Rock and Pillar Edicts of Asoka

Context

Crowned in the year 269 BCE, Asoka looked after the various affairs of the state while seeking to expand the territorial extent of the empire. After eight years he turned his attention toward the kingdom of Kalinga, located on the eastern coast of modern-day India (corresponding roughly to today's Orissa). The key event in the context surrounding the edicts was the Battle of Kalinga, fought in the year 261 BCE, which resulted in a victory for Asoka's forces. Kalinga, a coastal province, was powerful as well as prosperous owing to its role in oceanic trade. Kalinga had previously been under Indian rule, but it had gained independence at the beginning of the Maurya Empire (ca. 321 BCE). The Mauryas maintained a policy of territorial expansion, so Kalingan independence was regarded as a blow and a loss of prestige. Further, the Mauryas, based in Magadha (in the area of modern-day Bihar, south of the Ganges), felt encircled. On one side lay the kingdom of Chola, and on the other side lay Kalinga. Because both were enemies of the Mauryas, the latter regarded them as natural allies. When Asoka's father attacked Chola, it is likely that Kalinga aided Chola by attacking the Mauryas from the rear, rendering the invasion of Chola a failure. For this reason the Mauryas wished to subdue Kalinga, which Asoka apparently vowed to do when he ascended the throne.

Additionally, the maritime activities of Kalinga were a threat to the commercial and economic interests of Magadha. The latter was not a sea power; it depended on friendly states at its borders for access to the sea and the commercial gains that would result. Fear existed that Kalinga could impose a blockade, denying Magadha access to the sea. War with Kalinga seemed inevitable.

The famous Battle of Kalinga was fought in the year 261 BCE, resulting in victory for Mauryan forces; Kalinga was then incorporated into the Maurya Empire. But the killing of about 100,000 people, the imprisonment of 150,000, the displacement of many more, and the large-scale devastation resulting from the war moved Asoka. Although Buddhist traditions speak about the conversion of the remorseful ruler to Buddhism by the monk Upagupta after the Kalinga War, most probably Asoka adopted the new religion gradually, after a great deal of thinking. Regardless of the pace of his conversion, as a patron of Buddhism, Asoka changed the course of history not only on the Indian Subcontinent but also in the Far East and Southeast Asia.

After the Kalinga War, Asoka began to engrave his ideas on rocks and pillars as well as on the walls of caves, with the inscriptions serving as vehicles for circulating his agenda. Eschewing the earlier path of Brahmanic faith (that is, orthodox Hinduism), Asoka envisaged a new doctrine quite different as well from the avowed principles of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the transmigration of souls, and others. He propagated certain moral precepts, an approach common to all Indian religions, as inspired by Buddhism to a large extent but moving in a new direction toward lofty ideals pertaining to ethics and morality.

The edicts of Asoka are distributed over an extensive area encompassing present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, and India. An examination of the locations on a map of the region shows that they are distributed roughly in a circle around India's territorial boundaries. Most (but not all) of the Pillar Edicts are located in the north, while most (but not all) of the Rock Edicts are located in the south. The edicts can all be found along trade routes, in new communities, and at religious sites; the sites were not accidental, for the intention was to bring them to the attention of as many people as possible. About forty-two sites of inscriptions on rocks, pillars, and caves are presently known, as written in three languages—Prakrit, Aramaic, and Greek. Some, in fact, are not edicts per se but instead are dedicatory inscriptions. Although the general chronology of Asoka's era is uncertain, the inscriptions help in establishing dates, as the regnal years of the emperor are mentioned therein. The inscriptions were produced between 257 and 240 BCE.