Edicts and Inscriptions of Ancient India

The Ashokan edicts: three types, four languages, one decipherment story

Ashoka's inscriptions, cut into rock faces and stone pillars across the Mauryan empire, are conventionally sorted into three chronological groups. The Minor Rock Edicts are the earliest, followed by the Major Rock Edicts (fourteen separate, substantial edicts, the most detailed and among the earliest dated rock inscriptions by any Indian monarch), with the Pillar Edicts (seven major ones) representing the mature, later phase of his reign. Most of these are composed in the Prakrit language written in the Brahmi script, but in the north-west of the empire, where different scripts were already locally established, some are instead written in Kharosthi, and, most strikingly, a small number in the far north-west (around Kandahar, in present-day Afghanistan) are bilingual, written in Greek and Aramaic, the languages of that region's own Hellenistic and Achaemenid administrative heritage, evidence of just how far Mauryan authority, and Ashoka's own deliberate choice to communicate in the local language of each region, extended.

A genuinely surprising, frequently tested fact is that Ashoka's own personal name appears in only four of his known inscriptions, at Maski, Brahmagiri, Nettur and Gujjara; everywhere else he refers to himself only by his royal titles, Devanampiya ("beloved of the gods") and Piyadasi ("of pleasant appearance" or "he who regards with affection"). Because most inscriptions therefore never actually say the word "Ashoka," the identification of Devanampiya Piyadasi as Ashoka took real scholarly work: it was James Prinsep who deciphered Ashokan Brahmi and Kharosthi script in 1837, and only cross-referencing that decipherment against later Buddhist chronicles like the Dipavamsa confirmed that Piyadasi and Ashoka were the same king.

Beyond Ashoka: the standing set of named non-Ashokan inscriptions

Several later inscriptions are named often enough in this chapter's own tradition to hold as a fixed set, each valued for a specific historical fact it alone supplies.

The Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman (Gujarat, composed around 150 CE by the Western Satrap ruler Rudradaman I) is the earliest known inscription written in extended, polished Sanskrit prose, a genuinely significant linguistic milestone since Sanskrit inscriptions before this point had been rare or fragmentary. Its content is equally notable: it records Rudradaman's repair of the Sudarshana lake (reservoir) near Girnar, a dam originally built under the provincial governor Pushyagupta, appointed by Chandragupta Maurya, making the inscription a single, layered source spanning Mauryan-era public works through their Western Satrap-era restoration centuries later.

The Allahabad Pillar Inscription, also called the Prayag Prashasti (Prayag, an old name for Allahabad, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati), is a Sanskrit eulogy (prashasti) composed by the court poet Harisena in praise of the Gupta emperor Samudragupta, and is the single most important primary source for reconstructing the full extent of Samudragupta's military conquests and character, since it lists his campaigns and defeated rulers region by region in considerable, name-by-name detail.

The Aihole Inscription (Karnataka, dated 634 to 635 CE) is a Sanskrit eulogy composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti in honour of his patron, the Chalukya emperor Pulakeshin II, and its single most tested fact is its record of Pulakeshin II's victory over Harsha of Kannauj, along with his campaigns against the Pallavas, making it the primary epigraphic source establishing that Harsha's own northern power did not extend successfully into the Deccan.

The Hathigumpha Inscription (a cave near Bhubaneswar, Odisha) is a seventeen-line Prakrit inscription in Brahmi script, commissioned by the Jain king Kharavela of Kalinga in the 2nd or 1st century BCE, and serves as the primary source for Kharavela's own reign, military campaigns and administration, filling a gap in the record for an eastern Indian kingdom that other, better-documented dynasties' own inscriptions do not cover.

Quick revision points

• Ashokan edicts, chronological order: Minor Rock Edicts (earliest) to Major Rock Edicts (14, most detailed) to Pillar Edicts (7 major ones, latest, mature-phase).
• Scripts and languages: mostly Prakrit in Brahmi script; Kharosthi in the north-west; Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar (Afghanistan), reflecting that region's own Hellenistic and Achaemenid heritage.
• Ashoka's personal name appears only at Maski, Brahmagiri, Nettur and Gujjara; elsewhere he uses only the titles Devanampiya and Piyadasi. James Prinsep deciphered Ashokan Brahmi and Kharosthi in 1837, the essential step toward identifying Piyadasi as Ashoka.
• Junagadh Rock Inscription (Rudradaman I, c. 150 CE): earliest extended Sanskrit prose inscription; records repair of the Sudarshana lake, originally built under Chandragupta Maurya's governor Pushyagupta.
• Allahabad Pillar Inscription/Prayag Prashasti (Harisena, 4th century CE): eulogy for Samudragupta, the primary source for his military conquests.
• Aihole Inscription (Ravikirti, 634 to 635 CE): eulogy for Chalukya emperor Pulakeshin II, records his victory over Harsha of Kannauj.
• Hathigumpha Inscription (Kharavela of Kalinga, 2nd/1st century BCE): Prakrit, Brahmi script, primary source for Kharavela's reign and campaigns.