The Dissemination of Aśoka’s Rock and Pillar Edicts

Abstract

The corpus of inscriptions attributed to the Maurya emperor Aśoka1 includes two sets of inscriptions which each appear as a series. The Rock Edict (RE) series consists of fourteen consecutive proclamations carved on large boulders at nine widely scattered sites (including the fragments of Sōpārā and Sannathi); the Pillar Edict (PE) series consists of seven proclamations found on free-standing pillars at six different places.2 With one exception (in Eṟṟaguḍi),3 the edicts occur everywhere in exactly the same order. This would suggest that the texts of both the Rock and Pillar Edicts were received at those places as existing and complete series. However, as far as I know this conclusion has never been explicitly drawn. Instead, all options regarding this matter seem to have been kept open. Thus, Norman, for instance, writes: “the fact that at all sites ... PEs 1-6 were inscribed while the pillars were lying horizontally on the ground implies either that all six edicts were received at the same time, or that the scribes were informed that more edicts were on their way and the pillars should not be raised until they