The Edicts of Asoka

Ashoka’s edicts engraved on pillars, rock surfaces and tablets have been found in almost every region of India except the far south, and as far west as Kandahar in present day Afghanistan. These edicts are autobiographical and are primary authority in describing Ashoka’s life. Time has been required to ascertain the true meaning of the epigraphic records but the difficulties have now been solved for the most part although some still remain and we are able to obtain a fairly complete notion of Ashoka’s positive teachings and the gradual development of ideas which his great political power enabled him to impose upon a large section of the mankind. The importance of these edicts also lies in the history of Indian art, in the fact that, the monolithic pillars bearing these edicts have survived the ravages of time in widely separated parts of the subcontinent and the animals which form the crowning feature of these columns comprise the first important group of Indian stone sculptures.