# Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III The Monuments
The extravagant legend which ascribes to Asoka the erection of eighty-four thousand stûpas, 'topes,' or sacred cupolas, within the space of three years, proves the depth of the impression made upon the popular imagination by the number, magnitude, and magnificence of the great Maurya's architectural achievements. So imposing were his Works that they were universally believed to have been wrought by supernatural agency.
'The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city (scil. Pâtaliputra), which exist now as of old, were all made by spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture-work in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish.'
​Thus wrote the simple-minded Fa-hien at the begin- ning of the ﬁfth century. More than two hundred years later, when I-Iiuen Tsang travelled, the ancient imperial city was deserted and in ruins, the effect of the departure of the court and the ravages of the White Huns. Now,
'The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples,'
lie buried deep below the silt of the Sôn and Ganges rivers, serving as a foundation for the city of Patna, the civil station of Bankipore, sundry villages, and the East Indian Railway.
No example of the secular architecture of Asoka's reign has survived in a condition such as would permit of its plan and style being studied. Local tradition indicates the extensive buried ruins at and near the village of Kumrahar, to the south of the railwayline connecting Bankipore and Patna, as the site of the palace of the ancient kings, and the tradition probably embodies the truth. Mr. Mukharji discovered innumerable fragments of an Asoka. pillar between the Kallu and Chaman tanks to the north of the village. The pillar, which was of polished sandstone as usual, was about 3 feet in diameter, and evidently had been broken up by heaping round it a mass of inflammable material which was then set on ﬁre. The similar pillar, to the north-east of ​Benares City, the stump of which is now known as Lât Bhairo, was destroyed in that way by the local Muhammadans during the great riot of 1809. Various sculptures and other remains at Kumrâhâr indicate the importance of the site. But another palaee must have been situated somewhere inside the city walls and a second Asoka pillar is said to exist buried in Patna City. Many of the remains at and near Patna are practically inaccessible, and the incomplete excavations carried out on several occasions have not sufficed to establish great results of deﬁnite value. If the scientilic exploration of the site begun by Dr. Spooner is carried further, it will need to be done carefully and will be a long and costly business.
The numerous and stately monasteries which Asoka erected at many places in the empire have shared the fate of his palaces, not even one surviving in a recognizable state. Such structures were extremely numerous. Hiuen Tsang mentions more than eighty stapes and monasteries ascribed to Asoka, without counting the legendary ﬁve hundred convents in Kashmir and other large indeﬁnite groups in other countries. The Asokarama, or Kukkutaraina, the 'Cock Monastery,' which was the ﬁrst—fruits of the emperor's zeal as a convert, and accommodated a thousand ​monks, stood on the south—eastern side of the capital, but has not been identified, Which is not surprising, as it had been already long in ruins at the time of Hiuen Tsang's visit in the seventh century. According to Târanâth, the great monastic establishment at Nâlandâ near Râjagriha, which became the head quarters of Indian Buddhism, Was founded by Asoka, who erected splendid buildings there. It seems likely that excavation on the site of Nâlandâ, which is well defined and easily accessible, will almost certainly yield results far richer than can be hoped for at Patna. The explorations at Nâlandâ started by Dr. Spooner in 1915-16 are most promising.
The stûpas, or cupolas, on which the emperor lavished so much treasure, have been more fortunate than the palaces and monasteries in that one group of buildings of this class, thanks to its situation in an out-of-the-way locality, survived destruction, and would now be tolerably perfect but for the ravages of English amateur archaeologists in the early part of the nineteenth century. The group alluded to is that at and near Sanchi in the Bhopâl State, Central India (lat. 23° 29' N., long. 77° 45' E.), which included ten stûpas, besides the remains of other buildings, as late as the year 1818.
A stûpa, it should be explained, was usually destined either to enshrine a casket containing the relics of a Buddha or other saint, or simply to mark ​permanently the reputed scene of some incident famous in the history of the Buddhist Church; but occasionally one was erected merely in honour of a Buddha. The form, apparently of high antiquity, seems to be derived from that of a hut with a curved bamboo roof, not from an earthen tumulus. In Asoka's age a stûpa was a nearly hemi-spherical mass of solid masonry, either brick or stone, resting upon a plinth which formed a perambulation path for worshippers, and flattened at the top to carry a square altar-shaped structure, which was surmounted by a series of stone umbrellas one above the other. The base was frequently surrounded by a stone railing, the pillars, bars, and coping-stones of which might be either quite plain or adorned by all the resources of sculpture in relief. Sometimes the entrances through the railings were equipped with elaborate gateways (toṙaṇas), resembling in style those still common in China, and covered with the most elaborate carvings.
The principal stûpa at Sânchî, which stands on the top of a hill and is a conspicuous object as seen from the Indian Midland Railway, is a segment of a sphere, built of red sandstone blocks, with a diameter of 110 feet at the base of the dome. The diameter of the plinth or berm is, 121 1/2 feet, and the total height of the monument when perfect is believed to have been about 77 1/2 feet. It is enclosed by a massive plain-stone railing with monolithic pillars 11 feet high, entrance being effected through four highly ornate ​gateways, 34 feet in height, covered with a profusion of relief sculptures_illustrating the Buddhist scriptures. Casts of the eastern gateway now at South Kensington and in several other museums can be examined conveniently at leisure. The existing stone stûpa. and contemporary plain railing are about a century later than Asoka, whose original brick stûpa was enclosed in the enlarged building. The sculptured gateways date from about 50 b. c. to the Christian era. No trace has been found of any structure prior to the reign of Asoka, and the details of the succession of the various ancient ﬂoors permit of little doubt that the earliest building on the site was erected by Asoka. Near the southern gateway fragments survive of a ﬁnely designed Asoka pillar estimated to have stood about forty-two feet in height. The mutilated lions which once crowned the summit are admirable examples of Asokan art, comparable in merit with the Sârnâth capital. Both compositions may be the work of one artist. The damaged inscription at Sânchi is a replica of the more perfect text of Minor Pillar Edict I at Sârnâth. Inasmuch as all the Minor A Pillar Edicts date from a late period of the reign and the Sânchi pillar seems to be contemporary with the original stûpa, we may assign that building also to the last ten years of Asoka's rule. Other stûpas in the neighbourhood are more or less alike in form Some have yielded interesting inscribed relic caskets, as mentioned above in Chapter I.
​A very interesting relic, belonging in part to the age of Asoka, was discovered by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1873 at Bharhut, a village in the Nâgaudh (Nagod) State of Baghelkhand, about ninety-five miles south-west from Allahabad. He found there the remains of a. brick 'stûpa of moderate size, nearly 68 feet in diameter, surrounded by an elaborately carved railing bearing numerous dedicatory inscriptions in characters closely resembling those of Asoka’s records. The stûpa had been covered with a coat of plaster, in which hundreds of triangular-shaped recesses had been made for the reception of lights to illuminate the monument. It was the practice of the Indian Buddhists, as it is that of their co-religionists now in Burma, to decorate their holy buildings on festival days in every possible way, with ﬂowers, garlands, banners, and lights.
