Inscriptions of Ashoka

Naresh Prasad Rastogi (b. 1942) has a brilliant academic career and is widely traveled in India and abroad. Dr. Rastogi is keenly devoted to the study of Indian palaeography. Besides the present work, he has also written a book on the inscriptions of Asoka consisting of two parts. In the first part which has been printed out, the author has not only included all the Asokan inscriptions discovered to date but also amended and revised large number of readings of the previous stalwarts. The second part of the book comprising plates is in the press. Thus Dr. Rastogi’s above mentioned work is the second comprehensive and critical corpus of Asokan inscriptions after Hultzsch. His another work entitled Mauryan Palaeography which is under publication, is an intensive study of the origin and development of the Mauryan Brahmi letters. In this book the author has also made a comparative study of Asokan inscriptions on one hand and that of later Indian and south Asian epigraphs on the other. Dr. Rastogi has evinced keen interest in Indian palaeography and has made his mark in the field. He has been teaching in the Department of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, Lucknow University, Lucknow since 1969. Much more work is expected from the pen of this brilliant young scholar.