Maski Rock Edict : Missing link that Conclusively Connects Asoka with Devanam Piyadasi.

 Maski Rock Edict : Missing link that Conclusively Connects Asoka with Devanam Piyadasi.

Maski, a nondescript small town in Karnataka state, is located some 90 kms from my home town Raichur - the district headquarters of Maski. Maski is home to a historically significant rock edict ( Minor Rock Edict), which conclusively connects the Mauryan King Asoka with Devanam Piyadasi - one of the epithets attached to the emperor Asoka. The Maski Rock Edict and other Asoka rock and pillar edicts, which are spread across the Indian sub continent, constitute a unique branch of Indian epigraphical literature which have a special significance in the history of India,  particularly the Mauryan Empire. They offer earliest evidential records in the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts in several forms of Prakrit language and shed light on the great Emperor - Asoka, and his administration and religious policy and so also his love and compassion. 

Asoka (also spelled as Ashoka) is one of the world’s most remarkable rulers, whose style of administration and functioning has been revealed to us through the inscriptions that are found in rock and pillar edicts across the Indian sub continent. The rock edict discovered at Maski - known to the locals as Asoka Lipi, is classified under the category of  Minor Rock Edicts. Recently ( 13 -24th November) I visited Maski to meet my eldest sister, who had undergone a follow up surgery. During my trip to Maski I also visited the Ashokan Rock edict, which I used to visit quite frequently as a school boy with friends. My visit has motivated me to post this blog on the Maski Rock Edict.

My experience of the Asoka Lipi, during this visit was completely different. Now that I am working for the science museums for more than three decades and also have quite a number of friends in archeology, I was perhaps able to make better sense and understanding of the historical importance of the Maski Rock Edict.  Not much has changed at the Rock edict site, as far as the infrastructure facilities are concerned nor has there been any increase in the visitors visiting this site. There was neither any visitor nor any security guard or other persons at site when we visited this place. But then this very place, which I had visited many many times earlier, looked completely different to me this time around. Some how I felt that I have travelled back in time by more than 2000 years and the Rock edict inscriptions appeared to speak to me to convey their historicity and uniqueness. 

The Rock (Major and Minor) and pillar inscriptions of emperor Ashoka, who ruled most parts of India during the period 268‑232 BCE, are spread across the Indian subcontinent. These inscriptions are an important source of documentary evidence that have helped in reconstructing the history of India and also that of the great Mauryan empire, which ruled most parts of the Indian sub continent during the period 324‑187 BCE. The Ashokan rock edicts are the oldest and perhaps the largest corpus of royal inscriptions found in the Indian subcontinent. They are unique in their style and content, and form a rich source of information on Ashoka’s political ideas, ideologies and practices. The inscriptions help in unravelling the relationship between Ashoka and his new found love for Buddhism and understanding his concept of Dhamma ( Dharma). These rock edicts also help in understanding the functioning and administration of Ashoka and throw light on his relationship with Buddhism and it’s associated morals and virtues, which the King advocated to his subjects. The ‘Dhamma’ that Ashoka followed was not exactly Buddhism, but was mostly identical to it. Ashokan Dhamma appears to be a form of religious faith originally propagated by Bhagwan Gautam Buddha and it, perhaps, predates Buddhism, which spread far and wide beyond the Indian sub continent. The most significant part of the Ashoka’s Dhamma was ethics, which he attached to governance. It must be noted that during the ancient times - the Mauryan period - ethics in governance was uncommon and therefore Ashoka and his Dhamma were very unique to the ancient world. Ashokan Dhamma enshrined primacy to the propagation of morality within and beyond his empire. Ashoka also attached importance to nonviolence in his political thought and practice, especially his measures for the protection of animals, care for ecology, and his renunciation of war. The Ashokan rock edicts are a living testimony to these virtues of the great emperor Ashoka. He also introduced generosity and forbearance in politics and administration and was remarkable not only for his piety but also for his liberal and impartial dealings with his subjects. 