The stûpa has, I believe, wholly disappeared, and portions of the richly sculptured railing have been saved only by the precaution of removing them to Calcutta, where they now form one of the principal treasures of the Indian Museum. The railing was a little more than 7 feet high, and was divided into quadrants by openings facing the cardinal points, which were framed in elaborate gateways similar to those at Sânchî. The sculptures of the railing and gateways were principally devoted to the illustration of the Buddhist Jâtakas, or Birth stories. As at Sânchî, the buildings were of different ages, the stûpa itself probably dating from the time of Asoka, ​while one of the gateways is known to have been erected in the days of the Sunga kings, who succeeded the Mauryas. The railing, which may have been considerably earlier than the gateways, was composed of pillars, three cross-bars or rails, and a heavy coping. Each of the pillars is a monolith bearing a central medallion on each face, with a half medallion at the top and another at the bottom. Every member of the structure is covered with rich and spirited sculpture in low relief, which is of exceptional interest for the history of Buddhism, because it is interpreted to a large extent by contemporary explanatory inscriptions.
The more or less similar railing, fragments of wl1ich exist at Bodh Gayâ, has been generally designated as the 'Asoka railing,' but really belongs, like the Bharhut gateway, to Sunga times. Babﬁ P. C. Mukharjî found at Patna parts of at least three stone railings, some of which must date from Asokafs reign. The inscribed and sculptured railing at Besnagar, near Bhîlsâ or Bhalsâ, and not far from Sânchî, cannot be very far removed from the time of Asoka. The sculptures are similar to those at Bharhut and Sânchî. ​The progress of the excavations at Sârnath may be expected to disclose many remains of the Maurya age, but they are difficult to get at, being buried under the buildings of later generations.
In ancient India, as is now a common practice in China, both the Buddhists and the Jains were in the habit of defraying the cost of expensive religious edifices by subscription, each subscriber or group of subscribers being given the credit of having contributed a particular pillar, coping-stone, or other portion of the edifice on which the contributor's name was inscribed. The subscriptions, of course, must have been collected in cash, the work being carried out by the architect according to plan. The record of individual donors was intended not only to gratify their vanity and the natural desire for the perpetuation of their names, but also for the practical purpose of securing for themselves and their families an accumulation of spiritual merit to serve as a defence against the dangers of rebirth. This special purpose is frequently expressed in the Indian records. Dedicatory inscriptions Were very numerous at Bharhut. It is interesting to observe that the same practice of building by subscription existed in Hellenistic Asia. At the temple of Labranda in Caria, dating from the reign of Nero, or a little later, Sir Charles Fellows found twelve ﬂuted columns, each of which bore a panel recording that it was the gift of such and such a person
​In India statues in the round are rare, relief being preferred, but a few notable examples of ﬁgures in the round apparently assignable to the Maurya period are known. The most remarkable is the inscribed colossal statue of a man found at Parkham, a village between Agra and Mathurâ. The ﬁgure, executed in grey sandstone highly polished, stands about 7 feet high, and is massive, if not clumsy, in its proportions, The face, unfortunately, is mutilated and the arms have been broken off. The dress, a loose robe conﬁned by two broad bands, one below the breast and the other round the loins, is peculiar. The inscription, which has not been edited properly, seems to be in characters substantially identical with those used in the edicts.
A colossal female statue, 6 feet 7 inches in height, uninscribed, but supposed on account of the costume to belong to the same period, was found at Besnagar, and is specially noteworthy as being the only known early female ﬁgure in the round. The arms are missing and the face is damaged, but so far as I can judge from a photograph, the work is of considerable merit. The Patna and Didarganj statues (J. B.O. Res. Soc., vol. v (1919), Plates i—-iv) seem to be closely related to the Parkhain image.
Asoka took special delight in erecting monolithic ​pillars, inscribed and uninscribed, in great numbers and designed on a magnificent scale, regardless of cost. These pillars, many of which, more or less complete, are known, give us a better notion of the treasure, taste, and skill lavished upon Asoka's architectural works than do any of the other monuments. Hiuen Tsang mentions specifically sixteen of such pillars, four or five of which can be identified with existing monuments more or less convincingly; and, on the other hand, most of the extant pillars are not referred to by the Chinese pilgrim. The inscribed pillars now known number ten, of which only two can be positively identified with those noticed by him. Fortunately, two pillars—one uninscribed, the other bearing a copy of the first six Pillar Edicts—still stand in a condition practically perfect, and a detailed description of these will suffice to give the reader an adequate notion of the whole class. The discovery in 1904-5 of the magnificent capital of the Sârnâth pillar has revealed the ﬁnest example of Maurya art known to exist.
The perfect uninscribed pillar at Bakhirâ near Basâr, the ancient Vaisâli, in the Muzaffarpur District, N. Bihâr, is a monolith of ﬁne sandstone, highly polished for its whole length of 32 feet above the water level. A square pedestal with three steps is said to exist underwater. The shaft tapers uniformly from a diameter of 49-8 inches at the water level to 38.7 at the top. The principal member of the capital, 2 feet 10 inches in height, is bell-shaped in the ​Persepolitan style, and is surmounted by an oblong abacus 12 inches high, which serves as a pedestal for a lion seated on its haunehes, and 4 1/2 feet in height. Two or three mouldings are inserted between the shaft and the bell capital, and one intervenes between the latter and the abacus. The total height above the level of the Water is 44 feet 2 inches. Including the submerged portion the length of the monument cannot be less than 50 feet, and its weight is estimated to be 50 tons.
The inscribed Lauyâ-Tandangarh or Mathiah pillar in the Champâran District, N. Bihâr, resembles that at Bakhirâ in general design, but is lighter and less massive, and consequently very graceful (Frontspiece). The polished shaft, 32 feet 9 1/2 inches in height, diminishes from a base diameter of 35 1/2 inches to a diameter of only 22 1/4 inches at the top. The abacus, which is circular instead of oblong, is decorated on the edge with an artistic bas—relief representing a row of geeso pecking their food. The height of the capital including the lion, which faces the rising sun, is 6 feet 10 inches, and consequently the entire monument is nearly 40 feet high. The cable-string courses and 'egg and dart' ovolo which serve as mouldings are admirably executed, and the design and workmanship of the whole are rightly praised as displaying both knowledge and power. ​The circular abacus of the Allahabad pillar is decorated, instead of the geese, with a graceful scroll of alternate lotus and honeysuckle, resting on a beaded astragalus moulding, seemingly of Greek origin. According to tradition the monument was originally surmounted by a. lion, and in 1838 a Captain Smith of the Royal Engineers was commissioned to design a. new capital in the style of the Bakhirâ and Lau1iyâ.-Nandangarh pillars. But his attempt was a lamentable failure and resulted in a monstrosity which Cunningham considered to be 'not unlike a stuffed poodle stuck on the top of an inverted ﬂower-pot.' Many years have passed since I saw the thing, but I suppose it is still there.
Two mutilated pillars exist at Rampurwa in the Champâran District. The one which bears a copy of the first six Pillar Edicts was surmounted by a ﬁnely designed lion, discovered in 1907-8 buried close by. Mr. Marshall notes that the 'muscles and thews of the beast are vigorously modelled, and though conventionalized in certain particulars, it is endowed with a vitality and strength which rank it among the finest sculptures of the Maurya period.' The companion uninscribed pillar had a bull capital, also discovered by research, but unfortunately much injured. The ​bell section of the lion capital was attached to the shaft by a barrel-shaped bolt of pure copper, measuring 2 feet 0 1/2 inch in length, with a diameter of 4 5/16 inches in the centre, and 3 5/8 inches at each end, which was accurately fitted without cement.
