Ashokan Inscriptions

The importance of Ashokan inscriptions is immense. This can be gauged from the fact that till the decipherment of the languages of the his inscriptions by James Prinsep, the world had been cracking their brains as to historicity of this great king, referred to as ‘Piyadassi’ in the Sri Lankan chronicles Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa.

James Prinsep, an official of the Calcutta Mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, was able to read the inscriptions in 1837. In fact, the inscriptions of Asoka are the oldest surviving written documents of any historical significance. These inscriptions comprise a series of edicts engraved on rocks and pillars throughout different places in his empire which stretched from the valley of Oxus to Kaveri delta in south India. The Asokan edicts are in the nature of official pronouncement of policy, and instructions to his officers and subjects.

The inscriptions of Ashoka are written in two scripts known as Brahmi and Kharosthi. Like the European scripts, Brahmi is written from left to right, the Kharosthi is a cursive script read from right to left. Kharosthi script has been used in the inscriptions found at Shahbazgarhi (in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan) and Manshera (in Pakistan).

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