Place · Ashokan inscription · India
Rūpnāth
The Mauryan minor rock edict carved on a boulder in Katni district, Madhya Pradesh, on the Kaimur scarp near the Narmada-Ganga watershed roads. The inscription of 257 BCE is a short address to Ashoka's officers directing them to propagate his dharma, placed deliberately on a cross-country trade and administrative route rather than at a capital. Rupnath, along with Sahasram and Bairat, is one of the three minor rock edict sites that preserve Ashoka's personal statement on his Buddhist conversion — 'for more than two and a half years I have been a lay disciple without exerting myself much.'
- Function
- Text & inscription
- Tradition
- Ashokan edicts (Brahmi, Kharosthi, Greek, Aramaic)
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.630, 80.180 (approximate)
Connections (1)
- Companion in the same setGujarrā
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.
On these journeys
Sources
Minor Rock Edicts — Rupnath
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