The line of pillars in the Muzaffarpur and Champâran Districts at Bakhirâ (Vaisâli), Lauriyâ-Arâj (Radhiah), Lauriyâ-Nandangarh (Mathiah), and Râmpurwa evidently marks the course of the royal road from the northern bank of the Ganges opposite the capital to the Nepâl valley. The hamlet of Râmpurwâ is not far from the foot of the hills. Three of the five pillars are inscribed with practically identical copies of the ﬁrst six Pillar Edicts, which were thus published for the edification of travellers along the high road. The other known pillars were all placed in equally conspicuous positions at important cities, places of pilgrimage, or on frequented roads in the home provinces. No pillar has yet been found in the distant provinces, where the Rock Edicts were incised. The pillars are all composed of ﬁne sandstone, quarried in most cases apparently at Chanâr (Chunar) in the Mirzâpur District, and were frequently erected at localities hundreds of miles distant from any quarry capable of supplying the exceptionally choice blocks required for such huge monoliths. Their fabrication, conveyance, and erection bear eloquent testimony to ​the skill and resource of the stonecutters and engineers of the Maurya age.
Sixteen centuries later, in a. d. 1356, the two Asoka pillars which now stand near Delhi_on the Kothila and the Ridge respectively were transported by Sultan Firoz Shah the one from Topra in the Ambala. (Uinballa) District, now in the Panjâb, and the other from Mîrath (Mcerut) in the United Provinces. The process of removal of the Topra monument has been described by a contemporary author, whose graphic account is worth transcribing as showing the nature of the difficulties so frequently and successfully surmounted by Asoka’s engineers.
The historian relatesr that—
'After Sultan F iroz returned from his expedition against Thatta he often made excursions in the neighbourhood of Delhi. In this part of the country there were two stone columns. One was in the village of Topra in the District of Sâdhaura and Khizrzâbâd, at the foot of the hills, the other in the vicinity of the town of Mirath. . . . When Firoz-Shah first beheld these columns he was ﬁlled with admiration and resolved to remove them with great care as trophies to Delhi.
Khizrâbâd is 90 kos from Delhi, in the vicinity of the hills. Whon the Sultan visited that District and saw the column in the village of Topra, he resolved to remove it to Delhi and there erect it as a memorial to future generations. After thinking over the best means of lowering the column, orders were issued commanding the attendance of all the people dwelling in the neighbourhood, within and without the Doâb, and all soldiers, both horse and foot. They were ordered to bring all implements and materials suitable for the work. Directions were issued for bringing parcels of the sembal ​(silk—cotton) tree. Quantities of this silk-cotton were placed round the column, and when the earth at its base was removed, it fell gently over on the bed prepared for it. The cotton was then removed by degrees, and after some days the pillar lay safe upon the ground. When the foundations of the pillar were examined, a large square stone was found as a base, which also was taken out.
The pillar was then encased from top to bottom in reeds and raw skins, so that no damage might accrue to it. A carriage with forty-two wheels was constructed, and ropes were attached to each wheel. Thousands of men hauled at every rope, and after great labour and difficulty the pillar was raised on to the carriage. A strong rope was fastened to each wheel, and 200 men [42 x 200 = 8,400] pulled at each of these ropes. By the simultaneous exertions of so many thousand men, the carriage was moved, and was brought to the banks of the Jumna. Here the Sultan came to meet it. A number of large boats had been collected, some of which could carry. 5,000 and 7,000 maunds of grain, and the least of them 2,000 maunds. The column was very ingeniously transferred to these boats, and was then conducted to Fîrozâbâd, where it was landed and conveyed into the Kushk with inﬁnite labour and skill.
At this time the author of this book was twelve years of age and a pupil of the respected Mîr Khân. When the pillar was brought to the palace, a building was commenced for its reception near the Jâmi Masjid [mosque], and the most skilful architects and workmen were employed. It was constructed of stone and chunam [ﬁne mortar], and consisted of several stages or steps. When a step was ﬁnished the column was raised on to it, another step was then built and the pillar was again raised, and so on in succession until ​it reached the intended height. On arriving at this stage, other contrivances had to be devised to place it in an erect position. Hopes of great thickness were obtained, and windlasses were placed on each of the six stages of the base. The ends of the ropes were fastened to the top of the pillar, and the other ends passed over the windlasses, which were ﬁrmly secured with many fastenings. The wheels were then turned, and the column was raised about half a gaz [yard]. Logs of wood and bags of cotton were then placed under it to prevent it sinking again. In this way, and by degrees, the column was raised to the perpendicular. Large beams were then placed round it as supports until quite a cage of scaffolding was formed. It was thus secured in an upright position straight as an arrow, without the smallest deviation from the perpendicular. The square stone before spoken of was placed under the pillar.'
Asoka erected about thirty or morc such monuments. When labour so great was required to move one a distance of a hundred and twenty miles we may imagine how much energy was expended in setting up thirty pillars, some of which were much heavier than that removed by Fîroz Shah, and were transported to distances still greater.
Ten of the pillars known at present are inscribed. Six of these bear copies of the ﬁrst six Pillar Edicts, the seventh edict, the most important of all, being found on one monument only, the Delhi—Topra pillar, the removal of which has been described. The ​records on two pillars in the Nepalese Tarâti commemorate Asoka's visit to the Buddhist holy places in b.c. 249, and the Sânchî and Sârnâth pillars are inscribed with variant recensions of the Minor Pillar Edict dealing with Church discipline. A detailed list of the inscribed pillars will be found at the end of this chapter.
Many more pillars remain to be discovered. The two great monuments, one surmounted by the figure of a bull and the other by the wheel of the Law, which stood at the entrance of the famous Jetavana monastery near Sârvastî, are said to exist; and notwithstanding certain finds which seem to render my opinion untenable, I have a suspicion that the ruins of Srâvastî may lie buried in Nepalese jungles on the upper course of the Râptî. Pillars which may prove to be those of the Jetavana are located by report near Bairât and Matiâri in Tahsîl Nepâlganj. Other pillars are rumoured to exist in the Nepalese Tarâi to the north of Nichlawal beyond the Gorakhpur frontier, and also at Barewâ. and Maurangarh, north of the Champâran District.
Only two of the ten inscribed pillars known, namely, those at Rummindeî and Sârnâth, can be identified certainly with monuments noticed by Hiuen Tsang. A third, the Niglîva pillar, which does not occupy its original position, may or may not be the one which he mentions in connexion with the stûpa of Konâkamana. There is, however, no doubt that ​seven out of the ten escaped notice in the pilgrim's memoirs. It is a curious fact that he never makes the slightest allusion to Asoka's edicts, whether incised on rocks or pillars. When he does refer to an alleged inscription of Asoka in the statement that a pillar at Pâtaliputra recorded the donation of all Jambudvîpa to the Church, he is probably only retailing the gossip of local monks, who could not read the inscription and invented an interpretation. Similar fraudulent readings of old inscriptions are constantly offered by local guides; thus, for example, Shams-i—Sirâj relates that 'certain inﬁdel Hindus' interpreted the inscription on the Delhi-Topra pillar to mean that 'no one would be able to remove the obelisk from its place till there should arise in the latter days a Muhammadan king named Sultan Fîroz.' I do not believe for a moment that Asoka ever either perpetrated the folly of professing to give away all Jambudvîpa or recorded on a monument the nonsense attributed to him. His real records are all thoroughly sensible and matter-of-fact. The reason that the Chinese pilgrim ignores them presumably must be that in his time, nine centuries after the execution of the inscriptions, nobody could read them. The alphabets current in India during the seventh century a.d., which are well known, differ widely from those used in the time of Asoka, and the difference is quite sufficient to account for his inscriptions being regarded as illegible. By that time the true personality of the great emperor had been covered up by ​a mass of mythological legend, and nobody cared to search for the genuine records of his reign.
