View source for Edicts of Ashoka

{{Short description|3rd century BCE inscriptions in South Asia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2016}}

{{Infobox artefact
| name          = Edicts of Ashoka
| image         = [[File:Ashoka Lauriya Areraj inscription.jpg|250px]]
| image_caption = A [[Major Pillar Edict]] of [[Ashoka]], in [[Lauriya Araraj]], [[Bihar]], [[India]]
| material      = Rocks, pillars, stone slabs
| size          =  
| writing       =
| created       = 3rd century BCE
| discovered    = 
| location      = [[Nepal]], [[India]], [[Pakistan]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Bangladesh]]
| id            = 
| registration = 
| map           = {{Map of the Edicts of Ashoka}}
}}
{{Ashoka Edicts articles}}

The '''Edicts of Ashoka''' are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the [[Pillars of Ashoka]], as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor [[Ashoka]] of the [[Maurya Empire]] who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE.{{sfn|Le|2010|p=30}} Ashoka used the expression ''Dhaṃma [[Lipi (script)|Lipi]]'' ([[Prakrit]] in the [[Brahmi script]]: [[wikt:𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺|𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺]], "Inscriptions of the [[Dharma]]") to describe his own Edicts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=9788131711200 |page=351 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA351 |language=en |access-date=28 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125338/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA351 |url-status=live }}</ref> These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day [[Bangladesh]], [[India]], [[Nepal]], [[Afghanistan]] and [[Pakistan]], and provide the first tangible evidence of [[Buddhism]]. The edicts describe in detail [[Ashoka's policy of Dhamma|Ashoka's view on dhamma]], an earnest attempt to solve some of the problems that a complex society faced.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.rediff.com/news/special/the-ashokan-rock-edicts-are-a-marvel-of-history/20170808.htm?sc_cid=twshare |title = The Ashokan rock edicts are a marvel of history |access-date = 27 October 2017 |archive-date = 6 September 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180906195456/http://www.rediff.com/news/special/the-ashokan-rock-edicts-are-a-marvel-of-history/20170808.htm?sc_cid=twshare |url-status = live }}</ref> According to the edicts, the extent of Buddhist proselytism during this period reached as far as the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], and many Buddhist monuments were created.

These inscriptions proclaim Ashoka's adherence to the Buddhist philosophy. The inscriptions show his efforts to develop the Buddhist dhamma throughout his kingdom. Although Buddhism as well as [[Gautama Buddha]] are mentioned, the edicts focus on social and moral precepts rather than specific religious practices or the philosophical dimension of Buddhism. These were located in public places and were meant for people to read.

In these inscriptions, Ashoka refers to himself as "Beloved of the Gods" (''[[Devanampiya]]''). The identification of Devanampiya with Ashoka was confirmed by an inscription discovered in 1915 by C. Beadon, a British gold-mining engineer, at [[Maski]], a village in [[Raichur district]] of [[Karnataka]]. Another minor rock edict, found at the village [[Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Gujarra|Gujarra]] in [[Datia district]] of [[Madhya Pradesh]], also used the name of Ashoka together with his titles: ''Devanampiya [[Priyadasi|Piyadasi]] Asokaraja''.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Buddhism">{{cite book |last=Malalasekera |first=Gunapala Piyasena |title=Encyclopaedia of Buddhism |year=1990 |publisher=Government of Ceylon |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdwKAAAAYAAJ |language=en |access-date=6 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125338/https://books.google.com/books?id=OdwKAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The inscriptions found in the central and eastern part of India were written in [[Magadhi Prakrit]] using the [[Brahmi script]], while [[Prakrit]] using the [[Kharoshthi]] script, [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic]] were used in the northwest. These edicts were deciphered by British [[archaeology|archaeologist]] and historian [[James Prinsep]].{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=208}}

The inscriptions revolve around a few recurring themes: Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism, the description of his efforts to spread Buddhism, his moral and religious precepts, and his social and [[animal welfare]] program. The edicts were based on Ashoka's ideas on administration and behaviour of people towards one  another  and religion.

==Decipherment==
[[File:Brahmi script consonants according to James Prinsep March 1838.jpg|thumb|400px|[[Brahmi script]] consonants, and their evolution down to modern [[Devanagari]], according to [[James Prinsep]], as published in the Journal of the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]], in March 1838. All the letters are correctly deciphered, except for two missing on the right: 𑀰(ś) and 𑀱(ṣ).<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |year=1838 |publisher=Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.] |url = https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic775asia#page/n101 }}</ref>]]

Besides a few inscriptions in [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] (which were discovered only in the 20th century), the Edicts were mostly written in the [[Brahmi script]] and sometimes in the [[Kharoshthi script]] in the northwest, two Indian scripts which had both become extinct around the 5th century CE, and were yet undeciphered at the time the Edicts were discovered and investigated in the 19th century.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=204–206}}<ref name=RHP/>

The first successful attempts at deciphering the ancient [[Brahmi script]] were made in 1836 by Norwegian scholar [[Christian Lassen]], who used the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coins of [[Indo-Greek]] king [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] to correctly and securely identify several Brahmi letters.<ref name=RHP>{{cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Himanshu Prabha |title=Buddhism and Gandhara: An Archaeology of Museum Collections |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351252744 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiBBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181 |language=en |access-date=6 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125338/https://books.google.com/books?id=MiBBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181 |url-status=live }}</ref> The task was then completed by [[James Prinsep]], an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the [[East India Company]], who was able to identify the rest of the Brahmi characters, with the help of [[Major Cunningham]].<ref name=RHP/><ref>[http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_sanchi_detail.asp More details about Buddhist monuments at Sanchi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721165126/http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_sanchi_detail.asp |date=21 July 2011 }}, Archaeological Survey of India, 1989.</ref> In a series of results that he published in March 1838 Prinsep was able to translate the inscriptions on a large number of rock edicts found around India, and to provide, according to [[Richard G. Salomon (professor of Asian studies)|Richard Salomon]], a "virtually perfect" rendering of the full Brahmi alphabet.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |date=1838 |publisher=Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.] |pages=219–285 |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic775asia#page/n51}}</ref>{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=208}} The edicts in [[Brahmi script]] mentioned a King [[Devanampriya]] Piyadasi which Prinsep initially assumed was a Sri Lankan king.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic62asia#page/566/mode/1up|title=Interpretation of the most ancient of inscriptions on the pillar called lat of Feroz Shah, near Delhi, and of the Allahabad, Radhia and Mattiah pillar, or lat inscriptions which agree therewith|author=Prinsep, J|pages=566–609|year=1837|journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society|volume=6}}</ref> He was then able to associate this title with Ashoka on the basis of [[Pali script]] from Sri Lanka communicated to him by [[George Turnour]].<ref>{{cite journal |url = https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic62asia#page/790/mode/1up/ |title=Further elucidation of the lat or Silasthambha inscriptions from various sources|author=Prinsep, J. |pages=790–797|journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1837}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title = Note on the Facsimiles of the various Inscriptions on the ancient column at Allahabad, retaken by Captain Edward Smith, Engineers.|author=Prinsep, J. |pages=963–980|year=1837|journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume =6|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic62asia#page/963/mode/1up}}</ref>

The [[Kharoshthi script]], written from right to left, and associated with [[Aramaic]], was also deciphered by [[James Prinsep]] in parallel with [[Christian Lassen]], using the bilingual Greek-Kharoshthi coinage of the [[Indo-Greek]] and [[Indo-Scythian]] kings.<ref name=JM>{{cite book |last1=Mirsky |first1=Jeannette |title=Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological Explorer |date=1998 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226531779 |pages=92–93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q3YKfArws2QC&pg=PA92 |language=en |access-date=6 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125340/https://books.google.com/books?id=q3YKfArws2QC&pg=PA92 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=205–215}} "Within the incredibly brief space of three years (1834-37) the mystery of both the Kharoshthi and Brahmi scripts (were unlocked), the effect of which was instantly to remove the thick crust of oblivion which for many centuries had concealed the character and the language of the earliest epigraphs".<ref name=JM/><ref>Roy Sourindranath, The Story of Indian Archaeology, 1784-1947, ASI, New Delhi, 1961, p.26.</ref>

==The Edicts==
[[File:AsokaKandahar.jpg|thumb|The first known inscription by Ashoka, the [[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription]], in Greek and in Aramaic, written in the 10th year of his reign (260 BCE).<ref name = "DC">India: An Archaeological History: Palaeolithic Beginnings to Early ... by Dilip K. Chakrabarty [https://books.google.com/books?id=wPQtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT395 {{p.|395}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135556/https://books.google.com/books?id=wPQtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT395 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref>{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925}}<ref name="Valeri P. Yailenko 1990, p.243">Valeri P. Yailenko [https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 ''Les maximes delphiques d'Aï Khanoum et la formation de la doctrine du dharma d'Asoka''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612164849/https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 |date=12 June 2019 }} Dialogues d'histoire ancienne vol.16 n°1, 1990, p.243</ref>]]
The Edicts are divided into four categories, according to their size (Minor or Major) and according to their medium (Rock or Pillar). Chronologically, the minor inscriptions tend to precede the larger ones, while rock inscriptions generally seem to have been started earlier than the pillar inscriptions:
* [[Minor Rock Edicts]]: Edicts inscribed at the beginning of Ashoka's reign; in [[Prakrit]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic]].
* [[Minor Pillar Edicts]]: Schism Edict, Queen's Edict, [[Rummindei]] Edict, [[Nigali Sagar]] Edict; in [[Prakrit]].
* [[Major Rock Edicts]]: 14 Edicts (termed 1st to 14th) and 2 separate ones found in [[Odisha]]; in [[Prakrit]] and [[Greek language|Greek]].
* [[Major Pillar Edicts]]: 7 Edicts, inscribed at the end of Ashoka's reign; in [[Prakrit]].

;General content
The [[Minor Rock Edicts]] (in which Ashoka is sometimes named in person, as in [[Maski]] and [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Gujarra|Gujarra]]) as well as the [[Minor Pillar Edicts]] are very religious in their content: they mention extensively the [[Buddha]] (and even previous Buddhas as in the [[Nigali Sagar]] inscription), the [[Sangha]], Buddhism and Buddhist scriptures (as in the [[Bairat Temple|Bairat]] Edict).<ref name=SDK/>

On the contrary, the [[Major Rock Edicts]] and [[Major Pillar Edicts]] are essentially moral and political in nature: they never mention the Buddha or explicit Buddhist teachings, but are preoccupied with order, proper behaviour and non violence under the general concept of "[[Dharma]]", and they also focus on the administration of the state and positive relations with foreign countries as far as the [[Hellenistic]] [[Mediterranean]] of the mid-3rd century BCE.<ref name=SDK>{{cite journal |last1=Kulkarni |first1=S. D. |title=Inscriptions of Ashoka: A Reappraisal |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=71 |issue=1/4 |date=1990 |pages=305–309 |jstor=41693531 }}</ref>

===Minor Rock Edicts===
{{main|Minor Rock Edicts}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=450|caption_align=center
| align    = right
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| header=Minor Rock Edicts
| image1   = Rock edict- closer look.JPG
| caption1 = Minor Rock Edict from [[Maski]]. 
| image2   = Map of the Minor Rock Edicts.jpg
| caption2 = Map of the Minor Rock Edicts
| footer=The Minor Rock Edicts are often Buddhist in character, and some of them specifically mention the name "Asoka" ([[File:Ashoka in Brahmi script.jpg|30px]], center of the top line) in conjunction with the title "Devanampriya" (Beloved-of-the-gods).
}}
The [[Minor Rock Edicts]] of Ashoka (r.269-233 BCE) are rock inscriptions which form the earliest part of the Edicts of Ashoka. They predate [[Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts]].

