ABSTRACT
The Aśokan Edicts of Junāgadh, dating from about 250 B.C., are a series of moral laws and regulations carved onto a rounded granite boulder. They are now housed in a small building open to tourists on a road running east from the town center. The edicts were carved onto this and other stones and pillars in India at the behest of the Mauryan emperor Aśoka, who ruled from 272 to 235 B.C. over the most expansive Buddhist empire India has ever seen. The Mauryans came to power during uncertain times following the invasion (and then retreat) of Alexander the Great in 326 B.C. At its height, the Mauryan Empire extended over all of modern-day India with the exception of the southern tip of the subcontinent; it unified the diverse cultures of India for almost 140 years. The founder of the empire and grandfather of Aśoka, Candra Gupta Maurya (ruled c. 321-297 B.C.), built and expanded the empire from his base in Pātaliputra (mod ern-day Patna). Candra Gupta abdicated in 301 B.C. to be come a Jain monk; while living in a monastery, he fasted until he died. Bindusāra (ruled c. 297-272 B.C.), Candra Gupta's son and successor, expanded greatly upon his father's already significant military successes. By the end of his reign,
Bindusāra had extended the empire to include all of India as far west as the heart of modern-day Afghanistan (including Junāgadh), as far north as the Himalayas, as far east as the Ganges Delta and as far south as modern-day Mysore. Until the reign of Aśoka, one area in India remained hostile and unconquered: Kalinga, an independent state on the Bay of Bengal. In 261 B.C., Aśoka invaded Kalinga. He conquered this defiant state only after a savage and costly war, during which approximately 100,000 fell in battle and many tens of thousands more died of disease and malnutrition.