The Wonderful rock inscriptions, although Wanting in the artistic interest of the monolithic pillars, are in some respects the most interesting monuments of the reign. They are found at thirteen distinct localities in the more iemote provinces of the empire, and the contents may be described generally as sermons on dharma, or the Law of Piety. The longer documents are either variant recensions, more or less complete, of the series known as the Fourteen Rock Edicts, or substitutes for certain members of that series. The shorter records include the two documents classed as the Minor Rock Edicts, ‘and the peculiar Bhâbrû Edict. The inscriptions are found over an area extending from 34° 20’ to 14° 49’ N. lat., and from about 72° 15’ to 85° 50’ E. long., that is to say, twenty degrees of latitude, and thirteen of longitude. It is possible, and not improbable, that other examples remain to be discovered in Afghanistan and tribal territory beyond the north-Western frontier, or even within the limits of India.
Beginning from the north-west, the ﬁrst set of inscriptions is found at Shâhbâgarhi in the Yûsufzai subdivision of the Peshawar District of the North-West Frontier Province, about forty miles to the north—east of Peshawar, and more than a thousand miles in a direct line distant from Asoka's capital. The principal inscription, containing all the Fourteen Edicts except the twelfth, is recorded on both ​the eastern and western faces of a mass of trap rock, 24 feet long and I0 feet high, which lies on the slope of a hill to the south—east of the village.
The Toleration Edict, No. XII discovered a few years ago by the late Sir Harold Deane, is incised on a separate rock about ﬁfty yards distant from the main record. The text of all the documents, being nearly perfect, is of high value to the student.
The next recension in order is that at Mânsahra. (Mânsera) in the Hazâra District of the North-West Frontier Province, N. lat. 34° 20’, E. long. 7 3° I 3', about ﬁfteen miles to the north of Abbottabad. The inscription not being near habitations or on any main line of road, the reason for the selection of this site, which is not apparent at ﬁrst sight, has been made clear by Dr. Stein, who found an ancient road leading to a place of pilgrimage now called Breri. As at Rﬁpnath and Girnâr the inscription was placed so as to catch the eye of pilgrims. The text is less complete than that at Shâhbâzgarbi. Both of the north—western versions agree in giving special prominence to the Toleration Edict, which at Mansahra has one side of the rock to itself, and at Shahbazgai-hi is inscribed on a separate ​rock. Both the recensions further agree in being inscribed in the form of Aramaic character, now generally called Kharoshthî, which is written from right to left, and appears to have been introduced by Persian officials into the nortb-Western regions of India after the conquest of the Indus valley by Darius, son of Hystaspes, about b. c. 500.
The third version of the Fourteen Edicts, and perhaps the most perfect of all, discovered in 1860, is on a rock about a mile and a half to the south of the village of Kâlsî (N. lat. 30° 32’, E. long. 77° 51’), in the Debra Dûn District of the United Provinces, on the road from Sahâranpur to the cantonment pf Chakrâta, and about fifteen miles westwards from the hill station of Mussoorie (Mansûri). The record is incised on the south-eastern face of a white quartz boulder shaped like the frustum of a pyramid, about 10 feet in diameter at the base and 6 feet at the top, which stands at the foot of the upper of two terraces over-looking the junction of the Jumna and Tons rivers.The confluences of rivers being regarded as sacred the place probably used to be visited by pilgrims, and must have been chosen for that reason as a suitable spot for the inscription. Some pilasters and other wrought stones indicate the former existence of buildings in the vicinity. The text agrees closely with the Mânsahra version, but exhibits certain peculiarities. A well-drawn ﬁgure of an elephant labelled 'the superlative olephant' (gajatama) is incised on one side of the boulder. The character, as in all the ​Asoka inscriptions, excepting those at Mânsahra and Shâhbâzgarhi, is an ancient form of the Brâhmî script, written from left to right, and the parent of the modern Devanâgarî and allied alphabets. The alphabetical forms used in the different inscriptions vary to some extent in details.
Two copies of the Fourteen Edicts were published at places on the Western coast. The fragment found at Sopârâ, in the Thâna District, to the north of Bombay, consisting of only a few Words from the eighth edict, is enough to show that a copy of the set of documents once existed there. Sopâra, still a prosperous country town (N. lat. 19° 25’, E. long. 72° 48’), was an important port and mart under the name of Sopâraka, Sûpâraka, or Shurpâraka in ancient times for many centuries, and contained some notable Hindu and Buddhist edifices. At one time the sea appears to have come up to the walls of the town, but the channel has been silted up for ages
The famous Girnar version, ﬁrst described by Colonel Tod in 1822, lay buried in dense forest and might never have come to light had not a local notable made a causeway through the jungle for the ​benefit of pilgrims to the hill, which is one of the most sacred places venerated by the Jains. The ancient town of Jûnâgarh (Ûparkot), capital of a State in the peninsula of Kâthiâwâr or Surâshtra. (N. lat. 21° 31', E. long. 70° 36’), stands between the Girnâr and Dâtâr hills. The Sudarsana Lake constructed under the orders of Chandragupta Maurya and equipped with watercourses and sluices by Asoka's local representatives, filled the whole valley between the Ûparkot rocks on the west and the inscription rock on the east. That rock, a nearly hemispherical mass of granite, therefore stood on the margin of the lake, which disappeared long since. Indeed its very existence had been forgotten, and its limits have been traced with difficulty. The Fourteen Edicts are incised on the north-eastern face of the rock, the top being occupied by the valuable record of the Satrap Rudradâman (cir. a.d. 152) and the western face by the important inscriptions of Skandagupta's governor (a.d. 457). The edicts have suffered a good deal of injury, but some care is now taken to protect them. Imperfect copies of them were the materials on which M. Senart was obliged to rely chiefly when writing his classical work on the inscriptions of Asoka; but since then accurate copies have been taken, and in 1899–1900 two fragments, which had been separated from the rock, were recovered by Professor Rhys Davids
​Two recensions of the Fourteen Edicts, with modifications, exist on the eastern side of India, near the coast of the Bay of Bengal, within the limits of the kingdom of Kalinga conquered by Asoka in B. C. 261. Both recensions agree in omitting Edicts XI, XII, and XIII, which were considered unsuitable locally, and in substituting for them the Borderers’ and Provincials' Edicts specially drafted to meet the needs of the newly annexed province, and not published elsewhere.