Chronologically, the first known edict, sometimes classified as a Minor Rock Edict, is the [[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription]], in Greek and in Aramaic, written in the 10th year of his reign (260 BCE) at the border of his empire with the [[Hellenistic world]], in the city of [[Old Kandahar]] in modern [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="DC"/>{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925}}<ref name="Valeri P. Yailenko 1990, p.243"/>

Ashoka then made the first edicts in the Indian language, written in the [[Brahmi]] script, from the 11th year of his reign (according to his own inscription, "two and a half years after becoming a secular Buddhist", i.e. two and a half years at least after returning from the [[Kalinga war|Kalinga conquest]] of the eighth year of his reign, which is the starting point for his remorse towards the horrors of the war, and his gradual conversion to Buddhism). The texts of the inscriptions are rather short, the technical quality of the engraving of the inscriptions is generally very poor, and generally very inferior to the pillar edicts dated to the years 26 and 27 of Ashoka's reign.<ref>[[John Irwin (curator)|John Irwin]], [https://www.scribd.com/document/136703111/Chronology-of-Asokan-Pillars "The True Chronology of Aśokan Pillars"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430182342/https://www.scribd.com/document/136703111/Chronology-of-Asokan-Pillars|date=30 April 2018}}, in:''[[Artibus Asiae]]'', Vol. 44, No. 4 (1983), {{p.|247-265}}</ref>

There are several slight variations in the content of these edicts, depending on location, but a common designation is usually used, with Minor Rock Edict N°1 (MRE1)<ref>Minor Rock Edict 1</ref> and a Minor Rock Edict N°2 (MRE2, which does not appear alone but always in combination with Edict N°1), the different versions being generally aggregated in most translations. The [[Maski]] version of Minor Rock Edict No.1 is historically particularly important in that it confirmed the association of the title "[[Devanampriya]]" with the name "Asoka", thereby clarifying the historical author of all these inscriptions.<ref name=CSH>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Shorter History of India |publisher=CUP Archive |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_48AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA42 |language=en |access-date=21 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125341/https://books.google.com/books?id=9_48AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Subhadra Sen |title=Ashoka |date=2009 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=9788184758078 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5ru08et_ZAC&pg=PT13 |language=en |access-date=21 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125818/https://books.google.com/books?id=L5ru08et_ZAC&pg=PT13 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Gujarra|Gujarra]] version of Minor Rock Edict No.1 also, the name of Ashoka is used together with his full title: ''[[Devanampriya|Devanampiya]] [[Priyadasi|Piyadasi]] Asoka[[raja]]''.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Buddhism"/>
[[File:Gujarra Devanampiyasa Piyadasino Asokaraja.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The full title ''[[Devanampriya|Devanampiyasa]] [[Priyadasi|Piyadasino]] Asoka[[raja]]'' ({{Script|Brah|𑀤𑁂𑀯𑀸𑀦𑀁𑀧𑀺𑀬𑀲 𑀧𑀺𑀬𑀤𑀲𑀺𑀦𑁄 𑀅𑀲𑁄𑀓𑀭𑀸𑀚}}) in the [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Gujarra|Gujarra inscription]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sircar |first1=D. C. |title=Asokan studies |date=1979 |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.gov.ignca.67068/67068#page/n103/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
There is also a unique Minor Rock Edict No.3, discovered next to [[Bairat Temple]], for the Buddhist clergy, which gives a list of Buddhist scriptures (most of them unknown today) which the clergy should study regularly.<ref>Inscriptions of Asoka by DC Sircar [https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT32 p.32-22] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135557/https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT32 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref>

A few other inscriptions of Ashoka in [[Aramaic]], which are not strictly edicts, but tend to share a similar content, are sometimes also categorized as "Minor Rock Edicts". The dedicatory inscriptions of the [[Barabar caves]] are also sometimes classified among the Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka.

The Minor Rock Edicts can be found throughout the territory of Ashoka, including in the frontier area near the [[Hindu Kush]], and are especially numerous in the southern, newly conquered, frontier areas of [[Karnataka]] and southern [[Andhra Pradesh]].

===Minor Pillar Edicts===
{{main|Minor Pillar Edicts}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Brahmi script on Ashoka Pillar, Sarnath.jpg
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| image2 = Sarnath capital.jpg
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| footer = Minor Pillar Edict on the [[Sarnath]] [[pillar of Ashoka]], and the [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] which crowned it.
}}
The [[Minor Pillar Edicts]] of Ashoka refer to five separate minor Edicts inscribed on columns, the [[Pillars of Ashoka]].<ref name=RT>{{cite web|url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Delhi|title=Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas|author=Romila Thapar|access-date=12 July 2018|archive-date=17 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517144931/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts and may have been made in parallel with the Major Rock Edicts.

The inscription technique is generally very poor compared for example to the later [[Major Pillar Edicts]], however the Minor Pillar Edicts are often associated with some of the artistically most sophisticated pillar capitals of Ashoka, such as the renowned [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] which crowned the [[Sarnath]] Minor Pillar Edict, or the very similar, but less well preserved [[Sanchi]] lion [[capital (architecture)|capital]] which crowned the very clumsily inscribed Schism Edict of Sanchi.<ref name=JI/> According to Irwin, the Brahmi inscriptions on the Sarnath and Sanchi pillars were made by inexperienced Indian engravers at a time when stone engraving was still new in India, whereas the very refined Sarnath capital itself was made under the tutelage of craftsmen from the former [[Achaemenid Empire]], trained in Perso-Hellenistic statuary and employed by Ashoka.<ref name=JI264>{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=John |title=The True Chronology of Aśokan Pillars |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=44 |issue=4 |date=1983 |pages=250&264 |doi=10.2307/3249612 |jstor=3249612 }}</ref> This suggests that the most sophisticated capitals were actually the earliest in the sequence of [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashokan pillars]] and that style degraded over a short period of time.<ref name="JI">The True Chronology of Aśokan Pillars, John Irwin, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 44, No. 4 (1983), pp. 264 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249612?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330093954/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249612?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents|date=30 March 2019}}</ref>

These edicts were probably made at the beginning of the reign of Ashoka (reigned 268-232&nbsp;BCE), from the year 12 of his reign, that is, from 256&nbsp;BCE.<ref name="https">{{cite journal |last1=Yailenko |first1=Valeri P. |title=Les maximes delphiques d'Aï Khanoum et la formation de la doctrine du dhamma d'Asoka |journal=Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne |volume=16 |date=1990 |pages=239–256 |language=fr-FR |doi=10.3406/dha.1990.1467 |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 |access-date=7 March 2019 |archive-date=12 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612164849/https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Minor Pillar Edicts are the Schism Edict, warning of punishment for dissent in the [[Samgha]], the Queen's Edict, and the [[Rummindei]] Edict as well as the [[Nigali Sagar]] Edict which record Ashoka's visits and Buddhist dedications in the area corresponding to today's [[Nepal]]. The Rummindei and Nigali Sagar edicts, inscribed on pillars erected by Ashoka later in his reign (19th and 20th year) display a high level of inscriptional technique with a good regularity in the lettering.<ref name=JI264/>

===Major Rock Edicts===
{{Main|Major Rock Edicts}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=450|caption_align=center
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| caption1 = [[Rock edicts of Khalsi]]
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The [[Major Rock Edicts]] of [[Ashoka]] refer to 14 separate major Edicts, which are significantly detailed and extensive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/this-excerpt-from-a-new-book-demolishes-emperor-ashoka-reputation-as-a-pacifist/story-puxXlUpPsDy4TqELZ3UonN.html|title=This excerpt from a new book demolishes Emperor Ashoka's reputation as a pacifist|date=2016-08-05|access-date=4 September 2018|archive-date=14 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614172343/https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/this-excerpt-from-a-new-book-demolishes-emperor-ashoka-reputation-as-a-pacifist/story-puxXlUpPsDy4TqELZ3UonN.html|url-status=live}}</ref> These Edicts were concerned with practical instructions in running the kingdom such as the design of irrigation systems and descriptions of Ashoka's beliefs in peaceful moral behavior. They contain little personal detail about his life.<ref name="colostate">{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html|title=The Edicts of King Ashoka|access-date=2007-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314160034/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html|archive-date=14 March 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts.

Three languages were used, [[Prakrit]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]]. The edicts are composed in [[Grammar|non-standardized]] and archaic forms of [[Prakrit]]. Prakrit inscriptions were written in [[Brahmic scripts|Brahmi]] and [[Kharosthi]] scripts, which even a commoner could read and understand. The inscriptions found in the area of Pakistan are in the [[Kharoshthi]] script. Other Edicts are written in Greek or Aramaic. The [[Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka]] (including portions of Edict No.13 and No.14) is in Greek only, and originally probably contained all the Major Rock Edicts 1-14.<ref name="persee.fr">Une nouvelle inscription grecque d'Açoka, Schlumberger, Daniel, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1964  Volume 108  Numéro 1  pp. 126-140 [http://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604023454/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695|date=4 June 2018}}</ref>

The Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka are inscribed on large rocks, except for the Kandahar version in Greek ([[Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka]]), written on a stone plaque belonging to a building. The Major Edicts are not located in the heartland of Mauryan territory, traditionally centered on [[Bihar]], but on the frontiers of the territory controlled by Ashoka.<ref>"Fourteen Major Rock Edicts have been discovered at seven places along the borders of the territory that Asoka controlled" {{cite book |last1=Hirakawa |first1=Akira |title=A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna |date=1993 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120809550 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjjwjC7rcOYC&pg=PA96 |language=en |access-date=4 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125818/https://books.google.com/books?id=XjjwjC7rcOYC&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Major Pillar Edicts===
{{main|Major Pillar Edicts}}
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The [[Major Pillar Edicts]] of Ashoka refer to seven separate major Edicts inscribed on columns, the [[Pillars of Ashoka]], which are significantly detailed and extensive.<ref name=RT/>

These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts and the Major Rock Edicts, and constitute the most technically elegant of the inscriptions made by Ashoka. They were made at the end of his reign, from the years 26 and 27 of his reign, that is, from 237 to 236 BCE.<ref name="https"/> Chronologically they follow the fall of [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] power in [[Central Asia]] and the related rise of the [[Parthian Empire]] and the independent [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]] circa 250 BCE. Hellenistic rulers are not mentioned anymore in these last edicts, as they only appear in [[Major Rock Edict]] No.13 (and to a lesser extent Major Rock Edict No.2), which can be dated to about the 14th year of the reign of Ashoka circa 256–255.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thapar |first1=Romila |title=Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199088683 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoAyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |language=en |access-date=30 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125819/https://books.google.com/books?id=NoAyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |url-status=live }}</ref> The last Major Pillar Edicts (Edict No.7) is testamental in nature, making a summary of the accomplishments of Ashoka during his life.

