The Edicts of Ashoka are 33 inscriptions engraved on pillars, large stones, and cave walls by Ashoka the Great (r. 268-232 BCE), the third king of the Mauryan Empire (322-185 BCE) of India. One set, the so-called Major Rock Edicts, are consistent in their message that the people should adhere to the concept of Dhamma, defined as “right behavior”, “good conduct” and “decency toward others”. The edicts were inscribed throughout Ashoka’s realm which included the areas of modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan and most were written in Brahmi Script (though one, in Afghanistan, is also given in Aramaic and Greek). ...It's been quite a while since I have posted on ancient Buddhist Aramaic. This new article gives me an excuse to do so again.
The inscriptions of the third-century BCE Indian emperor Ashoka the Great are mostly written in his native Pratkit (related to Sanskrit). But one of his early "Minor Rock Edicts" is a bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic: Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription. It recounts what a fine ruler Ashoka has been and how everyone has prospered under him. For a wider-ranging account of his reign, and for his "Major Rock Edicts" in Pratkit, see the first article above.
Once again, the influence of Aramaic in antiquity was vast. It was important enough to be used alongside Greek on a royal inscription in Afghanistan in the early Hellenistic period.
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