Pilgrimage Special: Advice on Stone

King Asoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty was a cruel and ruthless king. He conquered Kalingas, a republic in central eastern India around 264 BCE, but the death of one hundred thousand people or more during the war left him remorseful. He thereafter converted to Buddhism and established a reign of virtue. In the nineteenth century, there came to light a large number of edicts, in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan inscribed in rocks and pillars, that proclaim Asoka's reforms and policies and promulgate his advice to his subjects. In New Delhi, I got to see a faded Asoka's edict on a rock...

Somewhere in New Delhi...






...stands an old rock with inscriptions... Asoka's Edict...