The Major Pillar Edicts of Ashoka were exclusively inscribed on the [[Pillars of Ashoka]] or fragments thereof, at [[Kausambi]] (now [[Allahabad pillar]]), [[Topra Kalan]], [[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi|Meerut]], [[Lauriya Araraj|Lauriya-Araraj]], [[Lauria Nandangarh]], [[Rampurva]] ([[Champaran]]), and fragments of these in Aramaic ([[Kandahar Aramaic inscription|Kandahar, Edict No.7]] and [[Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription|Pul-i-Darunteh, Edict No.5 or No.7]] in [[Afghanistan]])<ref>Inscriptions of Asoka de D.C. Sircar [https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 p.30] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135557/https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref><ref>Handbuch der Orientalistik de Kurt A. Behrendt [https://books.google.com/books?id=C9_vbgkzUSkC&pg=PA39 p.39] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135558/https://books.google.com/books?id=C9_vbgkzUSkC&pg=PA39 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref> However several pillars, such as the bull pillar of [[Rampurva]], or the pillar of [[Vaishali (ancient city)|Vaishali]] do not have inscriptions, which, together with their lack of proper foundation stones and their particular style, led some authors to suggest that they were in fact pre-Ashokan.<ref name=JI1983>{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=John |title=The True Chronology of Aśokan Pillars |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=44 |issue=4 |date=1983 |pages=247–265 |jstor=3249612 |doi=10.2307/3249612 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=John |title='Aśokan' Pillars: A Re-Assessment of the Evidence - III: Capitals |journal=The Burlington Magazine |volume=117 |issue=871 |pages=631–643 |date=1975 |jstor=878154 }}</ref>

The Major Pillar Edicts (excluding the two fragments of translations found in modern [[Afghanistan]]) are all located in central India.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hirakawa |first1=Akira |title=A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna |date=1993 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120809550 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjjwjC7rcOYC&pg=PA96 |language=en |access-date=4 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125818/https://books.google.com/books?id=XjjwjC7rcOYC&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Pillars of Ashoka are stylistically very close to an important Buddhist monument, also built by Ashoka in [[Bodh Gaya]], at the location where the [[Buddha]] had reached enlightenment some 200 years earlier: the [[Vajrasana, Bodh Gaya|Diamond Throne]].<ref name="Ching">A Global History of Architecture, Francis D. K. Ching, Mark M. Jarzombek, Vikramaditya Prakash, John Wiley & Sons, 2017 [https://books.google.com/books?id=SPqKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT570 p.570ff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135558/https://books.google.com/books?id=SPqKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT570 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref><ref name="BA240">Buddhist Architecture, Huu Phuoc Le [https://books.google.com/books?id=9jb364g4BvoC&pg=PA240 p.240]</ref> The sculpted decorations on the Diamond Throne clearly echo the decorations found on the Pillars of Ashoka.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor |date=2012 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=9781408703885 |page=133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4vHjbUtf_4C&pg=PT133 |language=en |access-date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125952/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ashoka/K4vHjbUtf_4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT133&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> The Pillars dated to the end of Ashoka's reign are associated with pillar capitals that tend to be more solemn and less elegant than the earlier capitals, such as those of Sanchi or Sarnath. This led some authors to suggest that the artistic level under Ashoka tended to fall towards the end of his reign.<ref>The True Chronology of Aśokan Pillars, John Irwin, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 44, No. 4 (1983), pp. 247-265 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249612?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330093954/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249612?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents|date=30 March 2019}}</ref>

==Languages of the Edicts==
Three languages were used: [[Ashokan Prakrit]], [[Greek language|Greek]] (the language of the neighbouring [[Greco-Bactrian]] kingdom and the Greek communities in Ashoka's realm) and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] (the official language of the former [[Achaemenid Empire]]). The Prakrit displayed local variations, from early [[Gāndhārī language|Gandhari]] in the northwest, to [[Ardhamagadhi Prakrit|Old Ardhamagadhi]] in the east, where it was the "chancery language" of the court.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=73–76}} The language level of the Prakrit inscriptions tends to be rather informal or colloquial.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=72}} 
[[File:The four scripts of Ashoka.jpg|thumb|left|The four scripts used by Ashoka in his Edicts: [[Brahmi script|Brahmi]] (top left), [[Kharoshthi]] (top right), [[Greek language|Greek]] (bottom left) and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] (bottom right).]]
Four scripts were used. Prakrit inscriptions were written in the [[Brahmic scripts|Brahmi]] and [[Kharosthi]] scripts, the latter for the area of modern Pakistan. The Greek and Aramaic inscriptions used their respective scripts, in the northwestern areas of Ashoka's territory, in modern [[Pakistan]] and [[Afghanistan]].

While most Edicts were in [[Ashokan Prakrit]], a few were written in Greek or Aramaic. The [[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription|Kandahar Rock Inscription]] is bilingual Greek-Aramaic. The [[Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka]] is in Greek only, and originally probably contained all the Major Rock Edicts 1-14. The Greek language used in the inscription is of a very high level and displays philosophical refinement. It also displays an in-depth understanding of the political language of the Hellenic world in the 3rd century BCE. This suggests a highly cultured Greek presence in Kandahar at that time.<ref>Une nouvelle inscription grecque d'Açoka, Schlumberger, Daniel, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1964  Volume 108  Numéro 1  pp. 136-140 [http://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604023454/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695|date=4 June 2018}}</ref>

By contrast, in the rock edicts engraved in southern India in the newly conquered territories of [[Karnataka]] and [[Andhra Pradesh]], Ashoka only used the [[Prakrit]] of the North as the language of communication, with the [[Brahmi]] script, and not the local [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] idiom, which can be interpreted as a kind of authoritarianism in respect to the southern territories.<ref name="SB">A Sourcebook of Indian Civilization published by Niharranjan Ray, Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zcyho16xzWEC&pg=PA592 p.&nbsp;592] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135558/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zcyho16xzWEC&pg=PA592 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref>

Ashoka's edicts were the first written inscriptions in India after the ancient city of [[Harrapa]] fell to ruin.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/Ashoka.htm |title=The Life Of Ashoka Mauryan - His legacyb|access-date=2007-03-15 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070405044341/http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/Ashoka.htm | archive-date= 5 April 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> Due to the influence of Ashoka's Prakrit inscriptions, Prakrit would remain the main inscriptional language for the following centuries, until the rise of inscriptional [[Sanskrit]] from the 1st century CE.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=72}}

==Content of the Edicts==
The Dharma preached by Ashoka is explained mainly in term of moral precepts, based on the doing of good deeds, respect for others, generosity and purity. The expressions used by Ashoka to express the Dharma, were the [[Prakrit]] word ''[[Dhamma|Dhaṃma]]'', the Greek word ''[[Eusebeia]]'' (in the [[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription]] and the [[Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka]]), and the [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] word ''Qsyt'' ("Truth") (in the [[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Hiltebeitel |first=Alf |title=Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press, US |isbn=9780195394238 |pages=36–37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4NF8pYxdvIC&pg=PA36 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125951/https://books.google.com/books?id=U4NF8pYxdvIC&pg=PA36 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Moral precepts===
; Right behaviour
[[File:Dhamma inscription.jpg|thumb|The [[Prakrit]] word ''[[Dhamma|Dha-ṃ-ma]]'' ([[wikt:𑀥𑀁𑀫|𑀥𑀁𑀫]], Sanskrit: [[Dharma]]) in the [[Brahmi script]], as inscribed by Ashoka in his Edicts. [[Topra Kalan]] pillar, now in [[New Delhi]].]]
{{blockquote|Dharma is good. And what is Dharma? It is having few faults and many good deeds, mercy, charity, truthfulness and purity. (Major Pillar Edict No.2)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Delhi|title=Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas|author=Romila Thapar|access-date=12 July 2018|archive-date=17 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517144931/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|Thus the glory of Dhamma will increase throughout the world, and it will be endorsed in the form of mercy, charity, truthfulness, purity, gentleness, and virtue. (Major Pillar Edict No. 7)<ref name=RT />}}

; Benevolence
Ashoka's Dharma meant that he used his power to try to make life better for his people and he also tried to change the way people thought and lived. He also thought that dharma meant doing the right thing.

; Kindness to prisoners
Ashoka showed great concern for fairness in the exercise of [[justice]], caution and tolerance in the application of sentences, and regularly pardoned prisoners.

{{blockquote|But it is desirable that there should be uniformity in judicial procedure and punishment. This is my instruction from now on. Men who are imprisoned or sentenced to death are to be given three days respite. Thus their relations may plead for their lives, or, if there is no one to plead for them, they may make donations or undertake a fast for a better rebirth in the next life. For it is my wish that they should gain the next world. (Major Pillar Edict No. 4)<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|In the period [from my consecration] to [the anniversary on which] I had been consecrated twenty-six years, twenty-five releases of prisoners have been made. (Major Pillar Edict No. 5)<ref name=RT/>}}

; Respect for animal life
[[File:Rampurva bull in Presidential Palace high closeup.jpg|thumb|Animals pervade imperial [[Mauryan art]]. [[Rampurva]] bull [[capital (architecture)|capital]] established by Ashoka, 3rd century BCE. Now in the [[Rashtrapati Bhavan]] Presidential Palace, [[New Delhi]].]]
The Mauryan empire was the first Indian empire to unify the country and it had a clear-cut policy of exploiting as well as protecting natural resources with specific officials tasked with protection duty. When [[Ashoka]] embraced [[Buddhism]] in the latter part of his reign, he brought about significant changes in his style of governance, which included providing protection to fauna, and even relinquished the royal hunt. He was perhaps the first ruler in history to advocate conservation measures for wildlife. Reference to these can be seen inscribed on the stone edicts.<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofasiat1190507asia#page/n521/mode/2up |title = Animals in the inscriptions of Piyadasi |last=Chakravarti |first = Monmohan |pages=361–374 |year=1906 | journal=Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |volume=1 |issue=17 }}</ref><ref name="IWH5">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, p.&nbsp;8.</ref>

{{blockquote|This rescript on morality has been caused to be written by Devanampriya Priyadarsin. Here no living being must be killed and sacrificed. And also no festival meeting must be held. For king Devanampriya Priyadarsin sees much evil in festival meetings. 
And there are also some festival meetings which are considered meritorious by king Devanampriya Priyadarsin. Formerly in the kitchen of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin many hundred thousands of animals were killed daily for the sake of curry. But now, when this rescript on morality is caused to be written, then only three animals are being killed (daily), (viz.) two peacocks (and) one deer, but even this deer not regularly. But even these three animals shall not be killed (in future). (Major Rock Edict No.1){{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n165/mode/2up 27]}}<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|King Devanampriya Priyadansin speaks thus. (When I had been) anointed twenty-six years, the following animals were declared by me inviolable, viz. parrots, mainas, the aruna, ruddy geese, wild geese, the nandimukha, the gelata, bats, queen-ants, terrapins, boneless fish, the vedaveyaka, the Ganga-puputaka, skate-fish, tortoises and porcupines, squirrels (?), the srimara, bulls set at liberty, iguanas (?), the rhinoceros, white doves, domestic doves, (and) all the quadrupeds which are neither useful nor edible. Those [she-goats], ewes, and sows (which are) either with young or in milk, are inviolable, and also those (of their) young ones (which are) less than six months old. Cocks must not be caponed. Husks containing living animals must not be burnt. Forests must not be burnt either uselessly or in order to destroy (living beings). Living animals must not be fed with (other) living animals.
(Major Pillar Edict No.5)<ref name="Inscriptions of Asoka p.119">{{harvnb|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch 119-]}}</ref><ref name=RT/>}}

Ashoka advocated restraint in the number that had to be killed for consumption, protected some of them, and in general condemned violent acts against animals, such as [[castration]].

