In what ways do you predict that Ashoka's Rock and Pillar Edicts are similar to rules and provisions in our Indian Constitution?
Answers
James Prinsep, a British antiquary and colonial administrator was the first person to decipher Ashoka’s edicts. These Ashoka’s inscriptions are the first tangible evidence of Buddhism.
They were kept in public places and along trade routes so that maximum number of people would read them. More than religious discourses, they talk about the moral duties of the people, how to conduct life, Ashoka’s desire to be a good and benevolent ruler, and about Ashoka’s work towards this end.
Ashoka inscriptions can be classified into three:
Pillar edicts,
Major rock edicts and
Minor rock edicts.
Pillar Edicts
There are seven pillar edicts.
Two types of stones are used: spotted white sandstone (from Mathura) and buff coloured sandstone and quartzite (from Amaravati).
All the pillars are monoliths (carved out of from stone).
They have been found from different places like Kandahar (Afghanistan), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan), Delhi, Vaishali and Champaran (Bihar), Sarnath and Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), and Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh).