Ashoka (d. 273-236BC), the Mauryan emperor, is closely associated with Gandhara, the ancient name of the Peshawar valley. He sent Madhyantika, a saint, who converted people of the area to Buddhism. It was a part of his empire from the time of his grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya. His son Kunala ruled from Pushkalavati (lotus city), the earliest capital of Gandhara, now Charsadda town in Peshawar division.
Though Ashoka committed horrible atrocities in the Kalinga war, later he repented of that great blood bath and changed his religion. He openly declares in the ‘Bhabru Edict’ his faith in the ‘Three Jewels’ of Buddhism. He also went on a pilgrimage of the holy places with which the Buddha was associated.
Ashoka had his Dharma, i.e. the ‘Law of Piety’ engraved on rocks and pillars in order to spread Buddhism. It contained these fundamental principles: (1) mastery of the sense, (2) purity of thought, (3) gratitude, (4) steadfastness of devotion, (5) kindness, (6) charity, (7) purity, (8) truthfulness, (9) service, (10) support and (11) reverence.
The Ashoka’s edicts carved on rocks have been discovered at Kalsi, Sopara, Girnar, Dhauli, Jaugada, Maski and Yeraguddi in India and at Shahbaz Garha and Mansehra in the NWFP. The language in which all the Ashokan inscriptions are composed is a form of Prakirit, that is to say, a vernacular similiar to Sankrit, Pali and Prakrit , but not identical to any one of them.
Though the 14 edicts enunciate the leading principles of the Buddhism, there is no mention of the Buddha nor of his teachings as such. Even the name of Ashoka is not written on a single monument. His name occurs in minor rock edicts at Maski and Gujarra in India. The titles of the emperor, Devanampriaya (beloved of the gods) and Priyadarsin (one of the amiable look) appears again and again in the edicts at Shahbaz Garha and other places in India. The inscriptions on rocks reveal the steps taken by Ashoka for the propagation of his ‘Law of Piety’.
Shahbaz Garha is a village, 8 miles east of Mardan, on the road to Swabi. It stands on the left bank of the river Muqam, surrounded by hills in the northeast and a flat plain in the south. The ancient highway to India passed across it. It was a meeting place of all the important routes. For this reason, Ashoka had his inscriptions carved on rocks here so that all the people should read his ‘Law of Piety’. It is incised on a large shapeless rock on the slope of the hill. Its western face looks down towards the village. Edicts I to XI are on the east face, edict VII is entered on the left at the top of the rock, and edicts XIII and XIV are on the west face while edict XII is engraved on the smaller rock on the plain.
General Court, a French officer of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the first to mention the Kharoshthi inscriptions of Shahbaz Garha in 1836. When he copied a few letters and circulated them to Captain Burnes, who was in Peshawar in 1838, and sent a person who brought an imperfect paper impression of the inscription on the rock. Mr Masson also obtained a partial impression on a piece of white cloth through a young man in the same year. He then visited Shahbaz Garha himself and prepared fresh copies of the inscriptions. They were taken to Europe and studied by Mr Norris, who first read in them the word Devanampriaya. This discovery aroused interest in the mind of Mr Dowson, who declared that the Shahbaz Garha edict VII was the duplicate of the inscription at Girnar in India. Norris further confirmed that the front of the rock at Shahbaz Garha contained edicts I to XI, and traced on the back of it portions of edict VIII. He also published the text of edict VII. In 1850 Wilson contributed a tentative copy of both faces of the Shahbaz Garha rock, accompanied by plates drawn by Norris from Masson’s copies. An independent copy of the inscriptions was prepared by Cunningham in 1873.
Senart’s copy was based on the same imperfect material. Pandit Bhagvanlal Idraji furnished fresh copies and other versions of Edict I and Edict VIII. Senart published the results of his examination of edict I to XI. The missing edict XII was discovered on the smaller rock by Captain Deane, the assistant commissioner at Mardan. This was edited by both Senart and by Professor Buhler, a German palaeographer. The latter published the whole version with a fresh copy and a translation.
Sir Aurel Stein, the curator of the Peshawar Museum, had prepared impressions of the inscription before 1922 on the orders of Sir John Marshall, director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). They became torn and damaged due to frequent use by scholars. Later Mr Hargreaves, another curator of the Peshawar Museum prepared a fresh set of ink stamps with great care and skill, enabling Dr. E. Hultzsch to publish the entire version and translation of Ashoka’s rock edicts at Shahbaz Garha in 1925.
Ashoka’s various inscriptions are written in the Brahmi script in India but in the Kharoshthi script at Shahbaz Garha. This is read from right to left.
Earlier, the script was known as Indo-Bactrian and Ariano-Pali. Professor Buhler restored the indigenous name of Kharoshthi. It is derived from Aramaic and was introduced into Gandhara by the Achaemnian emperors of Iran around 5th century B.C., when it was a part of their empire. The credit for its decipherment goes to Prinsep, Lassen, Norris and Cunningham.
Ashoka (d. 273-236BC), the Mauryan emperor, is closely associated with Gandhara, the ancient name of the Peshawar valley. He sent Madhyantika, a saint, who converted people of the area to Buddhism. It was a part of his empire from the time of his grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya. His son Kunala ruled from Pushkalavati (lotus city), the earliest capital of Gandhara, now Charsadda town in Peshawar division.