However, the edicts of Ashoka reflect more the desire of rulers than actual events; the mention of a 100  'panas' (coins) fine for poaching deer in royal hunting preserves shows that rule-breakers did exist. The legal restrictions conflicted with the practices then freely exercised by the common people in hunting, felling, fishing and setting fires in forests.<ref name="IWH5"/>

===Religious precepts===
[[File:Sanchi King Ashoka with his Queens, South Gate, Stupa no. 1.jpg|thumb|Ashoka and his two queens, visiting the [[Bodhi Tree]] in [[Bodh Gaya]], in a relief at [[Sanchi]] (1st century CE). The identification with Ashoka is confirmed by the similar relief from [[Kanaganahalli]] inscribed "Raya Asoka".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=9788131711200 |page=333 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA333 |language=en |access-date=16 August 2019 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130015/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA333 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=Political Violence in Ancient India |date=2017 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674975279 |page=162 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6A4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |language=en |access-date=7 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702125952/https://books.google.com/books?id=t6A4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:Buddha Sakyamuni on the Rummindei pillar of Ashoka.jpg|thumb|right|The words "[[Buddha|Bu-dhe]]" (𑀩𑀼𑀥𑁂, the [[Buddha]]) and "[[Shakyas|Sa-kya]]-[[Muni (Saint)|mu-nī]] " ( [[wikt:𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻]], "Sage of the [[Shakyas]]") in [[Brahmi script]], on [[Ashoka]]'s [[Rummindei]] [[Minor Pillar Edict]] (circa 250 BCE).]]
;Buddhism
Explicit mentions of Buddhism or the Buddha only appear in the [[Minor Rock Edicts]] and the [[Minor Pillar Edicts]].<ref name=SDK/> Beyond affirming himself as a Buddhist and spreading the moral virtues of Buddhism, Ashoka also insisted that the word of the Buddha be read and followed, in particular in monastic circles (the [[Sangha (Buddhism)|Sanghas]]),  in a unique edict ([[Minor Rock Edict|Minor Rock Edict No.3]]), found in front of the [[Bairat Temple]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/king_asoka.pdf |title=King Asoka and Buddhism, Edited by Anuradha Seneviratna, p.44 |access-date=12 November 2016 |archive-date=18 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518202133/http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/king_asoka.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{blockquote|I have been a Buddhist layman ("Budha-[[Shakya|Shake]]" in the Maski edict, ''upāshake'' in others){{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n353/mode/2up 174]}} for more than two and a half years, but for a year I did not make much progress. Now for more than a year I have drawn closer to the [[Samgha|Order]] and have become more ardent. (Minor Rock Edict No.1)<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|The king of Magadha, Piyadassi, greets the Order and wishes it prosperity and freedom from care. You know Sirs, how deep is my respect for and faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Samgha [i.e. the Buddhist creed]. Sirs, whatever was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well spoken. (Minor Rock Edict No.3)<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|These sermons on Dhamma, Sirs - the Excellence of the Discipline, the Lineage of the Noble One, the Future Fears, the Verses of, the Sage, the Sutra of Silence, the Question, of Upatissa, and the Admonition spoken by the Lord Buddha to [[Rahula]] on the subject of false speech - these sermons on the Dhamma, Sirs, I desire that many monks and nuns should hear frequently and meditate upon, and likewise laymen and laywomen. (Minor Rock Edict No.3)<ref name=RT/>}}

Ashoka also expressed his devotion for the [[List of the named Buddhas|Buddhas of the past]], such as the [[Koṇāgamana Buddha]], for whom he enlarged a [[stupa]] in the 14th year of his reign, and made a dedication and set up a pillar during a visit in person in the 20th year of his reign, as described in his [[Minor Pillar Edict]] of [[Nigali Sagar]], in modern [[Nepal]].{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n339 165]}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lahiri |first1=Nayanjot |title=Ashoka in Ancient India |date=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674057777 |page=237 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA237 |language=en |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130325/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA237 |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Belief in a next world
{{blockquote|By doing so, there is gain in this world, and in the next there is infinite merit, through the gift of Dhamma. (Major Rock Edict No.11)<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|It is hard to obtain happiness in this world and the next without extreme love of Dhamma, much vigilance, much obedience, much fear of sin, and extreme energy. (Major Pillar Edict No. 1)<ref name=RT/>}}

; Religious exchange
[[File:Lomas Rishi entrance.jpg|thumb|The [[Barabar caves]] were built by Ashoka for the ascetic sect of the [[Ajivikas]], as well as for the Buddhists, illustrating his respect for several faiths. [[Lomas Rishi]] cave. 3rd century BCE.]]
Far from being [[sectarian]], Ashoka, based on a belief that all religions shared a common, positive essence, encouraged tolerance and understanding of other religions.

{{blockquote|The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, wishes that all sect may dwell in all places, for all seek self-control and purity of mind. (Major Rock Edict No.7)<ref name=RT/>}}

{{blockquote|For whosoever praises his own sect or blames other sects, — all (this) out of pure devotion to his own sect, (i.e.) with the view of glorifying his own sect, — if he is acting thus, he rather injures his own sect very severely. But concord is meritorious, (i.e.) that they should both hear and obey each other's morals. For this is the desire of Devanampriya, (viz.) that all sects should be both full of learning and pure in doctrine. And those who are attached to their respective (sects), ought to be spoken to (as follows). Devanampriya does not value either gifts or honours so (highly) as (this), (viz.) that a promotion of the essentials of all sects should take place. (Major Rock Edict No.12){{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n175/mode/2up 34]}}<ref name=RT/>}}

===Social and animal welfare===
According to the edicts, Ashoka took great care of the [[quality of life|welfare]] of his subjects (human and animal), and those beyond his borders, spreading the use of medicinal treatments, improving roadside facilities for more comfortable travel, and establishing "officers of the faith" throughout his territories to survey the welfare of the population and the propagation of the [[Dharma]]. The Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] ("the [[Yona]] king named Antiyoga" in the text of the Edicts) is also named as a recipient of Ashoka's generosity, together with the other kings neighbouring him.<ref name=PK>{{cite book |last=Kosmin |first=Paul J. |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings |year=2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674728820 |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |language=en |access-date=10 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130958/https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |url-status=live }}</ref>

; Medicinal treatments

[[File:Siria, seleucidi, Antioco II, tetradracma di seleucia sul tigri, 261-146 ac ca.JPG|thumb|The [[Seleucid]] king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] (''Aṃtiyakā'', ''Aṃtiyako'' or ''Aṃtiyoga'' depending on the transliterations) is named as a recipient of Ashoka's medical treatments, together with his [[Hellenistic]] neighbours.<ref name=PK/>]]

[[File:Amtiyako Yona Raja in Major Rock Edicts No2 in Girnar.jpg|thumb|''Aṃtiyako [[Yona]] [[Raja|Rājā]]'' ("The Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]]"), mentioned in [[Major Rock Edict]] No.2, here at [[Girnar]]. [[Brahmi script]].{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n135/mode/2up 3]}}]]

{{blockquote|Everywhere in the dominions of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin and (of those) who (are his) borderers, such as the [[Chodas]], the [[Pandyas]], the [[Athiyamān Nedumān Añci|Satiyaputa]],{{NoteTag|Seems to refer to Tamil ruler [[Athiyamān Nedumān Añci|Athiyaman]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Raj |title=Essays on Indian Society |year=2003 |publisher=Discovery Publishing House |isbn=9788171417100 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yu_Uzv-2VqsC&pg=PA68 |language=en |access-date=7 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130327/https://books.google.com/books?id=yu_Uzv-2VqsC&pg=PA68 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} the [[Kerala|Kelalaputa]],{{NoteTag|Kelalaputa is the Prakrit for Kerala.<ref>{{cite book |last=Filliozat |first=Jean |title=Laghu-Prabandhāḥ. |year=1974 |publisher=Brill Archive |isbn=978-9004039148 |page=341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rswUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA341 |language=fr |access-date=7 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130414/https://books.google.com/books?id=rswUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA341 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} [[Tamraparni]], the [[Yona]] king named [[Antiochus II|Antiyoga]], and the other kings who are the neighbours of this Antiyoga, everywhere two (kinds of) medical treatment were established by king Devanampriya Priyadarsin, (viz.) medical treatment for men and medical treatment for cattle. Wherever there were no herbs beneficial to men and beneficial to cattle, everywhere they were caused to be imported and to be planted. Likewise, wherever there were no roots and fruits, everywhere they were caused to be imported and to be planted. On the roads trees were planted, and wells were caused to be dug for the use of cattle and men.  (Major Rock Edict No. 2, [[Rock edicts of Khalsi|Khalsi]] version){{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n165/mode/2up 28]}}<ref name=RT/>}}

; Roadside facilities
{{blockquote|On the roads [[banyan]]-trees were caused to be planted by me, (in order that) they might afford shade to cattle and men, (and) [[mango]]-groves were caused to be planted. And (at intervals) of eight kos wells were caused to be dug by me, and flights of steps (for descending into the water) were caused to be built. Numerous drinking-places were caused to be established by me, here and there, for the enjoyment of cattle and men. [But] this so-called enjoyment (is) [of little consequence]. For with various comforts have the people been blessed both by former kings and by myself. But by me this has been done for the following purpose: that they might conform to that practice of morality. (Major Pillar Edict No.7)<ref name="Inscriptions of Asoka p.119" /><ref name=RT/>}}

; Officers of the faith
{{blockquote|Now, in times past (officers) called [[Mahamatras]] of morality did not exist before. Mahdmatras of morality were appointed by me (when I had been) anointed thirteen years. These are occupied with all sects in establishing morality, in promoting morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality (even) among the [[Yona]], [[Kambojas]], and [[Gandharas]], and whatever other western borderers (of mine there are). They are occupied with servants and masters, with Brahmanas and Ibhiyas, with the destitute; (and) with the aged, for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality, (and) in releasing (them) from the fetters (of worldly life). (Major Rock Edict No.5){{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n169/mode/2up 32]}}<ref name=RT/>}}

; Birthplace of the historical Buddha
{{main|Lumbini pillar inscription}}
In a particularly famous Edict, the Rummindei Edict in [[Lumbini]], [[Nepal]], Ashoka describes his visit in the 21st year of his reign, and mentions Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha. He also, for the first time in historical records, uses the epithet "Sakyamuni" (Sage of the [[Shakyas]]), to describe the historical Buddha.{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|pp=[https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch 164–165]}}