Most unfortunately the Ashokan rock edicts and his values and virtues that he propagated through these inscriptions were completely forgotten in few centuries, after the death of Ashoka. The Prakrit language, which was majorly prevalent during the Mauryan times, and the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts and inscriptions used in the edicts lost their glory since the Prakrit language and the scripts were replaced by other languages by the succeeding rulers. As a result Ashokan inscriptions became mostly indecipherable and therefore the importance of the inscriptions and their moral and ethical values were lost in history and completely forgotten for several centuries. It was only during the colonial rule by the British, who were also great chroniclers of history, that an English historian James Prinsep took profound interest in the study and understanding of the Ashokan rock inscriptions. Through his painstaking research and study, Prinsep helped us to bring Ashoka back into the national consciousness. He however could do this ‘standing on the shoulders of the giants’ who preceded him in trying to understand these inscriptions. James Princep’s interest in the Ashokan rock edicts were shaped by another British scholar - William Jones.  It was around 1794 that Jones came across a Ashokan pillar with ‘strange’ inscriptions.  He soon realised that similar inscriptions were scattered across the Indian Subcontinent in other pillars and Rock edicts. Scripts used in these rock and pillar edicts was Brahmi, which had remained undeciphered for several centuries. Interestingly the Britishers referred to this script as the ‘pin man script’ owing to the resemblance of stick figures in letters that are used in these inscriptions.

James Prinsep was a chemist who was working in Calcutta (now Kolkata) Mint. He became interested in numismatics and epigraphy (study of edicts and inscriptions) and took up the challenge of deciphering the Ashokan script. His interest in numismatics and his study of the newly excavated coins issued by Indo-Greek rulers, helped him in deciphering the script used in the rock edicts. The coins that he studied contained obverse text, which was written in Greek script and the same text was translated onto the reverse side in the Brahmi script. The coins that he studied, mostly contained only the names of the rulers and the monetary denomination of the coin. Prinsep needed more clues to better understand the Brahmi scripts. After close examination of his notes, some scholars believe that the repetitive word ‘danam’ (charity or donation) found on the Sanchi Stupa (built to venerate Gautama Buddha’s relics) was the missing clue that helped Prinsep crack the Brahmi script. Danam word was common on the Stupa because Buddhist monks relied on alms to meet their daily needs. Combining the coins, edicts and other inscriptions, Prinsep was able to finally decipher the inscriptions used in the edicts. Deciphering of the Brahmi script was however not helpful in solving some of the mysteries associated with these inscriptions, primarily who the king referred to in the inscriptions was. This was because the Maski Rock Edict was yet to surface. 

Prinsep’s deciphering the Brahmi script was a major breakthrough in understanding about the Ashokan edicts, primarily the pillar edicts, which had remained illusive for several centuries. However, there was still one major puzzle to be solved to make sense of the Mauryan Empire, particularly king Ashoka. Almost all the inscriptions found across India in different Rock edicts - main and minor rock edicts - and so also in the pillar edicts, the inscriptions include one or a combination of the three epithets  given to the king, in Sanskrit, namely Devanampriyah ( beloved of the gods) Priyadarsi and Raja. Some inscriptions contained a shortened title Devanampriyah (found in Rock Edict XII and XII)  and in the Minor Rock Edict found in  Bairat  the inscriptions mention the name as Priyadarsi Raja, and in the three Cave Inscriptions the title used is Raja Priyadarshi. In none of the rock or pillar or other inscriptions the titles alluded to which king the epithets Devanampriyah or Priyadarshi belonged to. Therefore, for many years archeologists, epigraphists and historians were not sure who Devanampriyah or Priyadarshi was. This missing link or the mystery was solved with the discovery and interpretation of the Maski Minor Rock Edict, in which the inscription clearly mentions ‘Devanampriya Asoka’. This important discovery helped in reconstructing the Mauryan history and therefore the Maski Rock Edict, although it is classified as a minor rock edict that was discovered in 1915, enjoys a special status among all the Ashokan edicts. The Maski edict finally laid to rest any possible doubts on the identity of the king who was responsible for these rock edicts, which are spread across India.

As stated above, Maski lies in the Raichur district, Karnataka, and is located some 85 kilometres to the west south west of the town of Raichur. Maski has been of great interest to archeologists and anthropologists and this interest is continuing even today. This is evidenced from a recent project ‘Maski Archaeological Research Project (MARP), which started in 2010 and is continuing. Just last year, in July 2019, two researchers - Andrew M. Bauer and Peter G. Johansen from the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, USA, and Department  of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, respectively,  published a paper entitled ‘The Maski Archaeological Research Project (2010–18): initial results from a multi-period interdisciplinary project on the Raichur Doab, Karnataka‘ in Current Science. This and many other research findings confirm the historicity of the town of Maski. Previous excavation of Maski, carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the 1950s, have shown that there were human occupations in this small town, which date back to the Neolithic period ( 3000 - 1200 BCE) The excavations further revealed that the occupations have continued through to medieval period (500 - 1500 CE). The Ashokan edict is a standing testimony to the historicity of this town, which goes back to the Mauryan period. According to Rao Bahadur, Hoskote Krishna Sastri (1870-1928), an eminent Indian Epigraphist who worked for the Archeological Survey of India and is credited for his work in deciphering the Brahmi Inscriptions of the Ashoka Edict at Maski, the village of Maski was once the capital of the house of rulers. He has said that Maski inscription have revealed an interesting fact that Maski was one of the notable towns of South India as early as the third century BC. 