The northern copy is incised on a rock called .Aswastama on the northern face and close to the summit of a hill near the village of Dhauli (N. lat. 20° 15′, E. long. 85° 50′), about seven miles to the south of Bhuvanesvar, in the Puri District, Orissa. The inscription occupies the prepared surface of a sloping sheet of stone, which is watched over from above by the Well-executed fore-part of an elephant, about 4 feet high, cut out of the solid rock. The viceregal town of Tosali appears to have been in the neighbourhood.
The southern version is engraved on the face of a rock situated at an elevation of about 120 feet in a mass of granitic gneiss rising near the centre of an ancient walled town called Jaugada or J ogadh (N. lat. 19° 33′, E. long. 84° 50′) in the Ganjam District, ​Madras, which probably is the town Samâpâ mentioned in the local edicts.
The Minor Rock Edicts, which are believed for the reasons stated in Chapter I (ante, p. 26) to be the earliest of the Asoka inscriptions, are found, like the Fourteen Rock Edicts, only in the remoter provinces. The second Minor Edict, consisting of a short summary of the Law of Piety, expressed in a style different from that of the other edicts, occurs in Mysore only, where three copies of it exist as a supplement to the first edict. Probably this supplementary document was composed in the ofﬁce of the Prince of Suvarnagiri and published on his viccregal authority. The Mysore recensions of both the edicts were incised in three localities, all close to one another, in the Chitaldûrg District of northern Mysore, namely, Siddapura (N. lat. 14° 49′, E. long. 76° 47′), Jatinga-Râmesvara, and Brahmagiri, near the site of a large ancient town. Variant recensions of Edict I occur at Sahasram (N. lat. 24° 57′, E. long. 84° 1′) in the Shahabﬁd District, S. Birât; Rûpnâth in the Jabalpur District, Central Provinces; Maski in the Nizam’s Doininions; and at Bairﬁt (N. lat. 27° 27′, E. long. 76° 12′) in Râjputâna. That document gives a valuable account of the emperor’s religious history and ​is devoted to the inculcation of his favourite precept. 'Let small and great exert themselves.' Thus it appears that Edict I was published in five widely separated regions, a clear proof that much importance was attached to its teaching.
The Rûpnâth inscription was placed in a singularly wild and out-of-the-way glen, 'a perfect chaos of rocks and pools overshadowed by rugged precipices fifty to sixty feet high, in whose clefts and caverns wild beasts ﬁnd a quiet refuge.' Indeed, while Mr. Cousens was taking a photograph, he was being watched by a panther crouching less than twenty yards away. The spot, which is still visited by pilgrims who worship the local deity as a form of Siva, became sacred by reason of the three pools one above another; which are connected in the rainy season by a lovely waterfall. The detached boulder upon which the edict is inscribed lies under a great tree just above the western margin of the lowest pool, and may have fallen from its original position higher up.
The Sahasrâm recension is engraved on the face of the rock in an artiﬁcial cave near the summit of a hill to the east of the town, now surmounted by a shrine ​of a Muhammadan saint. In Asoka's time the place must have been visited by Hindu pilgrims.
The Bairât version, discovered by Mr. Carlleyle in 1872-3, is engraved on the lower part of the southern face of a huge block of volcanic rock 'as big as a house' at the foot of the 'Pândus' hill' close to the very ancient town of Bairât.
The peculiar Bhâbrû Edict, giving the list of Asoka's favourite passages of scripture, was incised on a boulder within the precincts of a Buddhist monastery on the top of another hill near the same town. The boulder is now preserved in Calcutta.
The cave dwellings excavated in the refractory gneiss of the Barâbar and Nâgârjuni hills near Gayâ by Asoka and his grandson for the use of the Âjivikas, although not beautiful as works of art, are Wonderful monuments of patient skill and inﬁnite labour, misapplied as it seems to the modern observer. The largest is the Gopikâ cave dedicated by Dasaratha, which is 46 feet 5 inches long by 19 feet 2 inches broad, with semicircular ends and a vaulted roof 10 1/2 feet in height. The whole of the interior is highly polished. The cost of such a work must have been enormous, and the expenditure of so much treasure on the Âjîvikas is good evidence of the influential position held in ​Asoka's days by that now forgotten order of ascetics, who, although detested by orthodox Buddhists, were able to win favour from the sovereign Who did ‘'reverence to all denominations .'
The arts in the age of Asoka undoubtedly had attained to a high standard of excellence.
The royal engineers and architects were capable of designing and executing spacious and lofty edifices in brick, wood, and stone, of constructing massive embankments equipped with convenient sluices and other appliances, of extracting, chiselling, and handling enormous monoliths, and of excavating commodious chambers with burnished interiors in the most refractory rock. Sculpture was the handmaid of architecture, and all buildings of importance were lavishly decorated with a profusion of ornamental patterns, an infinite variety of spirited bas-reliefs, and meritorious statues. of men and animals. The rare detached statues of the human ﬁgure have been noticed. But the ​lions on the monolithic pillars are better. The newly discovered capital at Sârnâth is described by Mr. Marshall in the following somewhat bold language, which is, however, justified by the photographs: 'Lying near the column were the broken portions of the upper part of the shaft and a magnificent capital of the well-known Persepolitan bell-shaped type with four lions above, supporting in their midst a stone wheel or dharmacḥakra, the symbol of the law first promulgated at Sârnâth. Both bell and lions are in an excellent state of preservation and masterpieces in point of both style and technique—the ﬁnest carvings, indeed, that India has yet produced, and unsurpassed, I venture to think, by anything of their kind in the ancient world.'
The skill of the stone—cutter may be said to have attained perfection, and to have accomplished tasks which would, perhaps, be found beyond the powers of the twentieth century. Gigantic shafts of hard sandstone, thirty or forty feet in length, were dressed and proportioned with the utmost nicety, receiving a polish which no modern mason knows how to impart to the material. Enormous surfaces of the hardest gneiss were burnished like mirrors, bricks of huge dimensions were successfully ﬁred, and the joints of masonry were fitted with extreme accuracy. White ants and other destructive agencies have prevented the preservation of any specimens of woodwork, save a few posts and beams buried in the silt of the rivers at Patna, but ​the character of the carpenter's art of the period is well known from the has-relief pictures and from the railings and other forms in stone, which, as Fergusson so persistently urged, undoubtedly are copied from wooden prototypes. Burma teaches us that wooden architecture need not be lacking in dignity or magnificence, and we may feel assured that the timber structures which preceded the Bharhut rail and the Sânchî gateways were worthy of a powerful sovereign, a stately court, and a wealthy hierarchy. The beads, jewellery, and seals of the Maurya period and earlier ages which have been found from time to time prove that the ancient Indian lapidaries and goldsmiths were not inferior in delicacy of touch to those of any other country. The recorded descriptions and sculptured representations of chariots, hamess, arms, aecoutrements, dress, textile fabrics, and other articles of necessity or luxury indicate, that in the third century b. c. the Indian empire had attained a stage of material ciyilization fully equal to that reached under the famous Mughal emperors eighteen and nineteen hundred years later.
The sculptures in bas—relief, even if they cannot be often described as beautiful, although some may be, are full of life and vigour, and frankly realistic. No attempt is made to idealize the objects depicted, although the artists have allowed their fancy considerable play in the representations of tritons and other fabulous creatures. The pictorial scenes, even without the help of perspective, tell their stories vividly, and ​many of the ﬁgures are drawn with much spirit. The purely decorative elements exhibit great variety of design, and some of the fruit and flower patterns are extremely elegant. Images of the Buddha were not known in the time of Asoka, and are consequently absent from his sculptures. The Teacher is represented by symbols only, the empty seat, the pair of foot-prints, the wheel.