{| class="wikitable centre"
|+ Rummindei pillar, inscription of Ashoka (circa 248 BCE)
|-
! scope="col" align=left| Translation<br><small>(English)</small>!!Transliteration<br><small>(original [[Brahmi script]])</small>!!Inscription<br><small>([[Prakrit]] in the [[Brahmi script]])</small>
|-
|align=center width="30%"|
{{blockquote|''When King Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty years, he came himself and worshipped (this spot) because the [[Buddha Shakyamuni]] was born here. (He) both caused to be made a stone bearing a horse (?) and caused a stone pillar to be set up, (in order to show) that the Blessed One was born here. (He) made the village of Lummini free of taxes, and paying (only) an eighth share (of the produce).''|The [[Rummindei]] Edict, one of the [[Minor Pillar Edicts]] of Ashoka.{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n337/mode/2up 164–165]}}}}
| align=left |
{{blockquote|
<poem>
<big>{{Script|Brah|[[Devanampriya|𑀤𑁂𑀯𑀸𑀦𑀁𑀧𑀺𑀬𑁂]]𑀦 [[Priyadasi|𑀧𑀺𑀬𑀤𑀲𑀺]]𑀦 [[Raja|𑀮𑀸𑀚𑀺]]𑀦𑀯𑀻𑀲𑀢𑀺𑀯𑀲𑀸𑀪𑀺𑀲𑀺𑀢𑁂𑀦}}</big>
<small>Devānaṃpiyena Piyadasina lājina vīsati-vasābhisitena</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀅𑀢𑀦𑀆𑀕𑀸𑀘 𑀫𑀳𑀻𑀬𑀺𑀢𑁂 𑀳𑀺𑀤[[Buddha|𑀩𑀼𑀥𑁂]]𑀚𑀸𑀢 [[Sakyamuni|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀺]]𑀢𑀺}}</big>
<small>atana āgācha mahīyite hida Budhe jāte Sakyamuni ti</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸𑀯𑀺𑀕𑀥𑀪𑀺𑀘𑀸𑀓𑀸𑀳𑀸𑀧𑀺𑀢 𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸𑀣𑀪𑁂𑀘 𑀉𑀲𑀧𑀸𑀧𑀺𑀢𑁂}}</big>
<small>silā vigaḍabhī chā kālāpita silā-thabhe cha usapāpite</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀳𑀺𑀤[[Bhagavat|𑀪𑀕𑀯𑀁]]𑀚𑀸𑀢𑀢𑀺 [[Lumbini|𑀮𑀼𑀁𑀫𑀺𑀦𑀺]]𑀕𑀸𑀫𑁂 𑀉𑀩𑀮𑀺𑀓𑁂𑀓𑀝𑁂}}</big>
<small>hida Bhagavaṃ jāte ti Luṃmini-gāme ubalike kaṭe</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀅𑀞𑀪𑀸𑀕𑀺𑀬𑁂𑀘}}</big>
<small>aṭha-bhāgiye cha</small>
</poem>

|Adapted from transliteration by [[E. Hultzsch]].{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n337/mode/2up 164]}}}}
|align=center width="10%"|
[[File:Lumbini inscription (complete).jpg|thumb|300px|The Rummindei pillar edict in [[Lumbini]].]]
|}

==Ashoka's proselytism according to the Edicts==
[[File:Khalsi rock edict of Ashoka with names of the Greek kings.jpg|thumb|The [[Kalsi (Dehradun)|Kalsi]] rock edict of Ashoka, which mentions the Greek kings [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochus]], [[Ptolemy II of Egypt|Ptolemy]], [[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonus]], [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] and [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]] by name (underlined in color).]]
[[File:Yona for Greek in the Girnar 2nd Major Rock Edict of Ashoka.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|The word ''[[Yona]]'' for "Greek" in the Girnar 2nd [[Major Rock Edict]] of Ashoka. The word is part of the phrase "Amtiyako Yona Raja" (The Greek King Antiochus).{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n137/mode/2up 3–5]}}]]
In order to propagate welfare, Ashoka explains that he sent emissaries and medicinal plants to the [[Hellenistic]] kings as far as the Mediterranean, and to people throughout [[India]], claiming that Dharma had been achieved in all their territories as well. He names the Greek rulers of the time, inheritors of the conquest of [[Alexander the Great]], from [[Bactria]] to as far as [[Greece]] and [[North Africa]], as recipients of the Dharma, displaying a clear grasp of the political situation at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sadasivan |first=S. N. |title=A Social History of India |date=2000 |publisher=APH Publishing |isbn=9788176481700 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Be3PCvzf-BYC&pg=PA81 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130339/https://books.google.com/books?id=Be3PCvzf-BYC&pg=PA81 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Heinz |first1=Carolyn Brown |last2=Murray |first2=Jeremy A. |title=Asian Cultural Traditions: Second Edition |date=2018 |publisher=Waveland Press |isbn=9781478637646 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9tdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130828/https://books.google.com/books?id=n9tdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Bozeman |first = Adda Bruemmer |title = Politics and culture in international history |publisher = Transaction Publishers |isbn = 9781412831321 |page = 126 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9hwwEBfJC0YC&pg=PA126 |language = en |access-date = 9 September 2018 |archive-date = 2 July 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130828/https://books.google.com/books?id=9hwwEBfJC0YC&pg=PA126 |url-status = live }}</ref>

===Proselytism beyond India===
{{Blockquote | Now, it is the conquest by the Dharma that the Beloved of the Gods considers as the best conquest. And this one (the conquest by the Dharma) was won here, on the borders, and even as (far/to the extent of) 600 [[yojana|(yojanas or leagues)]] from here ([[Panta]] or [[Kandahar]]),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=C. C. Das |date=1951 |title=A NOTE ON AN EXPRESSION IN ROCK EDICT XIII OF AŚOKA |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44303939 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=14 |pages=68–71 |jstor=44303939 |issn=2249-1937 |access-date=30 April 2023 |archive-date=30 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430124611/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44303939 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="decline">{{Cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |url=http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf |title=Aśkoa and the decline of the Mauryas |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |edition=Revised |pages=250–266 |access-date=30 April 2023 |archive-date=17 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117005948/http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/asoka_thapar.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> where the king [[Antiochos II|Antiochos]] reigns, and beyond where reign the four kings [[Ptolemy II|Ptolemy]], [[Antigonos II Gonatas|Antigonos]], [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] and [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]], likewise in the south, where live the [[Cholas]], the [[Pandyas]], and as far as [[Kingdom of Tambapanni|Tamraparni]].
|Extract from [[Major Rock Edict]] No.13.<ref>S. Dhammika, The Edicts of King Ashoka. [https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html The Fourteen Rock Edicts/13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511083821/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html |date=11 May 2011 }}</ref>}}

The distance of 600 [[yojana]]s (> 2,000&nbsp;km) corresponds roughly to the distance between the center of India and Greece.<ref name=PK/>

In the [[Gandhari language|Gandhari]] original Antiochos is referred to as ''Amtiyoge nama [[Yona]]-raja'' (lit. "The Greek king by the name of Antiokos"), beyond whom live the four other kings: ''param ca tena Atiyogena cature 4 rajani Tulamaye nama Amtekine nama Makā nama Alikasudaro nama'' (lit. "And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander".{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n185/mode/2up 46]}}

* '''Amtiyaka''' ([[wiktionary:𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀺𑀬𑀓#Ashokan Prakrit|𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀺𑀬𑀓]]) or Amtiyoga (𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀺[[File:Brahmi yo 2nd century CE.jpg|10px]]𑀕), refers to [[Antiochus II Theos]] of Syria (261–246 BCE), who controlled the [[Seleucid Empire]] from [[Syria]] to [[Bactria]] in the east from 305 to 250 BCE, and was therefore a direct neighbor of Ashoka.<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368>Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p.&nbsp;368.</ref>
* '''Tulamāya''' ([[wiktionary:𑀢𑀼𑀭𑀫𑀸𑀬#Ashokan Prakrit|𑀢𑀼𑀭𑀫𑀸𑀬]]) refers to [[Ptolemy II of Egypt|Ptolemy II Philadelphos]] of Egypt (285–247 BCE), king of the dynasty founded by [[Ptolemy I of Egypt|Ptolemy I]], a former general of Alexander the Great, in [[Egypt]].<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368/>
* '''Amtekina''' ([[wiktionary:𑀅𑀁𑀢𑁂𑀓𑀺𑀦#Ashokan Prakrit|𑀅𑀁𑀢𑁂𑀓𑀺𑀦]]) refers to [[Antigonus II Gonatas]] of [[Macedon]] (278–239 BCE).<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368/>
* '''Makā''' (𑀫𑀓𑀸) refers to [[Magas of Cyrene]] (300–258 BCE).<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368/>
* '''Alikyaṣadala''' (𑀅𑀁𑀮𑀺[[File:Brahmi Kya.jpg|10px]]𑀱𑀤𑀮) refers to [[Alexander II of Epirus]] (272–258 BCE).<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368/>

All the kings mentioned in Ashoka's Major Rock Edict No.13 are famous Hellenistic rulers, contemporary of Ashoka:<ref name=PK/><ref>{{cite book |last=Lahiri |first=Nayanjot |title=Ashoka in Ancient India |year=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674057777 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 |language=en |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130829/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery>
File:AntiochusIIMET.jpg|Seleucid king [[Antiochus II Theos]] of Syria (261–246 BCE).
Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Arsinoe II.jpg|[[Ptolemy II of Egypt|Ptolemy II Philadelphos]] of Egypt (285–247 BCE) with his sister [[Arsinoe II]].
File:Antigonus_Gonatas_British_Museum.jpg|[[Antigonus II Gonatas]] of [[Macedon]] (278–239 BCE).
File:King Magas of Cyrene.jpg|[[Magas of Cyrene]] (300–258 BCE).
Image:Arte ellenistica, alessandro d'epiro, agata, 260 ac. ca.JPG|[[Alexander II of Epirus]] (272–258 BCE) on a cameo of agate.
</gallery>

; Emissaries
[[File:Territories conquered by the Dharma according to Ashoka.jpg|thumb|Territories "conquered by the Dharma" according to [[Major Rock Edicts|Major Rock Edict No.13]] of Ashoka (260–232 BCE).<ref name=PK/><ref name=ME368/>]]
It is not clear in Hellenic records whether these emissaries were actually received, or had any influence on the Hellenic world. But the existence of the edicts in a very high-level Greek literary and philosophical language testifies to the high sophistication of the Greek community of Kandahar, and to a true communication between Greek intellectuals and Indian thought.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lahiri |first=Nayanjot |title=Ashoka in Ancient India |year=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674057777 |page=173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 |language=en |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130842/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DS139">Une nouvelle inscription grecque d'Açoka [article], Schlumberger, Daniel, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1964 [http://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695 p. 139] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604023454/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1964_num_108_1_11695 |date=4 June 2018 }}</ref> According to historian [[Louis Robert (historian)|Louis Robert]], it becomes quite likely that these Kandahar Greeks who were very familiar with Indian culture could in turn transmit Indian ideas to the philosophical circles of the Mediterranean world, in [[Seleucia]], [[Antioch]], [[Alexandria]], [[Pella]] or [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]].<ref name = "DS139"/> He suggests that the famous Ashoka emissaries sent to the Western Hellenistic Courts according to Ashoka's Major Rock Edict No.13 were in fact Greek subjects and citizens of Kandahar, who had the full capacity to carry out these embassies.<ref name="DS139"/>

Another document, the ''[[Mahavamsa]]'' (XII, 1st paragraph),<ref>{{cite web |author=Mahavamsa |title=Chapter XII |url=http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chap012.html |website=lakdiva.org |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-date=20 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020052522/http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chap012.html |url-status=live }}</ref> also states that in the 17th year of his reign, at the end of the [[Third Buddhist Council]], Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to eight parts of Southern Asia and the "country of the Yonas" (Greeks) to propagate Buddhism.<ref name="PJ">{{cite book |last=Jermsawatdi |first=Promsak |year=1979 |title=Thai Art with Indian Influences |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0O9je9dECH8C&pg=PA10 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |pages=10–11 |isbn=9788170170907}}</ref>

