Emporer Asoka and the Five Greek Kings

Description

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, light was shed on the ancient history of India by the discovery and decipherment of a large number of royal edicts carved in forgotten alphabets on rocks and pillars. The edicts heralded the achievements of a king named Priyadarsi in "moral conquest" or dharma-vijaya⎯an ambitious program of public works and state-controlled moral reform for which he claimed success at home and in many foreign territories. Since Priyadarsi's edicts were found over a broad area of the Indian subcontinent, ranging from northern Pakistan to South India, it appeared that he was a powerful emperor of great historical importance. At first it was difficult to identify him with any known historical figure. But scholars surmised that Priyadarsi might be Asoka, an emperor who is mentioned in the dynastic lists of the Puranas and who is glorified in the Ceylonese Buddhist text Mahavamsa for his efforts to spread Buddhism. They therefore began to refer to Priyadarsi's inscriptions as the edicts of Asoka. They believed this identification was clinched by the discovery of inscriptions at Maski in 1919 and Gujarra in 1954 that referred to Priyadarsi as Asoka.