Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 458

No. 61–NOTE ON SHAR-I-KUNA INSCRIPTION OF ASOKA
D. C. SIROAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 21.7.1959) A rock inscription of the Maurya emperor Asoka (c. 269-232 B.C.) was recently discovered in a locality called Shar-i-Kuna near Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan, that is to say, in the vicinity of the site of the ancient city of Alexandria founded by Alexander the Great in Arachosia. It is a bilingual record, one of its two versions being in Greek and the other in Aramaic. Both the versions of the inscription have been published in Italian by U. Scerrato, G. Tucci, G. P. Carratelli and G. L. della Vida in a small book entitled Un editto bilingue greco-aramaico di Asoka-La prima isorizione greca scoperta in Afghanistan, Rome, 1958, and in French by D. Schlumberger, L. Robert, A. Dupont-Sommer and E. Benveniste in the Journal Asiatique, 1958, No. 1, pp. 1 ff. A paper on the same inscription received by us from Prof. J. Filliozat is appearing in the pages of this journal, below, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 1 ff.
The Shar-i-Kuna inscription is an edict referring to the results of Asoka's propagation of what he called his Dharma and we know that such results are referred to in some of his other edicts, especially in Minor Rock Edicts I-II and Rock Edict IV. The two versions of the Shar-i-Kana inscription are really independent free translations of an edict (or two versions of an edict) that may have been drawn up in Prakrit at Akoka's Record Office at Pāțaliputra and sent to his Viceroy and the Mahāmātras at Alexandria in Arachosia for being translated into Greek and Aramaio no doubt for respectively the local Greek (Yavana) and Kamboja subjects of the Maurya emperor, who are referred to in Rock Edicts V and XIII. The Aramaic text refers to & fact recorded in Rock Edict I that formerly numerous birds and animals used to be killed daily at Asoka's kitchen for the preparation of curries, but that, at the time of the issue of Rock Edict I, only three living beings were being killed for the same purpose. The Aramaic version also mentions the Maurya king clearly as the lord of the people and officers of the Kandahar region where the edict was engraved. No clear allusion to these is found in the Greek text. Likewise there is mention of the king's hunters only in the Greek text and not in the Aramaic vereion. We may regard the Shar-i-Kuna inscription as Minor Rock Edict IV.
The Greek version of the Shar-i-Kuna edict has been satisfactorily deciphered and interpreted. though there are some doubtful passages in the Aramaic version. The importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it not only proves the inclusion of Afghanistan, apparently the home of the Yavanas and Kambojas, in Asöka's empire but also quotes the date when the emperor became a zealous propagator of Dharma.
The Greek version of the Shar-i-Kuna edict has been translated into French as follows: (A) Dix ans étant révolus, le roi Piodassés a montré aux hommes la Pieté. (Ten
years having passod [since his coronation), king Priyadarsin has shown Piety
to the people.) (B) Et depuis lors il a rendu les hommes plus pieux, et tout prospère sur toute la terre.
(And, since then, he has rendered the people more pious, and all prosper on the
whole earth.) 1 Asöka could not have issued such an edict to the subjects of a foreign ruler.
The Bairic-Bhabr1 inscription may be regarded as Minor Rock Edict Ill. See my Inscriptions of Asoka, Delhi, 1957, pp. 27, 38-39.
There is some difference between the views of the Italian and French scholars. We have followed the latter. A study of the Aramio version by F. Altheim and R. Stiebl has since appeared in East and West, September 1958, pp. 192 ff.
The use of Past Tense is required here since the following sentence nakes it clear that the reference is to an earlier event.
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