;Presence in the West
Overall, the evidence for the presence of Buddhists in the west from that time is very meager.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heirman |first1=Ann |last2=Bumbacher |first2=Stephan Peter |title=The Spread of Buddhism |year=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9004158306 |pages=148–149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kr_M1e7yImoC&pg=PA148 |language=en |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702130829/https://books.google.com/books?id=kr_M1e7yImoC&pg=PA148 |url-status=live }}</ref> But some scholars point to the possible presence of Buddhist communities in the [[Hellenistic world]], in particular in [[Alexandria]].<ref name=ME/> [[Dio Chrysostom|Dio Chrysostum]] wrote to Alexandrians that there are "Indians who view the spectacles with you and are with you on all occasions" (Oratio.XXXII.373).<ref>"For I behold among you, not merely Greeks and Italians and people from neighbouring Syria, Libya, Cilicia, nor yet Ethiopians and Arabs from more distant regions, but even Bactrians and Scythians and Persians and a few Indians, and all these help to make up the audience in your theatre and sit beside you on each occasion" {{cite web |title=LacusCurtius • Dio Chrysostom — Discourse&nbsp;32 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/32*.html |website=penelope.uchicago.edu |language=en |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131023/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/32*.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sugirtharajah |first=R. S. |title=The Bible and Asia |year=2013 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674726468 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfmsAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131030/https://books.google.com/books?id=QfmsAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=ME>Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p.&nbsp;383.</ref> According to [[Ptolemy]] also, Indians were present in Alexandria, to whom he was much indebted for his knowledge of India (As.Res.III.53).<ref>Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p.&nbsp;383, quoting As.Res.III {{cite book |title=Asiatic Researches Or Transactions Vol. 3 |year=1799 |page=297 |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.195563/2015.195563.Asiatic-Researches-Or-Transactions--Vol-3#page/n325 }}</ref> [[Clement of Alexandria]] too mentioned the presence of Indians in Alexandria.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dayal |first=Har |title=The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature |year=1999 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120812574 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUveqp7lAVoC&pg=PA41 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131021/https://books.google.com/books?id=uUveqp7lAVoC&pg=PA41 |url-status=live }}</ref> A possible Buddhist gravestone from the [[Ptolemaic period]] has been found by [[Flinders Petrie]], decorated with a depiction of what may be [[Dharmachakra|Wheel of the Law]] and [[Trishula]].<ref name=ME/><ref>{{cite journal|first=William|last=Simpson|title=The Buddhist Praying Wheel|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|year=1898|volume=30|issue=4|page=875|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00146659|jstor=25208047|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalroyalasi57irelgoog#page/n964/mode/1up|doi-access=free}} Apud {{cite book|author=William Woodthorpe Tarn|title=The Greeks in Bactria and India|year=1951|publisher=University Press|location=Cambridge|page=370|edition=2nd|url=https://google.com/books?id=BAg6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA370|access-date=10 May 2016|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131338/https://books.google.com/books?id=BAg6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA370|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the 11th century Muslim historian [[Al-Biruni]], before the advent of [[Islam]], Buddhists were present in [[Western Asia]] as far as the frontiers of [[Syria]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Skilton |first=Andrew |title=Concise History of Buddhism |year=2013 |publisher=Windhorse Publications |isbn=9781909314122 |page=196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ItQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT196 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131331/https://books.google.com/books?id=_ItQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT196 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Compareti - Buddhist Activity in Pre-Islamic Persia - Transoxiana 12 |url=http://www.transoxiana.org/12/compareti-iranian_buddhism.php |website=www.transoxiana.org |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204205308/http://www.transoxiana.org/12/compareti-iranian_buddhism.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

; Possible influences on Western thought
[[File:Wheel symbols in Egyptian temples and wheel and trisula on Ptolemaic tombstones.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|'''Top''': Wheels in Egyptian temples according to [[Hero of Alexandria]].<ref name="WS">{{cite journal|author=William Simpson|title=The Buddhist Praying Wheel|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|date=1898|volume=30|issue=4|page=875|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00146659|jstor=25208047|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalroyalasi57irelgoog#page/n964/mode/1up|doi-access=free}}</ref> '''Bottom''': Possible wheel and trisula symbol on Ptolemaic tombstones in Egypt.<ref name="WS"/>]]
Colonial era scholars such as [[Thomas Rhys Davids|Rhys Davids]] have attributed Ashoka's claims of "Dharmic conquest" to mere vanity, and expressed disbelief that Greeks could have been in any way influenced by Indian thought.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lahiri |first1=Nayanjot |title=Ashoka in Ancient India |date=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674057777 |page=341 Note 43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA341 |language=en |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131332/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA341 |url-status=live }}</ref>

But numerous authors have noted the parallels between [[Buddhism]], [[Cyrenaics|Cyrenaicism]] and [[Epicureanism]], which all strive for a state of [[ataraxia]] ("equanimity") away from the sorrows of life.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scharfstein |first1=Ben-Ami |title=A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant |date=1998 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9780791436837 |page=202 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZQy2lu70bwC&pg=PA202 |language=en |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131333/https://books.google.com/books?id=iZQy2lu70bwC&pg=PA202 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=David E. |last2=James |first2=Simon P. |title=Buddhism, Virtue and Environment |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351954310 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AD4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT105 |language=en |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131332/https://books.google.com/books?id=AD4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT105 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Clayman33"/> The positions of philosophers such as [[Hegesias of Cyrene]] were close to [[Buddhism]], his ideas recalling the Buddhist doctrine of suffering: he lived in the city of [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]] where [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] ruled, the same Magas under whom the Dharma prospered according to Ashoka, and he may have been influenced by Ashoka's missionaries.<ref name="Clayman33">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ceLUAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt, Dee L. Clayman, Oxford University Press, 2014, p.33 |isbn=978-0-19-537089-8 |access-date=27 April 2018 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135558/https://books.google.com/books?id=ceLUAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |url-status=live |last1=Clayman |first1=Dee L. |year=2014 }}</ref><ref>"The philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene (nicknamed ''Peisithanatos'', "The Death-Persuader") was contemporary of Magas and was probably influenced by the teachings of the Buddhist missionaries to Cyrene and Alexandria. His influence was such that he was ultimately prohited to teach" —Jean-Marie Lafont . Les Dossiers d'Archéologie (254): 78, [[INALCO]]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://agora.qc.ca/thematiques/mort.nsf/Dossiers/Hegesias_De_Cyrene |title=Éric Volant, ''Culture et mort volontaire'', quoted in |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=10 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610072904/http://agora.qc.ca/thematiques/mort.nsf/Dossiers/Hegesias_De_Cyrene |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wjW_BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy, Anthony Preus, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p.184]</ref>

The religious communities of the [[Essenes]] of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and the [[Therapeutae]] of [[Alexandria]] may also have been communities based on the model of [[Buddhist monasticism]], following Ashoka's missions.<ref name=DRB>{{cite book |last1=Bhandarkar |first1=Devadatta Ramkrishna |last2=Bhandarkar |first2=R. G. |title=Asoka |date=2000 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=9788120613331 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhlfSZLDjRsC&pg=PA165 |language=en |author1-link=D. R. Bhandarkar |access-date=9 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131527/https://books.google.com/books?id=hhlfSZLDjRsC&pg=PA165 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=NH>{{cite book |last1=Nakamura |first1=Hajime |title=Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes |date=1987 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120802728 |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0A7y4TCeVQC&pg=PA95 |language=en |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131520/https://books.google.com/books?id=w0A7y4TCeVQC&pg=PA95 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "EB">Essénisme et Bouddhisme, [[André Dupont-Sommer]], Comptes rendus des séances de l'[[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] Year 1980 124-4 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 pp.704-715] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604050626/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 |date=4 June 2018 }}</ref> According to [[semitologist]] [[André Dupont-Sommer]], speaking about the consequences of Ashoka's proselytism: "It is India which would be, according to us, at the beginning of this vast monastic current which shone with a strong brightness during about three centuries in [[Judaism]] itself".<ref>"C'est l'Inde qui serait, selon nous, au départ de ce vaste courant monastique qui brilla d'un vif éclat durant environ trois siècles dans le judaïsme même" in Essénisme et Bouddhisme, [[André Dupont-Sommer]], Comptes rendus des séances de l'[[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]] Year 1980 124-4 pp. 698-715 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 p.710-711] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604050626/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 |date=4 June 2018 }}</ref> This influence would even contribute, according to André Dupont-Sommer, to the emergence of [[Christianity]]: "Thus was prepared the ground on which Christianity, that sect of Jewish origin influenced by the Essenes, which was so quickly and so powerfully to conquer a very large part of the world."<ref>"Ainsi s'était préparé le terrain où prit naissance le Christianisme, cette secte d'origine juive, essénienne ou essénisante, qui devait si vite et si puissamment conquérir une très grande partie du monde."in Essénisme et Bouddhisme, Dupont-Sommer, André, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Year 1980 124-4 pp. 698-715 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 p.715] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604050626/https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1980_num_124_4_13784 |date=4 June 2018 }}</ref><ref name=NH/>

===Proselytism within Ashoka's territories===
Inside India proper, in the realm of Ashoka, many different populations were the object of the King's proselytism. Greek communities also lived in the northwest of the Mauryan empire, currently in Pakistan, notably ancient [[Gandhara]], and in the region of [[Gedrosia]], nowadays in Southern Afghanistan, following the conquest and the colonization efforts of Alexander the Great around 323 BCE. These communities therefore seem to have been still significant during the reign of Ashoka. The [[Kambojas]] are a people of [[Central Asia]]n origin who had settled first in [[Arachosia]] and [[Drangiana]] (today's southern [[Afghanistan]]), and in some of the other areas in the northwestern Indian subcontinent in [[Sindhu]], [[Gujarat]] and [[Sauvira]]. The Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the [[Satavahanas|Andhras]] and the [[Paradas|Palidas]] were other people under Ashoka's rule:

{{blockquote|Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the [[Kambojas]], the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the [[Satavahanas|Andhras]] and the [[Paradas|Palidas]], everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dhamma. Rock Edict No.13 (S. Dhammika)}}

