The present work has grown out of my lectures at the University. This mainly explains the addition of another work to the many already existing on the subject. But they are not too many for the subject. Despite a large literature, old and new, in different languages, Pali, Sanskrit, English, French, and German, seeking from a variety of standpoints to interpret the unique personality and achievements of Asoka, the interpretation is not yet adequate or final. The very basis of the interpretation is something that is shifting, growing, and improving. The words of Asoka, telling best his tale, and inscribed by him in imperishable characters on some of the permanent fixtures of Nature, have not themselves come to light all at once but were discovered piecemeal, and at different places and times. The search for them in out-of-the-way places, the centres of population in Asoka's days, but now remote from the haunts of men, and hidden away in jungles, is a story of considerable physical daring and adventure in its early stages. But the discovery of the inscriptions did not mean the end of the chase There was the difficulty of their decipherment, of finding the key to a knowledge that was lost and forgotten. The knowledge of the script in which Asoka had his words written on many a rock or pillar had remained lost to India for ages. The Chinese travellers, Fa-hien and Yuan Chwang, for instance, who had visited India in two different periods, the fourth and the seventh century A.D. respectively, and who were themselves no mean linguists, could not find local experts to help them to a right reading of the Asokan inscriptions they had come across on their itineraries. They have recorded wrong readings of those inscriptions, the results of mere guesswork or hearsay information of local people not confessing to their ignorance of the scripts. Indeed, the recovery of this long-lost knowledge of the Asokan script is a romance of modem scholarship. Even when the script was deciphered, and the words of Asoka were read, there was the further problem of their correct interpretation.
Thus Asokan scholarship has now recorded more than a century of progress in its three directions of the discovery, decipherment, and interpretation of the inscriptions. The progress is marked by the following principal events :
It was in about 1750 that an Asokan inscription was first discovered when Padre Tieffenthaler saw at Delhi fragments of the Delhi-Mirath Pillar.
In 1785, J.H. Harington first visited the Barabar and Nagarjuna Hill Caves. A few years earlier, Hodges on his way to the caves was assassinated "by the followers of one of the allies of Chyt Singh."
At about the same time, the Delhi- Topra Pillar Inscription was found by Captain Polier who presented some drawings of the same to Sir William Jones.
In 1801 published in the Asiatic Researches copies of the Delhi- Topra Pillar Inscription, and portions of the Allahabad-Kosam Pillar Inscription from copies made by Captain James Hoare.
In 1822 the Girnar Rock Inscription was founded by Major James Tod.
In 1834 was published in the third volume of the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal the copy of the Allahabad Pillar Inscription made by Lieutenant T.S. Burt, together with a classified table of the Asokan letters prepared by James Prinsep. At that time Prinsep was not able to read the entire Asokan alphabet, but could only guess the value of post-consonantal iiLe, and Anusvara. After six months of study, he improved his knowledge by recognising the consonants y, v, and s.
In 1836, the Shahbazgarhi Rock Edict was discovered by M.A. Court, a French officer of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
The year 1837 is memorable in the history of Asokan scholarship. It witnessed the first successful reading of an Asokan inscription, the Delhi-Topra Pillar Edict, by Prinsep who published his reading and translation of the inscription in JASB, Vol. vi. He had then already had before him copies of the inscriptions on the two pillars at Lauriya Araraj and Lauriya Nandangarh. The same year he also published a lithograph of the Delhi-Mirath Pillar Inscription from impressions taken by Major P.L. Pew, as also of the Queen's Edict. The last event of the year was the discovery in another remote part of India of the Dhauli Rock Edict by Lieutenant Kittoe.
In 1838, further progress in Asokan studies was achieved by Prinsep who made the first comparative study of the two Asokan inscriptions at Girnar and Dhauli, discovered their identity in script, language, and contents, and deciphered and published them with translations in JASB, Vol. vii. Tracings on cloth of the Girnar Inscription were made by Captain Lang in 1835 for the Rev. Dr J. Wilson of Bombay, who then sent them on to Prinsep for decipherment. Kittoe's copies of the Dhauli Inscription were also before Prinsep in 1838. These were his revised copies which he obtained at risk to- his life. As stated by him, he arrived at Dhauli "before day-break and had to wait till it was light; for the two bear cubs which escaped me there last year, when I killed the old bear, were now full grown and disputed the ground."
In 1839, a copy of the Sahasram Rock Edict was secured by E.L. Ravenshaw from Shah Kabiruddin.
In 1840, copies of the Shahbazgarhi Rock Edict were made by C. Masson by going to the spot through a perilous region at considerable personal risk. The copies were examined in Europe by Norris who first read in them the word Devanariipiyasa written in Kharosthi script.
In 1840 also discovered on the rock at Bairat the so-called Bhabru Edict by Captain Burt whose copy of it was transcribed and translated by Captain Kittoe "with the aid of the learned Pandit Kamala Kanta."
In 1850, the Jaugada Rock Inscription was copied by Sir Walter Elliot, who could recognise it as another version of Asoka's Edicts, which had already been found at Shahbazgarhi, Girnar, and Dhauli.
