Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 37

FEBRUARY, 1927]
THE DATE OF ASOKA'S ROCK EDICTS
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dates mentioned in the edicts are dates of the different events alluded to. The dates of events are to be found in RE V, VIII and XIII, but those in RE III and IV refer to the edicts and not to events.
Again in the Sixth Pillar Edict Asoka says: "Since I was crowned twelve years, I have caused Dhammalipis to be written for the welfare and happiness of the people, so that giving up that (conduct), the officers might nurture this and that growth of Dhamma." This reference to the edicts cannot be to the PE because they are definitely known to belong to the 26th and 27th regnal years. What other edicts can this refer to but the RE, of which the third and the fourth definitely mention that they were issued or written after the twelfth year and before the thirteenth regnal year was over? The first four RE at least cannot be later than the 13th regnal year.
One small point must be noted. RE IV says that it was written, and not engraved as PE II and VII record. But as PE I, III and VI, of which the dates are settled, use the word "written," we may-safely ignore the difference between "written" and "engraved."
From another side we find that the RE are earlier than PE VII and the PE as a whole. These are some institutions and acts of Asoka which are mentioned in PE VII, but which are found only in the RE and not in the other PE, for instance, Dharma Mahamatras whose creation was a very important act of Asoka. In Asoka's eyes this institution was so important that he devoted the whole of RE V to describing their functions, in addition to referring to them in other edicts. Likewise we find no mention of almsgiving in PE, but we find it mentioned in PE VII and RE V, VIII and XI. There are a few more such instances which show that PE VII recapitulates some ideas and institutions to be found exclusively in the Rock Edicts, which, therefore, must be prior to PE VII.
Thus we are forced to conclude that at least the first four Rock Edicts belong to the 13th regnal year and the first two may be a little earlier, while the other Rock Edicts are certainly not later than the Pillar Edicts, particularly the 7th; and it is most probable that RE V to XIV belong to the 14th regnal year.
Coming to the Minor Rock Edicts, we find that it is not correct to place them, as Dr. Bhandarkar does, after the PE. For in MRE I we find this passage: "The Beloved of the Gods saith: 'It is more than two years and a half that I was lay-worshipper but did not exert myself strenuously. It is a year, indeed more than a year, that I have lived with the Sangha and have exerted myself. ." This indicates that the Edict was engraved about four years after Asoka became a Buddhist, i.e., a little more than a year after he entered the Sangha or became a monk. RE XIII tells us that directly after the conquest of Kalinga, which event happened in the 9th regnal year, began Asoka's zealous protection of the Dhamma. That is to say, Asoka became a Buddhist about three years before the Kalinga war, i.e., about the 6th regnal year, and entered the Sangha just after the conquest, and issued the Minor Rock Edict a little more than a year later, about the 10th regnal year and not the the 13th, as V. A. Smith and others hold. For if we accept Dr. Smith's view, Asoka became a Buddhist after the Kalinga conquest and a zealous one nearly three years later. But this contradicts the more reliable statement in RE XIII that Asoka's zealous protection of the law began directly after the conquest. Therefore the MRE must belong to the 10th regnal year.
Even if we accept Dr. Smith's view, the MRE fall in the 13th year and not after the PE. If we follow Dr. Bhandarkar and place the MRE about the 27th or 28th regnal year, it means that Asoka was converted to Buddhism in the 23rd or 24th regnal year. But RE XIII distinctly tells us that Asoka's zealous protection, longing for and teaching of the Dhamma began after the conquest of Kalinga in the 9th regnal year. Therefore we cannot place the MRE after the PE. Their real date must be somewhere about the 10th regnal year.