Incessant rain for the last four days brought down a heritage building in Junagadh late on Thursday night, but Ashoka’s inscription —14 Rock Edicts inscribed on a huge stone-survived miraculously.
The Emperor Ashoka’s Inscription Memorial building is located on the route to Mount Girnar, the tallest mountain in Junagadh, Gujarat. Generally, most of the inscriptions of Ashoka carved on stones are kept in the open. However, in Junagadh, the 2,500-year-old rock edicts inscribed on a huge stone were covered by a heritage building constructed around 130 years ago, which collapsed due to heavy rains.
“The 14 Rock Edicts in Junagadh are on the Archaeological Survey of India’s protected monuments’ list. The Ashoka Inscription Memorial is one of the 202 such protected monuments in Gujarat,” said Shivananda Rao, ASI’s Superintending Archa-eologist in the State. Rao claimed that there has been no damage to Ashoka’s Inscription, adding that a report on the incident has been sent to ASI headquarters in Delhi along with a proposal to construct a similar memorial building for the protected monument.
Despite the ASI’s claim, locals are angry with the ASI for not maintaining the important historical monuments properly. Amit Vachharajani, who hails from the mountain town of Junagadh, said: “It is a clear example of criminal neglect by the ASI.” Another resident, Asin Desai, said: “It is sad that the building covering the monument of historical importance was not maintained well despite adequate funding.”
When Emperor Ashoka famously converted to Buddhism and reno-unced violence, on his way to being one of India’s most revered and respected rulers of all time, he had edicts carved in stone and placed in sites all across Unified India — ranging as far as Kandahar in present-day Afghanistan in the West and modern Bangladesh in the East.
There were no available records of his reign until the 19th century when a large number of his edicts, inscribed on rocks and pillars, were found in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A replica of Ashoka’s major rock edict at Junagadh, is also displayed at the entrance of the National Museum in Delhi. The edicts in Brahmi script in Pali language are carved on a huge stone. The inscriptions talk about resisting greed, ending animal sacrifice and preach principles of purity of thought, secularism in thinking, kindness and gratitude.