In 1860, the Kalsi Rock Inscription was discovered by Forest who found its whole surface "encrusted with the dark moss of ages."
In 1872, Carlleyle discovered the Bairat Minor Rock Edict. To him, we also owe the discovery of the Rampurwa Pillar Edict about the same time.
During these seventies was also discovered the Rupnath Minor Rock Edict which was originally found and very imperfectly copied some time ago by a servant of Colonel Ellis for the Bengal Asiatic Society.
Then followed in 1879 the epoch-making publication of Cunningham on the inscriptions of Asoka, being Vol. i. of the Corpus Inscription indicium. This work may be taken to mark the second stage in the history of Asokan scholarship, the first stage is represented in the work of Prinsep, Burnouf, and Wilson (1850). It will appear that of the Rock Edicts, Prinsep and Burnouf knew only of three, viz., those at Shahbazgarhi, Girnar, and Dhauli, and Burnouf and Wilson, of the Bhabru Edict as well; of the Cave-inscriptions, Prinsep knew only of Nagarjuna, and Burnouf, of both Nagarjuna and Barabar; and of at Kausambl and Safichi. By the time of Cunningham's Corpus, several additional Asokan Edicts were known, viz., the Minor Rock Edicts at Sahasram, Rupnath, and Bairat, and the Minor Pillar Edicts at Safichl and Kausambl.
There was still a crop of Asoka discoveries to follow. In 1882, a fragment of R.E. VIII was discovered on a broken block at Sopara by Dr Bhagwan Lal Indraji.
The Mansenra Rock Edicts were discovered in parts by Captain Leigh, and by an Indian subordinate of the Panjab Archaeological Survey in 1889.
The three Mysore Minor Rock Edicts were discovered by Lewis Rice in 1891.
Fuhrer discovered the Nigali Sagar Pillar Edict in 1895 and the Rummindei in 1896.
In 1905 was discovered the Sarnath Pillar Edict was by Oertel.
Lastly followed the discovery in 1915 of the Maski Rock Inscription by C. Beadon, a gold-mining engineer of the Nizam's Government.
In the meanwhile, considerable advance in Asokan studies was achieved in several publications, among which may be mentioned Senart's Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi (1881), and Buhler's editions of the Asoka Edicts in ZDMG, and Epigraphia Indica, Vols. i. and ii. Along with these may be also mentioned the important contributions to Asokan scholarship made from time to time by scholars like O. Franke, V.A. Smith, Fleet, Michelson, Luders, F.W. Thomas, Hultzsch, D.R. Bhandarkar, K.P. Jayaswal, B.M. Barua, and A.c. Woolner.
The last stage in Asokan scholarship for some time to come has been reached in the new edition of the Corpus published in 1925 by Hultzsch whose recent death is 11 deplorable losses to the study of Indian history in general and Asokan study in particular.
Now that the Asokan Text and Interpretation have practically reached a final form and stage, a convenient textbook on the subject seems to be called for in the interest mainly of the growing number of students who have to offer Asoka as a subject of study at the University examinations. The present compilation has no pretensions to originality, except in the matter of some points in Asokan chronology and of certain passages in the Edicts, notorious for the controversy regarding their meanings, on which new interpretations have been suggested. The general interpretation of Asoka's carrier does not also follow always the usual or accepted lines. The annotation of the inscriptions has been made fuller and more comprehensive to include the different views and interpretations suggested, as well as parallel passages from Sanskrit and Pali works throwing light on the points at issue. The correspondence between the Asokan Edicts and Kautilya's Arthasastra has been specially worked out. The best-preserved text of each Edict has been adopted as the standard for its study, and important variations shown in other texts have been pointed out in the footnotes. A further element of interest has been introduced in bringing together the work illustrations of important Asokan monuments available. Most of these illustrations are based on photo prints supplied by the Archaeological Department, but a few on photographs taken by me on the spot, viz., those of Dhauli, the Kalsi elephant, and the Pillars at Bakhra, Lauriya Araraj, and Rummindei. The Dhauli photograph I owe to Mr Nirmal Bose, M.Sc., of Puri, and the Rummindei to the arrangements kindly made by my pupil, Mr P.P. Panday, M.A., of Narharia, Basti. A plate showing the Asokan Alphabet (based on drawings kindly prepared by Principal A.K. Haldar of the Government School of Art and Crafts, Lucknow) has been added to study the inscriptions in the original. I owe special acknowledgements to Mr Charan Das Chattcrji, M.A., Lecturer in Indian History, Lucknow University, for his many valuable references and suggestions.
The system of transliteration adopted here may be understood from the following examples: Lichchhavi, Krsna, and Mahavamsa. Both Sanskrit and Prakrit forms have been used for certain words according to convenience.
My grateful acknowledgements are due to His Highness Sir Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda, and his Government, for their award to me of the Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Prize with which this work is associated, and to the Benares Hindu University for Sir Manindra Chandra Nandy Lectures (1927), based on portions of this work.