==Influences==
===Achaemenid inscriptional tradition===
[[File:Ashoka Sarnath Lipii word.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|The word ''[[Lipī]]'' (𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀻) used by Ashoka to describe his "Edicts". [[Brahmi script]] (Li=<code>&#x1102E;</code>La+<code>&#x1103A;</code>i; pī=<code>&#x11027;</code>Pa+<code>&#x1103B;</code>ii).]]
[[File:Dhrama Dipi inscription in the Shahbazgarhi First Edict in the Kharosthi script.jpg|right|upright=0.7|thumb|The same word was "Dipi" in the northwest, identical with the Persian word for writing, as in this segment "[[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|Dipi]]" (𐨢𐨿𐨪𐨨𐨡𐨁𐨤𐨁, "inscription of the Dharma") in [[Kharosthi]] script in the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]]. The third letter from the right reads "Di" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Di.jpg|15px]] and not "Li" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Li.jpg|15px]].{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n191/mode/2up 51]}}]]
[[File:Delhi-Topra I II III Dhamma Lipi.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|The same expression ''Dhamma Lipi'' ("Dharma inscriptions") in [[Brahmi script]] ([[wikt:𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺|𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺]]), Delhi-Topra pillar.]]
The inscriptions of Ashoka may show [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] influences, including formulaic parallels with [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] inscriptions, presence of [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] loanwords (in [[Official Aramaic|Aramaic]] inscriptions), and the very act of engraving edicts on rocks and mountains (compare for example [[Behistun inscription]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Sagar |first=Krishna Chandra |title=Foreign Influence on Ancient India |year=1992 |publisher=Northern Book Centre |isbn=9788172110284 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC&pg=PA39 |language=en |access-date=23 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131522/https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC&pg=PA39 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asoka-mauryan-emperor "Ashoka"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504172950/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asoka-mauryan-emperor |date=4 May 2018 }} in ''[[Encyclopaedia Iranica]]''</ref> To describe his own Edicts, Ashoka used the word ''[[Lipī]]'' ([[wikt:𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺|𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺]]), now generally simply translated as "writing" or "inscription". It is thought the word "lipi", which is also orthographed "dipi" (𐨡𐨁𐨤𐨁) in the two [[Kharosthi]] versions of the rock edicts,{{NoteTag|For example, according to Hultzsch, the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]] (or at [[Mansehra]]) reads: ''(Ayam) [[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|dipi]] Devanapriyasa Raño likhapitu'' ("This Dharma-Edicts was written by King [[Devanampriya]]" {{harvnb|Hultzsch|1925|p=[https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n191/mode/2up 51]}}<br>This appears in the reading of Hultzsch's original rubbing of the [[Kharoshthi]] inscription of the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]].}} comes from an [[Old Persian]] prototype ''dipî'' ([[Wikt:लिपि|𐎮𐎡𐎱𐎡]]) also meaning "inscription", which is used for example by [[Darius I]] in his [[Behistun inscription]],{{NoteTag|For example [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-42/ Column IV, Line 89]}} suggesting borrowing and diffusion.{{sfn|Hultzsch|1925|p=xlii}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharma |first=R. S. |title=India's Ancient Past |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199087860 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |language=en |access-date=17 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131522/https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>"The word dipi appears in the Old Persian inscription of Darius I at Behistan (Column IV. 39) having the meaning inscription or "written document" in {{cite book |author = Indian History Congress |title = Proceedings - Indian History Congress |year = 2007 |page = 90 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |language = en |access-date = 17 September 2018 |archive-date = 2 July 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131544/https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |url-status = live }}</ref> There are other borrowings of [[Old Persian]] terms for writing-related words in the Edicts of Ahoka, such as ''nipista'' or ''nipesita'' ([[:Wikt:𐨣𐨁𐨤𐨁𐨯𐨿𐨟|𐨣𐨁𐨤𐨁𐨯𐨿𐨟]], "written" and "made to be written") in the [[Kharoshthi]] version of [[Major Rock Edict]] No.4, which can be related to the word ''nipištā'' (𐎴𐎡𐎱𐎡𐏁𐎫𐎠, "written") from the ''daiva'' inscription of [[Xerxes I|Xerxes]] at [[Persepolis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Voogt |first1=Alexander J. |last2=Finkel |first2=Irving L. |title=The Idea of Writing: Play and Complexity |year=2010 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9004174467 |page=209 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kE8MAlkRlGUC&pg=PA209 |language=en |access-date=19 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131848/https://books.google.com/books?id=kE8MAlkRlGUC&pg=PA209 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Hellenistic inscriptions===
It has also been suggested that inscriptions bearing the [[Delphic maxims]] from the [[Seven Sages of Greece]], inscribed by philosopher [[Clearchus of Soli]] in the neighbouring city of [[Ai-Khanoum]] circa 300 BCE, may have influenced the writings of Ashoka.<ref>{{cite book |last=Erskine |first=Andrew |title=A Companion to the Hellenistic World |year=2009 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781405154413 |page=421 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krJF3rnhQdsC&pg=PA421 |language=en |access-date=30 September 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131848/https://books.google.com/books?id=krJF3rnhQdsC&pg=PA421 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="VY">Valeri P. Yailenko, Les maximes delphiques d'Aï Khanoum et la formation de la doctrine du dharma d'Asoka, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, Vol. 16, No.1, 1990 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 pp.239-256] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612164849/https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 |date=12 June 2019 }}</ref> These Greek inscriptions, located in the central square of Ai-Khanoum, put forward traditional Greek moral rules which are very close to the Edicts, both in term of formulation and content.<ref name="VY"/><ref>Henk Singor, Leiden University [http://www.singor.org/publ/singor201201.pdf King Ashoka's Philanthropia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428061842/http://www.singor.org/publ/singor201201.pdf |date=28 April 2016 }}</ref>

===Ancestor of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system===
[[File:Edicts of Ashoka numerals.jpg|thumb|left|The numerals used by Ashoka in his Edicts]]
[[File:Ashoka Brahmi numerals 256.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.5|The number "256" in Ashoka's [[Minor Rock Edict]] No.1 in [[Sasaram]] ]]
The first examples of the [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system]] appeared in the [[Brahmi numerals]] used in the Edicts of Ashoka, in which a few numerals are found, although the system is not yet positional (the [[zero]], together with a mature positional system, was invented much later around the 6th century CE) and involves different symbols for units, dozens or hundreds.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollingdale |first1=Stuart |title=Makers of Mathematics |date=2014 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486174501 |pages=95–96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZET_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |language=en |access-date=1 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131848/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZET_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |url-status=live }}</ref> This system is later further documented with more numerals in the [[Nanaghat Inscriptions|Nanaghat inscriptions]] (1st century BCE), and later in the [[Nasik Caves]] inscriptions (2nd century CE), to acquire designs which are largely similar to the [[Hindu–Arabic numerals]] used today.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Publishing |first1=Britannica Educational |title=The Britannica Guide to Theories and Ideas That Changed the Modern World |date=2009 |publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing |isbn=9781615300631 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcOcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |language=en |access-date=1 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131848/https://books.google.com/books?id=QcOcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=Victor J. |last2=Parshall |first2=Karen Hunger |title=Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400850525 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQLHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 |language=en |access-date=1 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702131849/https://books.google.com/books?id=nQLHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pillis |first1=John de |title=777 Mathematical Conversation Starters |date=2002 |publisher=MAA |isbn=9780883855409 |page=286 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YB4wS-N9qb0C&pg=PA286 |language=en |access-date=1 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132138/https://books.google.com/books?id=YB4wS-N9qb0C&pg=PA286 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The number "[[6]]" in particular appears in [[Minor Rock Edict]] No.1 when Ashoka explains he has "been on tour for 256 days". The evolution to the modern glyph for 6 appears rather straightforward. It was written in one stroke, somewhat like a cursive lowercase "e". Gradually, the upper part of the stroke (above the central squiggle) became more curved, while the lower part of the stroke (below the central squiggle) became straighter. The Arabs dropped the part of the stroke below the squiggle. From there, the European evolution to the modern 6 was very straightforward, aside from a flirtation with a glyph that looked more like an uppercase G.<ref>Georges Ifrah, ''The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer'' transl. David Bellos et al. London: The Harvill Press (1998): 395, Fig. 24.66</ref>

===Influence on the Indian epigraphy===
{{Main|Early Indian epigraphy}}
[[File:Delhi-Topra pillar Brahmi and Nagari.jpg|thumb|The Edicts of Ashoka started a tradition of epigraphical inscriptions.<ref name=Singor/> 1800 years separate these two inscriptions: Brahmi script of the 3rd century BCE (Major Pillar Edict of Ashoka), and its derivative, 16th century CE [[Devanagari]] script (1524 CE), on the [[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi|Delhi-Topra pillar]].]]
Ashokan inscriptions in [[Prakrit]] precede by several centuries inscriptions in [[Sanskrit]], probably owing to the great prestige which Ashokan inscriptions gave to the Prakrit language.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=86-87}} Louis Renou called it "the great linguistical [[paradox]] of India" that the Sanskrit inscriptions appear later than [[Prakrit]] inscriptions, although Prakrit is considered as a descendant of the Sanskrit language.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=86-87}}

Ashoka was probably the first Indian ruler to create stone inscriptions, and in doing so, he began an important Indian tradition of royal epigraphical inscriptions.<ref name=Singor>{{cite book |last1=Singor |first1=Henk |title=King Ashoka's Philanthropia |date=2014 |page=4 |url=http://www.singor.org/publ/singor201201.pdf |access-date=30 September 2018 |archive-date=28 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428061842/http://www.singor.org/publ/singor201201.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The earliest known stone inscriptions in Sanskrit are in the Brahmi script from the first century BCE.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=86-87}} These early Sanskrit inscriptions include the [[Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana|Ayodhyā]] (Uttar Pradesh) and [[Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions|Hāthībādā-Ghosuṇḍī]] (near [[Chittorgarh]], Rajasthan) inscriptions.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=86-87}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Theo Damsteegt|title=Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mf4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA209|year=1978|publisher=Brill Academic|pages=209–211|access-date=1 October 2018|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132035/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mf4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA209|url-status=live}}</ref> Other important inscriptions dated to the 1st century BCE, in relatively accurate classical Sanskrit and Brahmi script are the [[Yavanarajya inscription]] on a red sandstone slab and the long [[Naneghat#Nanaghat inscriptions|Naneghat inscription]] on the wall of a cave rest stop in the Western Ghats.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sonya Rhie Quintanilla|title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC|year=2007|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-15537-4|pages=254–255|access-date=1 October 2018|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132035/https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC|url-status=live}}</ref> Besides these few examples from the 1st century BCE, the bulk of early Sanskrit inscriptions were made from the 1st and 2nd-century CE by the [[Indo-Scythian]] [[Northern Satraps]] in [[Mathura]] ([[Uttar Pradesh]]), and the [[Western Satraps]] in [[Gujarat]] and [[Maharashtra]].{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=87 with footnotes}} According to Salomon, the Scythian rulers of northern and western India while not the originators, were promoters of the use of Sanskrit language for inscriptions, and "their motivation in promoting Sanskrit was presumably a desire to establish themselves as legitimate Indian or at least Indianized rulers and to curry the favor of the educated Brahmanical elite".{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=93}}

The [[Brahmi script]] used in the Edicts of Ashoka, as well as the [[Prakrit]] language of these inscriptions was in popular use down through the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan period]], and remained readable down to the 4th century CE during the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta period]]. After that time the script underwent significant evolutions which rendered the Ashokan inscriptions unreadable. This still means that Ashoka's Edicts were for everyone to see and understand for a period of nearly 700 years in India, suggesting that they remained significantly influential for a long time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I. |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400866328 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 |language=en |author1-link=Christopher I. Beckwith |access-date=4 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132035/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Questions of authorship==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=450|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=The Edicts and their declared authors
| image1   = Major Rock Edicts and Major Pillar Edicts by Devanampiya Piyadasi.jpg
| caption1 = Edicts in the name of [[Priyadasi|Piyadasi]] or ''[[Devanampiya]]'' Piyadasi ("King Piyadasi"):<br>[[File:Brown pog.svg|8px]]: [[Major Rock Edicts]]<br>[[File:Brown 5C3317.svg|3px]]: [[Major Pillar Edicts]]
| image2   = Minor Rock Edicts and Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka.jpg
| caption2 = Edicts in the name of Ashoka or just ''[[Devanampiya]]'' ("King"), or both together:<br>[[File:Orange ff8040 pog.svg|8px]]: [[Minor Rock Edicts]]<br>[[File:Orange F79A18.svg|3px]]: [[Minor Pillar Edicts]]
| footer_align = center
| footer=The different areas covered by the two types of inscriptions, and their different content in respect to Buddhism, may point to different rulers.<ref name="CIB226"/>
}}
According to some scholars such as [[Christopher I. Beckwith]], Ashoka, whose name only appears in the [[Minor Rock Edicts]], should be differentiated from the ruler [[Priyadasi|Piyadasi]], or ''[[Devanampiya]]'' Piyadasi (i.e. "Beloved of the Gods Piyadasi", "Beloved of the Gods" being a fairly widespread title for "King"), who is named as the author of the [[Major Pillar Edicts]] and the [[Major Rock Edicts]].<ref name="CIB226">{{cite book |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I. |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17632-1 |pages=226–250 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA234 |language=en |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132036/https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA234 |url-status=live }}</ref> Beckwith also highlights the fact that Buddhism nor the Buddha are mentioned in the Major Edicts, but only in the Minor Edicts.<ref name=CB238/> Further, the Buddhist notions described in the Minor Edicts (such as the Buddhist [[wikt:canonical|canonical]] writings in Minor Edict No.3 at [[Bairat Temple|Bairat]], the mention of a Buddha of the past [[Kanakamuni Buddha]] in the [[Nigali Sagar]] Minor Pillar Edict) are more characteristic of the "Normative Buddhism" of the [[Indo-Scythian|Saka]]-[[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] period around the 2nd century CE.<ref name=CB238>{{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |author-link=Christopher I. Beckwith |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |year=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400866328 |page=238 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA238 |language=en |access-date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132349/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA238 |url-status=live }}</ref>