The Greek accounts, read along with the Edicts, leave on my mind the impression that the civil and military government of the Mauryas was better organized than that of Akbar or Shahjahân. It is certain that the Greek authors speak with the utmost respect of the power and resources of the kingdoms of the Prasii and Gangaridae, that is to say, Magadha and Bengal, that Alexander considered Pôros to be a formidable opponent, and that Chandragupta was able to defeat ﬁrst the Macedonian garrisons and then Seleukos. The military strength of the government was reﬂected in the orderly civil polity and the developed state of the arts.
The care taken to publish the imperial edicts and commemorative records by incising them in imperishable characters, most skilfully executed, on rocks and pillars situated in great cities, on main lines of communication, or at sacred spots frequented by pilgrims, implies that a knowledge of reading and writing was widely diffused, and that many people must have been able to read the documents. The same inference may be drawn from the fact that the inscriptions are ​composed, not in any learned scholastic tongue, but in vernacular dialects intelligible to the common people, and modiﬁed when necessary to suit local needs. It is probable that learning was fostered by the numerous monasteries, and that the boys—and girls in hundreds of villages learned their lessons from the monks and nuns, as they do now in Burma from the monks. Asoka, it should be noted, encouraged nunneries, and makes particular reference more than once to female lay disciples as well as to nuns. I think it likely that the percentage of literacy among the Buddhist population in Asoka's time was higher than it is now in many provinces of British India. The returns of 1901 show that in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, which include many great cities and ancient capitals, the number of persons per 1000 able to read and write amounts to only 57 males and 2 females. In Burma, where the Buddhist monasteries ﬂourish, the corresponding ﬁgures are 378 and 45. I believe that the Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in the days of their glory must have been, on the whole, powerful agencies for good in India, and that the disappearance of Buddhism was a great loss to the country.
Two scripts, as before observed, were in use. The Aramaic Kharoshthî, written from right to left, was ordinarily conﬁned to the north -western corner of India, but the scribe of the Brahmagiri version of the Minor Rock Edicts showed off his knowledge by writing part of his signature in that character. The Brâhmî script, ​the parent of the Devanâgarî and most of the existing Indian alphabets, appears in the‘ Asoka inscriptions and the nearly contemporary records at Bhattiprolu and in Ceylon in so many varieties that it must have been already in use for several centuries, although no extant example can be cited which is certainly earlier than Asoka. Bûhler seems to have been right in deriving this script from Mesopotamia, and the date of its introduction into India may have been about b. c. 700 or 800, or earlier.
The story of the origins of the early civilization of India has been very imperfectly investigated and still remains to be written. We can perceive dimly the main lines of communication by sea and land along which the elements of the arts and sciences travelled to India from Egypt and the continent of Asia, but our actual knowledge of the subject is extremely fragmentary. The imposing fabric of the Achaemenian empire evidently impressed the Indian mind, and several facts indicate the existence of a strong Persian inﬂuence on the Indian civilization of the Maurya age.
The free use of pillars was the dominant feature of Achaemenian architecture and Asoka's fondness for columns is in itself an indication of Persian inﬂuence. But no indirect inference is needed to prove the Persian suggestion of his monoliths which recall the motive of the Persepolitan bell-capital surmounted by animals, frequently placed back toiback. The Sârnâth capital described above (ante, p. 136), while in a certain ​sense Persepolitan, is far less conventional than its prototypes, and much superior in both design and execution to anything in Persia, so far as I can ascertain. The Persepolitan capital long continued to be used as a decorative element in Indian sculpture, and is common in the reliefs from Gantlhara, the so called Graeco-Buddhist school.
The idea of issuing long proclamations engraved on the rocks most likely was suggested by the practice of Darius, and the special variation of using the proclamations as sermons may have been originated by the inscription of that monarch at Naksh-i-Rustam, which is supposed to be 'preceptive not historical,' and to contain 'the last solemn admonition of Darius to his countrymen with respect to their future conduct in policy, morals, and religion.' But the text of that document, apparently, has not been published, so it cannot be compared in detail with the Edicts of Asoka. The opening phrases of the Edicts, 'Thus saith his Sacred and Gracious Majesty,' and the like, recall, as has often been observed, the style of the Achaemenian records.
Several minor details conﬁrm the impression that the Maurya court was very sensible to the influence of the great empire to the West, so recently conquered ​by Alexander. The Persian word nipo for 'writing' occurs in the Shâhbâzgarhi version of the Edicts; the penalty of cropping the hair (ante, p. 100) was a Persian punishment; and the ceremonial washing of the king’s hair, which Strabo, no doubt transcribing Megasthenes, mentions as an Indian custom, seems to be copied from the similar coremony performed by Xerxes, as related by Herodotus. The Persian title of Satrap, which continued to be used in Western India as late as the closing years of the fourth century A. D., is not recorded for Maurya times. But the monolithic pillars alone are enough to prove the reality of the Persian inﬂuence, and M. Le Bon seems to be right in maintaining that early Indian art was very largely indebted to Persia for its inspiration. The Hellenistic decorative motives, acanthus leaves, and so forth, which are common in ancient Indian sculpture, may have come through either Persia or Alexandria, or by both Ways. The problems concerning the relation between Indian, Asiatic, and Hellenistic art have never been threshed out, and are too complex for discussion in these pages, but I may say that I am inclined to regard the early Indian has-reliefs as translations, so to speak, of Alexandrian motives; by which I mean that the scheme of composition is Hellenistic of the Alexandrian school, while the ​spirit, subject, and details are pure Indian. M. Le Bon truly observes that 'la puissance de déformation du génie hindou est en effet si grande, que les formes empruntées subissent des transformations qui les rendent bientôt méconnaissables.' Many illustrations of this proposition in both plastic art and literature might be cited. When the Indians adopt and adapt a foreign suggestion they do it so cleverly and transmute the spirit of the work so completely that the imitation seems to be indigenous and original.
It is, perhaps, advisable to remind the reader that the Persian art -referred to was itself based upon Assyrian models, so that in a sense the Indian capitals may be described as Assyrian. But the bas-reliefs, while closely related to those of Alexandria, differ completely in style from the stiff formal bas-reliefs of Assyria and Persia. I believe it to be probable that India was never, up to quite recent times, more exposed to the impact of foreign ideas than it was during the Maurya age. All these matters, however, require much more attentive consideration than they have yet received, and here can be merely alluded to. But it seems clear that Indian art in the Maurya and Sunga periods, whatever may have been the nationality of the artists employed, attained a high standard of merit when compared with anything except the masterpieces of Greek genius, and that it deserves an honourable place in the history of the artistic achievements of the world.
The inscriptions dispersed throughout the empire ​as described were written either at the capital or at the head quarters of one or other of the viceroys, and then made over to skilled stone—cutters for incision on the rocks and pillars. In the extreme north-west the Kharoshthî alphabet was used as being the best known locally; throughout the rest of the empire the Brâhmî script was employed. The language was invariably a form of Prakrit, the vernacular language of the day, closely allied to Sanskrit, especially that of the Vedic variety, on the one hand, and to the modern vernaculars of the country on the other. The proclamations published in the home provinces are in the dialect of Magadha; those issued in more remote regions exhibit local peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. The various texts of the same edict sometimes differ to a small extent in substance, certain versions being fuller than others.
