The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t7.1

c7.s1.t7.1

It is sometimes claimed with no justification whatever that Aśoka’s Edicts were laws promulgated by the Emperor Aśoka in utter disregard of this sacred tradition.¹ It is an erroneous position taken by the historian. Aśoka has nowhere claimed that he made any departure in the legislation of the land. He simply enforced the regulations which had fallen into disuse by long and continual neglect. If Aśoka did anything he revived old practices and put them in working order. The idea that the Hindu king was a law-maker is not countenanced in Indian jurisprudence at all. To regard therefore the *śāsana* contained in the Edicts of Aśoka as amounting to legislation by the king is, to say the least, uncritical. What Aśoka did was the re-affirmation of old laws which had gone out of practice. Therefore the term *śāsana* (rendered ‘ordinance’ by V. A. Smith) occurring in the Sārnāth Pillar Edict² and continued in the pillar Edicts of Sāmchī and Kauśāmbī (Allahabad), does not mean promulgation of a new law, but does mean a declaration of the old law without prejudice to the customary law or the *samaya* of the *Arthaśāstra*³ and *Dharmaśāstras*.⁴ In this sense the Kauṭalīya uses the term *śāsana* as can be seen from the chapter *śāsanādhikāraḥ*.⁵ One punishment for infringing the