Who were called Prativedakas and What was their main duty?
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Answer:
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Explanation:
This vast empire stretching from the valley of oxus of kaveri delta in the south.
Chandra Gupta Maurya (CGM) is the first Indian ruler who followed up the political unification of north India by extending his conquests beyond the barriers of vindhyas so as to bring both north and the south under the umbrella of one paramount power.
I.SOURCES OF MAURYAN HISTORY
1. Epigraphical evidence
The edicts of asoka are the oldest, the best preserved and the most precisely dated epigraphic records in India. the mystery of these epigraphs was unveiled by james princep in 1837, whe he deciphered the asokan brahmi script of these epigraphs and identified king “piyadassi” of the edicts with the asoka on the testimony of sri lankan chronicle dipavamsa and mahavastu, in which the title of piyadassi was given to asoka.
Asokan ins’s are of two types:
1. The smaller group consists of the declarations of the king as a lay Buddhist, which describe his own acceptance of Buddhism and his relationship the samgha.
2. The second group of imp ins’s described as proclamations (sasanas), consisting of the major and minor rock edicts and the pillar edicts describe his famous policy of dhamma.
A few ins’s were shifted from their original places. Two pillars – one from Topra (Haryana) and another from meerut (UP) were shifted to delhi by FST.
The Allahabad pillar was believed to have been originally at kaushmabi and was shifted to Allahabad by akbar.
The bairat was removed to Calcutta by cunninghan. On the basis of their content, character and chronology, these edicts are classified into nine groups.
(i) Fourteen major rock edicts: these 14 major rock edicts inscribed on large boulders were located at:
Kalsi (dehradun, UP), mahsehra (hazra dist, pakistan) and shahbazgiri (in Peshawar dist, Pakistan), Girnar (Gujarat), Sopara (near Bombay, MH), Dhauli and Jaugada (both in orissa), maski and yerragudi (both in AP).
(ii) Minor Rock Edicts: these minor rock edicts and ins’s have been found at Bairat, rupnath, sahsaram, rupnath, brahmagiri, gavimath, jatinga-rameshwar, maski (which for the first time mention king’s personal name Asoka), palkigundu, rajula-mandagiri, suvarnagiri, siddapura, yerragudi, gujjara and ahraura.
(iii) Northern Edicts: of the two northern edicts, the one found at taxila (Pakistan) is written in aramic script and the other found at kandahar (afghanistan) is bilingual, being inscribed in greek and aramic.
(iv) seven pilla edicts: seven pillar edicts exist at Allahabad, delhi-topra, delhi-meerut, nigali-sagar, lauriya-araraja, lauriya-nandangarh and rampura