Repetitions, after the manner of the Buddhist scriptures, are frequent, and were inserted designedly, as is explained in the Epilogue to the Fourteen Rock Edicts. The style was supposed by the earlier interpreters to be exceedingly uncouth and to display lack of facility in prose composition. But now that accurate texts are available and the language is better understood, the style is found to possess a considerable amount of force and simple dignity. The desire to give the sovereign’s own words often, especially in the Kalinga Edicts, involves transitions from the third person to the ﬁrst, which are embarrassing to ​the translator, but do not imply want of skill in composition. The following versions are as literal as differences of idiom will permit, and, if considered at all successful renderings, will, I hope, support my View of the style of the originals. The accuracy of the texts is Wonderful. A clerical error or engraver's blunder very rarely occurs, and the beauty of the lettering may be judged from the facsimile of the Rummindeî inscription in Plate II. I have seen the original twice, and can certify that it is quite as clear as the reduced copy of the impression.
The reasons for treating all the inscriptions as the work of one author and for adopting the renderings chosen for the royal titles have been stated in Chapter I (ante, pp. 20, 22). The subject headings, of course, are not in the originals. All modern studies of the inscriptions known to me have been utilized in the preparation of the revised versions, which differ materially from those published in the earlier editions. References will be found in the Bibliographical Note appended to Chapter V.
Assuming the correctness of the chronology accepted by M. Senart, Mr. F. W. Thomas, and myself, which is not admitted by all scholars, the extant inscriptions may be classified in order of date as follows:—
Edicts.
| | 'Regnal Year.' | B.C. |
| Minor Rock Edicts | 13th | 257. |
| Bhâbrû Edict | ? ditto | ? ditto. |
| Fourteen Rock Edicts | 13th & 14th | 257 & 256. ​ |
| Kalinga. Edicts | ?14th or 15th | ?256 or 255. |
| Seven Pillar Edicts | 27th & 28th | 243 & 242. |
| Minor Pillar Edicts | 29th to 38th | 241 to 232. |
| Miscellanous Inscriptions. ||
| Cave Dedications of Asoka | 13th & 20th | 257 & 250. |
| Tarai Commemorative Inscriptions | 21st | 249. |
| Cave Dedications of Dasaratha | 1st | ?232. |
EXISTING INSCRIBED PILLARS OF ASOKA
| Serial No. | Name. | Position. | Remarks. |
| 1 | Delhi-Topra. | On summit of Kothila in the ruined city of Fîrozâbâd near Delhi; transported from Topra in Ambâla District in A.D. 1356 by Sultan Fîroz Tughlak. | 'Delhi-Sivâlik' (Cunningham); 'lât of Fîroz ' or 'D$^1$.' (Senart). Pillar Edicts I-VII nearly complete. Capital modern. |
| 2 | Delhi-Mîrath (Meerut) | On ridge at Delhi, broken; removed from Mîratl1in a.d. 1356 by Sultan Fîroz, and set up in the grounds of his hunting-lodge near its present position, where it was reerected by the Indian Government in 1867. | 'D$^2$.'(Senart). Pillar Edicts I—VI much mutilated. Capital missing |
| 3 | Allahabad | Near-Ellenborough Barracks in the Fort; evidently removed from Kauśâmbî, possibly by Sultan Fîroz. | Pillar Edicts I-VI; Queen's Edict; Kauśâmbî Edict, all imperfect. Capital modern, except the abacus. |
| 4 | Lauṛiyâ-Ararâj | Athamlet of Lauṛiyiâ, 1 mile SW. of temple called Ararâj-Mahadeo, 20 miles NW. of Kesariyâ stûpa, on the way to Bettia, in the Champâmn District, N. Bihâr. It is 2 1/2 miles ESE. of Radhia or Rahaṛiya. | 'Radhiah' or 'R.' (Senart). Pillar Edicts I—VI practically perfect. Capital lost. According to the miniature reproduced by Foucher (Icon. Bouddlhique, p. 55) the pillar was surmounted by a Garuḍa, or winged monster. ​ |
| 5 | Lauṛiyâ.-Nandangaṛh | Near the large village of Lauṛiyâ., on the direct road from Bettia to Nepal, 3 miles N. of Mathiah, and 15 miles NNW. of Bettia, in the Champâran District. | 'Mathiah' or 'M.' (Senart). Pillar Edicts I—VI practically perfect. Lion capital slightly damaged by a. cannon shot in Aurangzeb's time (Frontispiece). |
| 6 | Râtmpurwâ | At Râmpurwâ. hamlet, and more than a mile NE. of Pipariyâ village about 20 miles NNE of No. 5, in same District, 84° 34′ E. long., 27° 15′ 45″ N. lat. Prostrate. | Pillar Edicts I-VI well preserved. Bell-capital now detached from the pillar; the crowning lion recently found buried at a short distance. The 'bull' pillar near is not inscribed. |
| 7 | Sânchî | At southern entrance to great stûpa of Sânchî, in Bhopâl State, Central India., 23° 29′ N. lat., 77°45′ E.long. Fallen and broken. | Minor Pillar Edict, imperfect, a variant of the edict on the Sârnâth pillar, and also of the Kauśâmbî Edict on the Allahabad pillar. The ﬁne capital with four lions lies near. |
| 8 | Sârnâth | NNW. of 'Jagat Signh's stûpa. at Sârnâth, about 3 1/2 miles N. of Benares. Droken. | Minor Pillar Edict, nearly complete, being a fuller form of the Sânchî and Kauśâmbi Ediets. The magnificent capital with four lions formerly supported the 'wheel of the Law.' Discovered by Mr. Oertel in 1905. ​ |
| 9 | Rummindeî | At shrine of Rummindei, about 1 mile N. of Paḍaṛia, 2 miles N. of Bhagwânpur in the Nepalese Tahsîl of that name, and about 6 miles NE. of Dulhâ in the British District of Bastî. | 'Paderia' (Bühler). Split by lightning, but standing, the bell member of the capital lies apart, but the crowning member is missing. The commemorative inscription (Plate II) is absolutely perfect. |
| 10 | Niglîva | On west bank of Niglîva (Nigâlî) Sâgar, near Niglîva village in Nepalese Tarâi, north of the Bastî District, and about 13 miles NW. of No. 9. but not in original position. Broken. | Imperfect commemorative inscription in form similar to that of No. 9, and apparently of same year. |
* ↑ 84,000 dharmarâjikâs built by Asoka Dharmaraja, as stated by Divyâwadâna (ed. Cowell & Neil, p. 379, quoted by Foucher, Icon. Boodhique, p. 55 n.). In the MS. miniature the words Rûdhya-Dharmarâjikâ-chaityah denote the stûpa and one-story monastery beside the Râdhya Pillar (ibid., p. 195).
* ↑ Fa-hien, Travels, ch. xxvii, transl. Leggc. Giles's version differs somewhat:—'The king's palace and courts were all constructed by spirits whom he employed to pile stones, build walls and gates, carve ornamental designs and engrave—truly not the work of mortals. These still exist.' Beal, like Legge, places the palace 'in the city,' and according to him 'the ruins still exist.'