This inscriptional evidence may suggest that [[Priyadasi|Piyadasi]] and Ashoka were two different rulers.<ref name="CIB226"/> According to Beckwith, Piyadasi was living in the 3rd century BCE, probably the son of [[Chandragupta Maurya]] known to the Greeks as [[Amitrochates]], and only advocating for piety ("[[Dharma]]") in his [[Major Pillar Edicts]] and [[Major Rock Edicts]], without ever mentioning [[Buddhism]], the [[Buddha]] or the [[Samgha]].<ref name="CIB226"/> Since he does mention a pilgrimage to ''Sambhodi'' ([[Bodh Gaya]], in [[Major Rock Edict]] No.8) however, he may have adhered to an "early, pietistic, popular" form of Buddhism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |year=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400866328 |page=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |language=en |access-date=7 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132352/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }}</ref> Also, the geographical spread of his inscription shows that Piyadasi ruled a vast Empire, contiguous with the [[Seleucid Empire]] in the West.<ref name="CIB226"/>

On the contrary, for Beckwith, Ashoka himself was a later king of the 1st-2nd century CE, whose name only appears explicitly in the [[Minor Rock Edicts]] and allusively in the [[Minor Pillar Edicts]], and who does mention the Buddha and the [[Samgha]], explicitly promoting Buddhism.<ref name="CIB226"/> He may have been an unknown or possibly invented ruler named Devanampriya Asoka, with the intent of propagating a later, more institutional version of the Buddhist faith.<ref name=CB238/><ref name=CB231>{{cite book |last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |author-link=Christopher I. Beckwith |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |year=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400866328 |page=231 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 |language=en |access-date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132351/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 |url-status=live }}</ref> His inscriptions cover a very different and much smaller geographical area, clustering in Central India.<ref name="CIB226"/> According to Beckwith, the inscriptions of this later Ashoka were typical of the later forms of "normative Buddhism", which are well attested from inscriptions and Gandhari manuscripts dated to the turn of the millennium, and around the time of the [[Kushan Empire]].<ref name="CIB226"/> The quality of the inscriptions of this Ashoka is significantly lower than the quality of the inscriptions of the earlier Piyadasi.<ref name="CIB226"/>

However, many of Beckwith's methodologies and interpretations concerning early Buddhism, inscriptions, and archaeological sites have been criticized by other scholars, such as [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] and [[Osmund Bopearachchi]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bopearachchi|first=Osmund|title=Review of C.I. Beckwith, ''Greek Buddha''|year=2016|url=https://www.academia.edu/30812686|access-date=4 September 2019|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031701/https://www.academia.edu/30812686|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bronkhorst|first=Johannes|title=How the Brahmins Won|year=2016|publisher=Brill|pages=483–489|url=https://www.academia.edu/25308643|access-date=4 September 2019|archive-date=24 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424162155/https://www.academia.edu/25308643|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Timeline ==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Edicts of Ashoka <small>{{nobold|(Ruled 269&ndash;232 BCE)}}</small>
|-
!style="background-color:#cdcdcd;"|Regnal years<br />of [[Ashoka]]
!colspan=4 style="background-color:#cdcdcd;"|Type of Edict<br />(and location of the inscriptions)
|-
| Year 8
|colspan=4 |''End of the [[Kalinga War]] and conversion to the "[[Dharma]]''
|-
| rowspan=3|Year 10<ref name="Yailenko">Yailenko, Les maximes delphiques d'Aï Khanoum et la formation de la doctrine du dhamma d'Asoka, 1990, [https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 p.&nbsp;243] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612164849/https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_1_1467 |date=12 June 2019 }}.</ref>
|align=left style="background-color:#cdcdcd;" align="center"|'''[[Minor Rock Edicts]]'''
|colspan=3  rowspan=4|'''Related events:'''<br />Visit to the [[Bodhi tree]] in [[Bodh Gaya]]<br />Construction of the [[Mahabodhi Temple]] and [[Diamond throne]] in Bodh Gaya<br />Predication throughout India.<br />Dissenssions in the [[Sangha]]<br />[[Third Buddhist Council]]<br />In Indian language: [[Sohgaura copper plate inscription|Sohgaura inscription]]<br />Erection of the [[Pillars of Ashoka]]
|-
| style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|[[Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription]]<br /><small>(in [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic]], [[Kandahar]])</small>
|-
| style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|Minor Rock Edicts in [[Aramaic]]:<br />[[Aramaic Inscription of Laghman|Laghman Inscription]], [[Aramaic Inscription of Taxila|Taxila inscription]]
|-
| Year 11 and later
| style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|[[Minor Rock Edicts|Minor Rock Edicts (n°1, n°2 and n°3)]]<br /><small>([[Saru Maru|Panguraria]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Rock Edict, Maski|Maski]], [[Palkigundu and Gavimath, Koppal|Palkigundu and Gavimath]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Bahapur, Delhi|Bahapur/Srinivaspuri]], [[Bairat Temple|Bairat]], [[Ahraura]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Gujarra|Gujarra]], [[Sasaram]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edicts, Rajula Mandagiri|Rajula Mandagiri]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Yerragudi|Yerragudi]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Udegolam|Udegolam]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Nittur|Nittur]], [[Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Brahmagiri|Brahmagiri]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Siddapur|Siddapur]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Jatinga Rameshwara|Jatinga-Rameshwara]])</small>
|-
| rowspan=3 |Year 12 and later<ref name="Yailenko"/>
| style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|'''[[Barabar Caves|Barabar Caves inscriptions]]'''
|colspan=3 style="background-color:#cdcdcd;" width="40%"|'''[[Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts|Major Rock Edicts]]'''
|-
| style="background-color:#cdcdcd;"|'''[[Minor Pillar Edicts]]'''
|colspan=3 rowspan=2 style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|Major Rock Edicts in Greek: [[Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka|Edicts n°12-13]] ([[Kandahar]])<br /><br />Major Rock Edicts in Indian language:<br />[[Major Rock Edicts|Edicts No.1 ~ No.14]]<br /><small>(in [[Kharoshthi]] script: [[Shahbaz Garhi|Shahbazgarhi]], [[Mansehra Rock Edicts|Mansehra Edicts]]</small><br /><small>(in [[Brahmi script]]: [[Khalsi inscription|Kalsi]], [[Girnar]], [[Sopara]], [[Sannati]], [[:Commons:Category:Ashoka Minor Rock Edict, Yerragudi|Yerragudi]], [[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi|Delhi Edicts]])</small><br />Major Rock Edicts 1-10, 14, [[Major Rock Edicts|Separate Edicts 1&2]]:<br /><small>([[Dhauli]], [[Jaugada]])</small>
|-
| style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|[[:Commons:Category:Schism Edict of Ashoka|Schism Edict]], [[:File:Ashoka Inscriptions Queen's edict.jpg|Queen's Edict]]<br /><small>([[Sarnath]] [[Sanchi]] [[Allahabad pillar|Allahabad]])</small><br />[[Lumbini pillar inscription|Lumbini inscription]], [[Nigali Sagar|Nigali Sagar inscription]]
|-
|rowspan=2 |Year 26, 27<br />and later<ref name="Yailenko"/>
|colspan=2 style="background-color:#cdcdcd;"|'''[[Major Pillar Edicts]]'''
|-
|colspan=2 style="background-color:#dcdcdc;"|In Indian language:<br />[[Major Pillar Edicts|Major Pillar Edicts No.1 ~ No.7]]<br /><small>([[Allahabad pillar]] [[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi|Delhi-Meerut]] [[Delhi-Topra pillar|Delhi-Topra]] [[Rampurva]] [[Lauria Nandangarh]] [[Lauriya Araraj|Lauriya-Araraj]] [[:File:Amaravati Major Pillar Edict inscription.jpg|Amaravati]])</small><br />
Derived inscriptions in [[Aramaic]], on rock:<br />
[[Kandahar Aramaic inscription|Kandahar, Edict No.7]]<ref>Inscriptions of Asoka de D.C. Sircar [https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 p.&nbsp;30] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135557/https://books.google.com/books?id=1_omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref><ref name="p. 39">Handbuch der Orientalistik de Kurt A. Behrendt [https://books.google.com/books?id=C9_vbgkzUSkC&pg=PA39 p.&nbsp;39] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227135558/https://books.google.com/books?id=C9_vbgkzUSkC&pg=PA39 |date=27 December 2022 }}</ref> and [[Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription|Pul-i-Darunteh, Edict No.5 or No.7]]<ref name="p. 39"/>
|}

== See also ==
*[[List of Edicts of Ashoka]]
*[[Pillars of Ashoka]]
*[[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi]]
*[[Major Rock Edicts]]
*[[Gandhāran Buddhist texts]]
*[[Gandharan Buddhism]]
*[[Greco-Buddhism]]
*[[Kambojas]]

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}
* Gandhari original of Edict No. 13 (Greek kings: Paragraph 9): [http://gandhari.org/a_inscription.php?catid=CKI0013 Text]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* Cunningham, Alexander (1877). [https://archive.org/details/inscriptionsaso00hultgoog Inscriptions of Asoka], Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing
* Dhammika, S. (1993). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140328144411/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html "The Edicts of King Asoka: An English Rendering"], The Wheel Publication No. 386/387, Kandy Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, {{ISBN|955-24-0104-6}}
* Gombrich,  Richard; Guruge, Ananda (1994). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120923053250/http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/king_asoka.pdf King Ashoka and Buddhism: Historical and Literary studies], Kandy: Sri Lanka; Buddhist Publication Society, 1st edition, {{ISBN|9552400651}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hultzsch |first1=Eugen |title=Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch |date=1925 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |url=https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch }}
*{{cite book|last=Mookerji|first=Radhakumud|title=Aśoka|year=1962|publisher=Motilal Banarsidas|location=Delhi|edition=3rd|url=https://archive.org/details/asokagaekwadlectradh}}
* {{cite book|last=Salomon|first=Richard|title=Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535666-3|access-date=6 September 2018|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702132352/https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC|url-status=live}}
*{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Upinder|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|year=2008|chapter=Chapter 7: Power and Piety: The Maurya Empire, c. 324-187 BCE|publisher=Pearson Education|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-81-317-1677-9|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA320}}
*{{cite book |last=Le |first=Huu Phuoc |title=Buddhist Architecture |year=2010 |publisher=Grafikol |isbn=9780984404308 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jb364g4BvoC&pg=PA240 |language=en }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammika/wheel386.html The Edicts of King Ashoka] by Dhammika
* [http://gandhari.org/a_inscriptions.php Edicts in original Gandhari]
* [http://inscriptions.whatisindia.com/ Inscriptions of India – Complete listing of historical inscriptions from Indian temples and monuments]
* [https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=library&bid=14 Ashoka Library in Bibliotheca Polyglotta with all inscriptions, Māgadhī and English]

{{Buddhism topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edicts Of Ashoka}}
[[Category:Edicts of Ashoka| ]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC inscriptions]]
[[Category:Buddhism in the ancient Mediterranean]]
[[Category:Animal rights]]
[[Category:Memorials to Ashoka]]
[[Category:Animal welfare and rights in India]]
[[Category:Magahi language]]