of at the right end with the contemporary inscriptions. ### [c21.101](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.101) The legends have reached us in two main streams, the Ceylonese and the North-Indian. The accident that the Ceylonese varieties of the stories happen to be recorded in books which assume the form of chronicles with a detailed chronology, and have been known to European readers for many years, has given to the southern tales an illusory air of special authenticity. The earliest of the Ceylonese chronicles, the \*Dīpavaṁśa\*, which probably was compiled late in the fourth century after Christ, is some six centuries posterior to the death of Asoka, and has little claim to be regarded as a first-rate authority, although deserving respectful consideration. ### [c21.102](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21.102) The North-Indian legends are at least as old ; but being recorded in fragments scattered through many books, Indian, Nepalese, Chinese, and Tibetan, have received scant attention. All legendary material, of course, must be used with extreme caution, and only as a supplement to authentic data ; but a moment's thought will show that legends preserved in Northern India, the seat of Asoka's imperial power, are more likely to transmit genuine tradition than those which reached the distant island of Ceylon in translations brought nobody knows how, when, or whence, and subsequently largely modified by local and sectarian influences. This presumption is verified when the two groups of legends are compared ; and then it clearly appears that in certain matters of importance where they differ, the Northern version is distinctly the more credible. ## Linked texts (29) - [Dīpavaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.dipavamsa) — Pāli - [Sāmaññaphalasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.2) — Pāli - [Ἰνδική](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.roman.arrian.indica) — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Major Rock Edicts](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.re) - [Minor Rock Edict I](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.mre.mre1) — Prakrit - [Minor Rock Edicts](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.mre) - [Pillar Edicts](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.pe) - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Minor Pillar Edicts](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.mpe) - [Major Rock Edict XIII](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.re.re13) — Prakrit - [Sārnāth](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sarnath) - [Śrāvastī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sravasti) - [Tilaurakot](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.tilaurakot) - [Lumbinī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.lumbini) - [Vaiśālī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.vaisali) - [Sāñcī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sanchi) - [Lalitpur](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.lalitpur) - [Ayodhyā (Sāketa)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.ayodhya) - [Kasia](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kasia) - [Sahēṭh-Mahēṭh](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.saheth-maheth) - [Gaya](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.gaya) - [Kusinagara (Kasia)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kusinagara) - [Hasan Abdâl](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.hasan-abdal) - [Kāñchī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kanchi) - [Kapilavastu](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kapilavastu) - [Srinagar](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.srinagar) - [Godavari](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.godavari) - [Dvārakā](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.dvaraka) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c21) · Pramāṇa