INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 369 



In 1877 General Cunningham brought out the first volume of the 

 " Corpus Inscriptionum Ihdicaruin," containing the inscriptions 

 of Asoka. These edicts are the earliest Indian inscriptions yet 

 discovered, and are of two distinct classes, generally known as rock 

 inscriptions and pillar inscriptions, to which may be added a few 

 cave inscriptions in Behar and Orissa. The six rock inscriptions 

 present six different texts of the same series of edicts, published 

 by Asoka in 253 and 251 B.C. They are found at far-distant 

 places : three being on the extreme northern, two on the eastern, 

 and one on the western borders of India, thus showing the wide 

 extent of Asoka's rule, as well as the great care which he took 

 about the promulgation of his edicts in remote parts of his dominions. 

 Asoka was the third prince of the Maurya dynasty, and the 

 grandson of Chandragupta, who was identified by Sir "William Jones 

 with Sandrakoptos, the contemporary of Seleukos Nikator. The 

 edicts themselves are fourteen in number, and were summarised by 

 James Prinsep.* Their main object, as expounded by Wilson, appears 

 to be the exaltation of moral obligations over all ceremonial practices, 

 over a religion of rites ; the enjoining, in preference to the sacrifice 

 of animals, obedience to parents, affection for children, friends, and 

 dependents, reverence for elders, Sramans, and Brahmans, universal 

 benevolence and unreserved toleration. Wilson concludes his account 

 with the following words : " The edicts may be taken as historical 

 " evidence that Buddhism was not yet fully established, and that 

 " Priyadasi or Asoka was desirous of keeping peace between it and 

 " its predecessor by inculcating social duties and universal toleration 

 " in place of either ritual or dogma." 



The inscriptions of Asoka are also invaluable for the study of the 

 vernacular languages of India, as they furnish several undoubted 

 texts of the common language of the people in the 3rd Century 

 B.C. This spoken language was essentially the same in the region 

 lying between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, from the banks 

 of the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges. The written character is 

 two-fold — one called Ariano-Pali, and read from right to left, which 

 is found on the Shahbaz-garhi rocks, in the Yusufzai district, on 

 the extreme north-west, and on three large boulders at Mansahra, in 

 the Hazara district, and which is also found on the coins of the 

 Greek and Indo-Scythian princes of Ariana ; the other, Indo-Pali, 



* Journal, Bengal Asiatic Society, VII., 220. 

 i Y 20321. _£. a 



