Brief Overview of Fourteen Major Rock Edicts of King Ashoka

Maitreya Yeshwant Ovhal

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i03.23304

Brief Overview of Fourteen Major Rock Edicts of King Ashoka

Author(s)	Maitreya Yeshwant Ovhal
Country	India
Abstract	–The fourteen major rock edicts are of great use to study the historiography of Ashokas Empire. These major rock edicts contain engraved information about the nature of his patronage given to Buddhism and his interpretation of Dhamma. These edicts also throw the light upon the Asoka’s administration, international relations, and law and order systems of his empire. The major rock edicts of the Ashoka are like the identity cards of his empire. These major rock edicts are distributed all over Indian subcontinent and can also be found in Afghanistan & Pakistan. Arguably these major rock edicts encapsulate the boundaries of ancient Mauryan Empire and found at those locations which are specifically chosen by King Ashoka for their construction. The location for the construction of these major rock edicts is arguably chosen on the basis of importance of the area, trade & population of that area. Every Major rock edict has a specific message engraved upon it and there is uniformity in the content of these rock edicts with addition of minor separate edicts which are found at Dhauli and Jaugada & there is little deviation which can be observed at Sannati where rock edict number 13 is replaced by a separate rock edict. Ashoka was the first king who has initiated a dialogue with his subjects by means of engraving such edicts on mighty rocks. By studying this paper you can understand why it is important to have brief knowledge about the contents of these major rock edicts of Ashoka while studying about the King Ashoka in particular & about the Mauryan Empire in general. This paper throws light upon the script and locations of these major rock edicts. This paper also argues about the nature of the patronage given to the buddhism by king Ashoka and insists upon forming conclusions about the Ashokas policy of Dhamma solely on the basis of the engraved texts of major rock edicts.
Keywords	Dhamma, Fourteen Major rock edict, Ashokas administration, interpretation of Dhamma, Mauryan Empire.
Field	Sociology > Archaeology / History
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 3, May-June 2024
Published On	2024-06-23
Cite This	Brief Overview of Fourteen Major Rock Edicts of King Ashoka - Maitreya Yeshwant Ovhal - IJFMR Volume 6, Issue 3, May-June 2024. DOI 10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i03.23304
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i03.23304
Short DOI	https://doi.org/gt242w

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Brief Overview of Fourteen Major Rock Edicts of King Ashoka

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