Emperor Ashoka in our Backyard
When we were in school in Mansehra, we often passed by a small signboard along the road at the northern edge of the town. The signboard read Ashoka Inscribed Rocks, and an arrow pointed to the hill across the clear mountain stream, Bhoot Katha (goblins’ Creek), that flowed through the town.
Even though Ashoka was briefly mentioned in our school books, the teachers never mentioned the rocks or took us there to see what was written on them. Some of us would occasionally go to the hill on our own, climb the rocks, slide down them for fun, and try to see the barely visible engravings written in some mysterious language, but we never knew what they were about.
If they graduated before Pakistan’s textbooks were rewritten, the readers would know from their history books that Ashoka was a grandson of Chandra Gupta Maurya and the third king of the Maurya dynasty. His empire, with its capital at Patna (Pataliputra) in Bihar, Eastern India, extended up to and including parts of present-day Afghanistan.
After a particularly bloody war in Kalinga (Orissa), Ashoka renounced all kinds of violence and converted to Buddhism. He even started propagating Buddhism actively and formulated what was called the Law of Piety, a set of rules of conduct and governance. He started enforcing the particular law throughout his empire. Without any means of mass communication, he disseminated his message by edicts inscribed upon rock surfaces and pillars of polished sandstone in the language of the time. These rocks and pillars stood by the major highways of Ashoka’s empire.
After Ashoka‘s death, the Mauryan empire fell apart, and, except in Buddhist circles, where he was remembered as a great patron of the faith, history and Indian tradition largely forgot him.
It was only in the mid-nineteenth century that Ashoka was rediscovered when a large number of rocks and pillars bearing Ashoka’s edicts came to light. The rocks were found at sites spread across Northern India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
James Princep (died 1838), a British researcher, painstakingly translated these inscriptions into English, and through these translations, the world rediscovered Ashoka and concluded he was a great king. There are only two kings in Indian history who are called great: Ashoka and Akbar.
“In the history of the world, there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves ‘their highnesses,’ ‘their majesties,’ ‘their exalted Majesties,’ and so on,” HG Wells wrote in The Outline of History. “They shone for a brief moment and as quickly disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day.”
Of all the rock sites discovered, two are in Pakistan, both in the NWFP (now called KPK), one in village Shahbaz Garhi, district Mardan, and the other in Mansehra along the Karakoram Highway. (One site is in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the remaining in Nepal and India.)
While the world rediscovered Ashoka in the mid-19th century, I discovered him, or rather what was written on those rocks, only in 2008, when I stopped by the Rocks in Mansehra.
I had seen these rocks, as I mentioned before, when we were in school, but never paid much attention to them, as there was no explanation available at the site either explaining the presence of the rocks there or what was written on them. The rocks lay embedded in the hillside, as they must have been, unprotected from elements for over two thousand years, their engravings weathered but still visible. The rocks are huge, grey granite boulders, few among the numerous such boulders scattered all over the hill, deposited here many thousands of years ago, possibly the result of a volcanic eruption or some other geologic event.
Only 3 rocks have the edicts engraved upon them, two in one place and one about 100 yards away, across the road. These rocks were largely unnoticed, exposed to the elements and humans.
During the 1970s, the Karakoram Highway was built, following the footprints, we were told, of the fabled Silk Route. The highway brought increased tourist traffic to the Northern Areas, and suddenly, it seems the archaeology department, or whoever, woke up to the presence of the “Ashoka Rocks” in the area and built canopies over the rocks to protect them from sun and rain. They also built a gated enclosure around them and installed a large billboard at the site, which gave an English translation of the edicts.
However, it seems they could not find a board large enough to accommodate the entire text of the edicts. Consequently, M. Shabbir Rahi — that was the name of the writer/painter I found signed in the corner of the board — masterfully squeezed the whole text into the space available to him. He did this by writing without any punctuation marks and doing away with the spaces between the words. To complicate matters further, Mr. Rahi decided to capitalize the first letter of every word. This was probably his way of indicating a space between the words. He even dropped words from some sentences to further economize on space, making the message unintelligible. Now you know why I could not read the edicts on my earlier trips.
This time, I made a determined effort to decipher the message on the board. I took a picture of the text, copied it on paper, and broke it into sentences. (I guess translating from the original text into English would not have been more difficult.) Here is the result, and I quote:
- The general theme of the edicts is moderation and gentleness. This lesson the king had learned from the misery and destruction caused by his early conquests of Kalingas of Eastern India.
- Now even animals should be spared. Formerly, in the royal kitchen, each day, many thousands of living creatures were slaughtered to make curries. But now only three creatures, namely two peacocks and one deer, are killed daily, and deer not always. And in time, not even these three creatures will be killed.
- And more positive steps have also been taken. Healing herbs had been used alike for men and beasts. Trees had been planted and wells dug beside the roads.
- Moral agents, censors of the Law of Piety, had been appointed to inculcate obedience and liberty, and avoid excess among all classes of the empire and even amongst neighboring peoples.
- But all this goodwill must be combined with efficiency. For a long time past, the business had not been disposed of, nor have reports been received promptly at all hours. The laxity would cease in the future. The king would be available at all hours of the day or night. Work must be done for public benefit — for no other end than this.
- That I may debt to animate beings, and that while I may make some happy in this world they may in the next world gain heaven.
- For better contacts with his subjects, the king had replaced the former royal tours of pleasure with tours devoted to piety, beholding the country and the people, and proclaiming the law of virtue.
- Silly customs should be abandoned. On occasions of sickness, weddings, births, deaths, and the like women perform many corrupt and worthless ceremonies. But the only ceremonies worthwhile are the ceremonies of piety and kind treatment of slaves and servants.
- Honor to teachers, respect for life, liberality to ascetics and Brahmins.
- In brief, let there be tolerance and glorification of the Law of Piety.
If there had been a suggestion box on the site, I would have liked to make three suggestions and ask a question. While the suggestions are for the Archaeology Department or whoever looks after these rock sites, the question is addressed to whoever cares to answer.
1. Please find a good translation of the edicts and write them properly on a larger board. If necessary, use two boards. You may use M. Shabbir Rahi's services again if he is still in business, but please ensure that he uses the conventional method of writing English.
2. Show Urdu translation on a separate board for those who cannot read English.
3. Please do something — I am sure there must be a way — to protect the engraved writing on the rocks from fading away. They are already barely visible.
Question: How come this region, which has seen so many sires, sages, saints, and Sufis preach tolerance and non-violence more than in any other part of the world, is faced with so much intolerance and violence?
Talking to the caretaker, I found that back in 2002 (when the era of “Enlightened Moderation” was just beginning to dawn in Pakistan), someone tossed a hand grenade at a group of foreign tourists visiting the rocks. Luckily, no significant damage was done to the tourists or the rocks besides minor injuries to some visitors. The attack did, however, scare away any potential tourists. The rocks, with their benign message, have been sitting here quietly for over two thousand years. One hopes that they will remain undisturbed in the future as well.
Fast Forward to March 9, 2024:
I visited the rocks again on March 9, 2024, a mostly sunny day. Sunshine filtered through the pine groves on the hills. The drive from Islamabad to Mansehra was a smooth and comfortable two-hour drive on the Motorway, but from the city's entrance on the Karakoram Highway to the rocks, it was chaos. It took us more than 20 minutes to cover a distance of four kilometers.
The Goblins’ Creek, which used to be a clear mountain stream where children swam and women washed clothes, looks like an open sewer now. The city’s raw sewage flows into it, and people dump solid waste into it. They have also encroached upon the waterbed by extending their property lines on stilts.
Note: The essay was originally written and published on February 6, 2008
