The Mauryan Polity c5.s4.4

c5.s4.4

The next stage was when Colonel James Tod discovered in 1822 the Girnār Rock Inscription and M. A. Court the Shāhbāzgarhī Rock Edict in 1836. The next year witnessed the discovery by Lieutenant Kittoe of the Dhauli Rock Edict. In 1840 Captain Burt discovered the Bairāt Rock Inscription otherwise known as the Bhābrā Edict. Other discoveries then followed: the Jaugaḍa Rock Inscription in 1850, the Kālsī Rock Inscription in 1860, and the Bairāt Minor Rock Edict in 1872, by Sir Walter Elliot, Forrest and Carlleyle respectively. The latter made also another important discovery in the Rāmpūrvā Pillar Edict. The Rūpnāth Minor Rock Edict was the other discovery of this time, and needless to say, that these discoveries enriched the Aśokan scholarship by attracting many a savant in this direction. A detailed study is bound to swell the section. Other important discoveries were the three Mysore Minor Rock Edicts found by Lewis Rice in 1891, the Nigliva Pillar Edicts and the Rummindēi in 1895 and 1896 respectively. Far more important than these was C. Beadon's discovery of the Maski Rock Inscription in 1915 in the Raichur District of the Nizam’s Dominions.¹ The very first line of this remarkable inscription records *Devānampiyasa Aśokasa*.² This is the key which opened to us the new knowledge that after all Piyadarśi of the Inscriptions is no one other than Aśoka. Last in the list but not least in importance is the new discovery made in 1928 of a set of Rock Edicts near Gooty in the Kurnool District.