Indian Antiquary Vol 13

SR No.: 032505
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 492
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 343

OCTOBER, 1884.]
FACSIMILES OF THE INSCRIPTIONS OF ASOKA.
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between the original lines of writing. The most serious damage that has been done to it is due to seven entire lines and the greater part of the eighth, line 16, having been entirely destroyed to make room for a circular inscription of Jahangir which is there engraved round the column.
man who is employed by me specially for such work, and who has attained great proficiency in it. My own share of the work has simply been to revise the lithographs, and to see that they corresponded in all details with the impressions from which they were made. In the case of inscriptions the letters of which are incised so deeply as those of these Asôka Edicts are, the depression of the paper into the letters leads, in the photographic process, to a slight shadow being cast in places over what should be the pure white interiors of the letters; of this, plenty of instances may be seen through out these plates. It could be remedied, of course, by clearing out the letters after the photograph has been transferred to the lithographic stone. But to do this to the extent that would be necessary would interfere with the purely mechanical nature of the litho. graphs; and, therefore, as the letters are sufficiently clear throughont in spite of these shadows, I have allowed the latter to remain as they are. With this sole exception, the plates now issued give absolutely faithful facsimiles of the original inscriptions and all their surroundings.
ALLAHBD. The large column standing in the Fort at Allah Abad contains three sets of Asoka inscriptions ;-Edicts I. to VI., in one block ;-and, on other parts of the pillar, two small inscriptions which General Cunningham has named the Queen's Edict and the Kausâmbi Edict. I publish, for the present, the first set only.
This block of writing begins on the south side of the pillar, towards the south-west, and ends on the north side, towards the north-east. The inscription covers an area of about 5 g" high by 4 3'' broad. The top line is about 17'3", and the bottom line about 11' 6'', above the place where the pillar starts from its present pedestal. The average size of the letters, - that is to say, of such letters as are written entirely on the lines of writing, -varies from 1 to it'. The inscription was boldly and deeply engraved, and has suffered but little from the weather, except where the surface of the stone itself has peeled off. And the present confused appearance of it is dne chiefly to the later inscriptions that have been engraved
DEHLI. The present plates are from the pillar which is known by the name of Firoz Shah's All or the Siwalik Pillar, and which stands in a very conspicuous position on the top of a threestoreyed building, about half a mile to the south of the south-east corner of the walls of the city, and on the right bank of the river Jamni.
The pillar contains five blocks of Asoka inscriptions, arranged, with small blank spaces between them, as follows, -on the north side, Edicts I., II., and III., covering a space of about 4' 9'' high by 2' 3' broad; on the west side Edict IV., covering a space of about 4' 4" high by 2' 1" broad; on the south side, Edict V., covering a space of about 4' 6'' high by 2' 5" broad; and on the east side, Edicts VI. and VII., covering a space of about 4' 9'' high by 1' 11" broad. The top lines of these blocks are on the same level all the way round, and are about 17' 9'' high above the level of the plinth from which the pillar rises. Immediately below the bottom line on the east side,-almost in the same line vertically with the first letters of each line of Edicts VI. and VII. ; and separated from the latter by only the ordinary space between each line,-there commences the fifth block of writing, which, following General Cunningham, I have described on the plate as Edict VIII. or the Circnlar Edict, but which Dr. Bühler shows below to be only an amplification of Edict VII. The writing here covers a space of about 2' 6' high by 9' Obroad, and runs all round the pillar with the exception of a blank space that varies from 3' at the end of line 1 to 57' at the end of line 10. The curve in the lines that is presented in the lithograph, is due, of course, to the fact that the pillar tapers as it ascends ; on the original pillar, the letters of each line are on the same level all the way round. The bottom line of this circular inscription is about 10'6" above
"To sconomise space, this gap in the inscription has, in the lithograph, been reduced in greater proportion
than the rest of the inscription.