* ↑ At Kallu Khan's Bâgh, in the zenâna of Maulavis Muhammad Kabir and Amir, buried several feet below the courtyard, and so thick that two men joining their arms could not encircle it (Mukharji's unpubl. Report, p. 17). For Lât Bhairo see the author’s paper In Z. D. M. G. for 1909.
* ↑ These buildings are not mentioned by the Chinese pilgrims.
* ↑ It now suffices to cite only one book, A Guide to Sânchî by Sir John Marshall, C.I.E. (Calcutta, I91 8), which gives all needful references to other works. Detailed treatises are in preparation.
* ↑ Cunningham wrote 'Bharhut,' and others spell 'Bharaut,' but the late Dîwân of Rewâ. told me that the correct spelling is 'Barhut.' The ruins are not so far from Allahabad as Cunningham estimated. They are described in his special monograph, The Stûpa of Bharhut (London, 1879). The inscriptions are dealt with in Ind. Ant., xiv. 138 ; xxi. 225.
* ↑ Marshall, J. R.A.S., 1908, p. 1096, P1. iv.
* ↑ Cunningham, Reports, x. 38, Pl. xiii.
* ↑ Fellows, Asia Minor (London, 1838), pp. 261, 331, and plate.
* ↑ Vogel, Catalogue of the Archaeological Musem at Mathura (Allahabad, 1910), p. 83, Plate xii. The inscription records the artist's name.
* ↑ Hist. of Fine Art in India and Ceylon (1911), p. 62, Plate xiv.
* ↑ Cunningham, Reports, i. 56; xvi. 12.
* ↑ Ibid, i. 73, Pl. xxiv; xvi. 104, P1. xxvii (copied in frontispiece); Caddy, in Proc. A. S. B., 1895, p. 155. The correct
* ↑ Cunningham, Reports, i. 298-300; Inscriptions of Asoka, p. 37.
* ↑ Cunningham, Reports, xvi. 112, P1. xxviii; xxii. 51, Pl. vi, vii; Marshall, J. R. A. S., 1908, pp. 1085-8, Pl. i. The copper bolt is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.
* ↑ Salmalia Malabarica (pentaphyllum). The cotton obtained from this tree was used on account of its elasticity.
* ↑ Shams-i-Sirâj, quoted in Cunningham, Reports, xiv. 78; and Carr Stephens, Archaeology of Delhi, p. 131 ; Elliot, Hist. India, iii. 350.
* ↑ Mukharjî, Antiquities in the Tarâi, Nepâl, p. 59; Z. D. M. G., vol. lxv. (1911), pp. 221-4.
* ↑ Ep. Ind.', i. 16; ii. 447; Cunningham, Reports, v. 9-22, Pl. iii-v; Foucher, in 11$^{me}$ Congrès des Orientalistes, Paris, p. 93. This recension is sometimes cited by the name of Kapurdagiri, a village two miles distant.
* ↑ Ep. Ind. ii. 447; Ind. Ant., xix (1890), p. 43, giving abstract of M. Senart's article in J. As.; Stein, Prog. Report, A. S. N. W. Frontier Prov., 1904-5, 13. 17. Brerî is the Kashmîrî equivalent of Bhaṭṭâriké. = Devî or Durgâ. The text is now nearly illegible.
* ↑ The correct name is Kâlsî, not Khâlsî, as in the hooks. Cunningham, Reports, i. 244, P1. xl; Inscriptions of Asoka, p. 12, Pl. iv; Ep. Ind. ii. 447; Pioneer Mail, 23 Sept, 1904. The boulder is not in danger of erosion by the river, as was at one time feared.
* ↑ Ind. Ant., i. 321; iv. 28:; vii. 259; Bhagwân Lâl Indrajî,'Sopâra' (J. Bo. Br. R. A. S., 1882, reprint); Prog. Report, A. S. W. I. for 1897-8, pp. 7-10, with map; I. G. (1908). s. v.
* ↑ A .S. W. I., vol. ii, p. 95, Pl. ix; Prog. Rep. A. S. W. I., 1898–9, p. 15; J. R. A. S., 1900, p. 335.
* ↑ Imp. Gazetteer (1908), s. v. Dhauli; Cunningham, Inscriptions of Asoka, p. 15; Reports, xiii. 95. A photograph of the 'elephant forms the frontispiece of E. Hist. of India.
* ↑ Cunningham, Inscr. of Asoka, p. 17; Reports, xiii. 112; Sewell, Lists of Antiq., Madras, i. 4; Ind. Ant. i. 219; Sir W. Elliot in Mad. J. Lit. and Science, April-Sept. 1858, p. 75; Prog. Rep. A. S. Madras, 1903-4, 1904-5, 1906-7. The inscription is now protected by a roof and iron railing.
* ↑ Rûpnâth is 14 miles west of Sleemanậbâd Railway Station. Cousens, Prog. Rep. A. S. W. I., 1903-4, para. 113; Bloch, Annual Rep. A. S. E. Circle, 1907-8, p. 19. Dr. Bloch obtained a good impression, which has not yet been published. See also Cunningham, Reports, vii. 58; ix. 38; and Inscr. of Asoka, p. 21, Pl. xxix; Ind. Ant., xxii. 298.
* ↑ Imp. Gazetteer (1908), s.v.'. Sasarâm; Cunningham, Inscr. of Asoka, p. 20.
* ↑ Cunningham, Reports, vi. 97; Inscr. of Asoka', p. 22. The hill has other names.
* ↑ The 'second Bairât rock' of Cunningham, Inscr. of Asoka, p. 24; Reports, ii. 247.
* ↑ 'The caves are described by Cunningham, Inscr. of Asoka, pp. 30-2; Reports, i, pp. 40-52, Pl. xviii—xx; and by Caddy, Proc. A. S. B., 1895, pp. 156-8. 'The Ajîvikas or naked ascetics. Tradition tells us that behind J etavana. [at Srâvastî] they used to practise false austerities. A number of the Brethren seeing them painfully squatting on their heels, swinging in the air like hats, reclining on thorns, scorching themselves with five fires, and so forth, in their various false austerities, were moved to ask the Blessed One whether any good resulted therefrom. "None whatever," answered the Master.' (Cowell and Francis, transl. Jâtakas, Introd. to No. 144, vol. i, p. 307.) See D. R Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant., xli (1912), p. 286: Hoernle, Encycl. Religion and Ethics, s.v.
* ↑ Annual Rep. A. S. 1904-5, p. 36.
* ↑ The Indian Empire, Imp. Gazetteer, vol. iv (1907), p. 416.
* ↑ Examples of Persian hon capitals may be seen in the Louvre, or reproduced in Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Persia (London, 1902).
* ↑ Sir II. Rawlinson, Memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions, vol. i, p. 312 ; Canon Rawlinson. Transl. of Herodotus, vol. iv, p. 177.
* ↑ 'Athenaeum, July 19, 1902.
* ↑ Strabo, Bk. xv, ch. 69; transl. McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 75; Herodotus, Bk. ix. 110; Ind. Ant. xxxiv (1905), p. 202.
* ↑ Le Bon, Les Momnuents de l'Inde (Paris, 1893), p. 15.