Mauryan Pillars and Rock Edict Around Delhi

           The history of the Indian art begins with the advent of the Mauryan as the india has no remarkable ancient monument prior to the Mauryan period. Mauryan Empire was the first Empire to rule over most of the Indian sub-continent.  The Great Mauryan King Ashoka’s Magnificent Pillars, Great Stupas, Rock Edicts and Breathtaking Caves are the most prominent examples of Indian Art.

Edicts

 

           The Edicts of Ashoka are inscriptions on the Pillars as well as Boulders and Cave Walls made by the Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire. These inscriptions are dispersed throughout the Mauryan Empire presently India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan and represent the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. These Edicts are written in several languages and scripts, but most of those found in India are written in Prakrit, using the Brahmi script. The edicts describe in the Ashoka's view about dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of problems that a complex society faced.

 

The Ashokan Rock Edicts near Kalkaji Temple in Delhi

           The Ashokan edicts in Delhi are a series of edicts on the teachings of Buddha created by Ashoka. The Rock Edict in Delhi was discovered in an engraved form on a small patch of rock exposure near Kalkaji temple. The edict is written in Brahmi script was a first person message of Ashoka, which exhorts people to follow the Buddhist way of life. It is inscribed on a rock surface with irregular lines and letter size with a number of lines not clearly decipherable. This Edicts proves that the First City of Delhi was established by the Great Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during the period of 273-236 BC. The Rock Edict bespeaks of Asoka's exertion in the cause of Dhamma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pillars

 

          The finest specimens of Indian art are Ashoka’s monolithic pillars. All of the Ashokan pillars were made out of sandstone rocks quarried from Chunar in the Mirzapur District of Uttar Pradesh. Each pillar is made of a single piece of stone. The pillars were cut gracefully, proportioned, dressed, finely polished into circular columns, and carved with edicts, before being transported to various locations in the country. Two were transferred to Delhi in the 14th century by Feroz Shah Tughlaq.

The Ashokan Pillar at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi (Topra, Ambala Pillar)

 

Ashokan Pillar in Feroz Shah Kotla, was shifted in 1356 by the order of Feroz Shah Tughlaq from Topra near Ambala to Delhi called the Delhi-Topra pillar. It is said that the Ashokan Pillar was wrapped in silk cloth while bringing it to Delhi and later after being encased in reed and raw skin was placed on a 42-wheel carriage. Two hundred men pulled the cart to Yamuna bank where it was transferred to boats and carried to Firozadabad and then to Kushal.  Firoz Shah Tughlaq built a pyramidal structure of three storey over which the pillar was placed This Pillar is 13 metres (43 ft) high (with one metre below the platform) and made of sandstone. It is finished very well.  The building that houses the pillar has a large number of small domed rooms in the first and second floors, with links to the roof. Rooms on each floor have arched entrances. It is a pyramidal shaped structure with reducing size at each level with the pillar installed on the terrace of the building. It is conjectured that originally the pillar had a lion capital (similar to the Ashoka Emblem), which is the National Emblem of India. Feroz Shah Tughlaq is said to have embellished the top of the pillar with frescoes in black and white stone topped with a gilded copper cupola. But at present, what is visible is the smooth polished surface of the pillar, and an elephant carving added much later.   

 

At the time of re-installation of the pillar in Delhi, no one knew the meaning of the script engraved on the stone. About five hundred years later, the inscription in Prakrit in Brahmi script commonly used  language in everyday speech at that time was deciphered by James Prinsep, a renowned scholar in Indian antiquarian studies, in 1837 with help from scripts discovered on other pillars and tablets in South Asia.  The inscription on the 3rd century pillar describe King Devanampiya Piyadasi's policies and appeal to the people and future generations of the kingdom in matters of Dharma, moral precepts and freedoms and ideals of civilized living to bring peace and harmony to the vast empire.

 

The Ashokan Pillar at Bara Hindu Rao, Delhi (Meerut Pillar)

 

The second Ashokan pillar was shifted to Delhi from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh in the year 1356 by Feroz Shah Tughlaq and erected at a location in the northern ridge of Delhi, close to his hunting palace Pir Ghaib near Bara Hindu Rao Hospital. It was an elaborately planned transportation, from its original location, using a 42-wheeled cart to bring it up to the Yamuna river bank and then further transporting it by the Yamuna river route using barges. As seen now, it is of10 metres (33 ft) height but the pillar was damaged in an explosion during the rule of Farrukshiar (1713–19). The five broken pieces were initially shifted to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta and later brought back in 1866 and re-erected in 1887. There are seven main inscriptions and many minor inscriptions in this pillar, all written in the Brahmic script.