Place · Ashokan inscription · India
Gujarrā
The Mauryan minor rock edict at Gujarra in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, in the Bundelkhand uplands — one of only four known Ashokan edicts that name the emperor as 'Asoka' outright rather than by the 'Devanampiya' honorific. The inscription of 257 BCE is a short dharma address to officers. The naming parallels Maski (discovered 1915) and the later Nittur and Udegolam finds. Gujarra was discovered in 1953 by local villagers reporting markings on the boulder. Its remote location in a thinly populated uplands reinforces the edicts' character as rural administrative communications rather than urban monuments.
- Function
- Text & inscription
- Tradition
- Ashokan edicts (Brahmi, Kharosthi, Greek, Aramaic)
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.980, 78.820 (approximate)
Connections (2)
- Companion in the same setRūpnāth
Rūpnāth on the Kaimur scarp and Gujarrā in Bundelkhand carry the same minor rock edict, in which Ashoka describes his own two and a half years as a lay follower and the year since he drew close to the sangha. It is the most personal statement in the whole corpus, and Gujarrā names him outright.
- Companion in the same setMaski
Gujarrā and Maski are the two minor edicts that give the personal name Ashoka rather than only the title Beloved of the Gods. Before Maski was read in 1915 the inscriptions and the emperor of the chronicles were joined by inference alone; these two rocks closed the gap. The minor edicts cluster in the south and centre rather than at the frontiers where the great rocks stand, which suggests two separate campaigns of publication with different audiences.
On these journeys
Sources
Minor Rock Edicts — Gujarra
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