The Asoka Inscriptions: Analysing A Corpus

The Asoka Inscriptions: Analysing a Corpus attempts a textual and literary analysis of the inscriptions of Asoka—the oldest in India—and their relationship as a corpus. Unique in both content and format, the inscriptions primarily engage with ideas of good kingship and dhamma rather than with donations made or the celebration of territorial conquests, the usual topics of later inscriptions. They are also characterized by a division that determined their distribution across the realm: the Rock Edict Series (consisting of fourteen edicts) was intended for people living near the borders of Asoka’s realm while the Pillar Edict Series (six in number) was meant for people living at the empire’s centre. Meant to be part of a project to commemorate Asoka, the inscriptions also testify to the existence of an epistolary tradition in the subcontinent, as the texts themselves were selected by later Maurya kings from the letters sent by Asoka to his representatives across the empire. A detailed study of the texts also allows a fresh look at many old problems such as those concerning the monument commemorating the Buddha’s birth, mentioned in the Lumbini inscription, while raising new questions like the apparently random order of the individual edicts of the Rock Edict Series in Erragudi, which differs significantly from those at other sites.