The discovery of the Ashokan rock edict is relatively recent. It was on the 27th of January 1915, C Beadon, an engineer who was working for M/S. Taylor and Sons Company, in the Hyderabad Nizam province, accidentally discovered the Maski Rock edict. He was searching for ores of Gold in Maski area and accidentally discovered traces of an old inscription on a natural boulder at the entrance of the spacious cave on the south western slopes of the hill, which was very close to the village of Maski. The hill has been described as a typical South Indian Grannite outcrop some 400 to  450 feet high and 4000 feet long, which was surrounded by wide stretches of cotton soil land. With the help of one Mr. Basheeruddin, then first Taluqdar of Raichur,  Beadon carefully managed to work on the concealed inscriptions and succeeded in exposing seven lines of the inscriptions, which were engraved on the rock. He suspected that these inscriptions could be of historic importance and therefore took the assistance of the Bishop of the Hutti Gold mines and managed to prepare copies of the inscription. These copies were then sent for examination to Rao Bahadur H Krishna Sastri, who was then the incharge of the office of the government of epigraphist for India in the Hyderabad Nizam area. 

The news of the accidental discovery of the rock edicts and the mysterious inscriptions reached Mr. G. Yezdhani, then Superintendent  of Archeology Government of Nizam of Hyderabad. He too visited the rock edict site in Maski and examined the inscriptions and successfully managed in tracing the eighth and last line of the epigraph. Rao Bahadur Krishna Sastri himself examined the inscription and prepared big impression of the inscriptions by the middle of 1915. He then went on to study the inscriptions in detail and published a small monograph entitled ‘The New Ashokan edicts of Maski’, with Plates. This paper was published in the same year in one of the Hyderabad Archeological series by the Nizams government. Next year J F Fleet drew attention of the scholars to the inscription with his publication which was followed by another publication on this issue by E Senart, who examined the epigraph in further details. A German scholar, E Hultzsch reedited the inscription first in German and later again in English which he published under the title ‘ Inscriptions of Asoka’ in a journal in the year 1925. 

The discovery of the Maski Rock edict site and its location is best seen in the words of Krishna Sastri, who describes the inscription and its find spot in the following words : “The cavern in which the inscribed Boulder stands is formed of a huge rock resting at various points of its periphery on other smaller ones, some of which are partly buried in the gravelly soil below. The Boulder, which is a block of crystalline grey granite of irregular shape stands at the southern entrance into the cavern, with the writing facing inwards. The surface of the Boulder has peeled off at various places, some times right up to the depth to which the letters were incised, and measures roughly 8feet 9 inches by 5 feet. At the right hand corner of the bottom, a piece of the Boulder lies separated by a big crack which must have existed already at the time when the inscription was engraved on it, since the writing is not continued on that piece as otherwise it would have been. The lines are crooked and the letters vary in size, the largest being 4 3/4 inch in height and the smallest 2 inches. The inscribed surface curves inwards as we get to the last lines of the inscription and hence, perhaps, the jaggedness and irregularity of the letters in this part of the record”.  These words resonate when one visits the site and carefully look at the inscriptions. 

The Maski inscription belongs to the class known as the Minor Rock Edicts of Asoka and is a copy of MRE I. Before the one at Maski, versions of the same record had been discovered in six different parts of India. These were published by Hultzsch along with the Maski inscription in his corpus volume in 1925. Subsequently three more versions have been discovered during the next few years and two of these sites are in Karnataka at Gavimath and Palkigunda very close to the city of Koppal, which I hope to visit next time. The Maski Rock edict enjoys a position of paramount importance, not only among the versions of the Minor Rock Edicts but indeed among all Asoka records.  It’s extraordinary significance lies in the fact that the Maurya Emperor, who is called in his other epigraphs merely by the epithets or secondary names, Devanampriya Priyadarshi Raja (the King who is beloved of the Gods, and looks upon all with love) is mentioned at the Maski Rock edict by his personal name Asoka, known formerly from some literary works and a few later inscriptions together with the epithet Devanampriya.  

I earnestly hope that the Asoka Lipi at Maski is maintained in a much better way and that the importance and significance of this edict is communicated more effectively so that it attracts at-least some visitors, which I feel is not the case now.