The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t5.8

c11.s3.t5.8

It would appear further untenable to assume that Aśoka set up pillars at different places for inscribing his edicts. It would be more reasonable to hold that these monuments stood long before Aśoka, and served convenient material for the emperor to record his inscriptions so as to give an element of permanence to the record of his achievements. This is evident from his own words. He says that he enlarged to twice its size the stūpa of Konākamana.¹ In another place he says that he caused his records to be inscribed wherever pillars of stone existed in his empire.²