Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/128

126 a mass of mythological legend, and nobody cared to search for the genuine records of his reign.

The Wonderful rock inscriptions, although Wanting in the artistic interest of the monolithic pillars, are in some respects the most interesting monuments of the reign. They are found at thirteen distinct localities in the more iemote provinces of the empire, and the contents may be described generally as sermons on dharma, or the Law of Piety. The longer documents are either variant recensions, more or less complete, of the series known as the Fourteen Rock Edicts, or substitutes for certain members of that series. The shorter records include the two documents classed as the Minor Rock Edicts, ‘and the peculiar Bhâbrû Edict. The inscriptions are found over an area extending from 34° 20’ to 14° 49’ N. lat., and from about 72° 15’ to 85° 50’ E. long., that is to say, twenty degrees of latitude, and thirteen of longitude. It is possible, and not improbable, that other examples remain to be discovered in Afghanistan and tribal territory beyond the north-Western frontier, or even within the limits of India.

Beginning from the north-west, the ﬁrst set of inscriptions is found at Shâhbâgarhi in the Yûsufzai subdivision of the Peshawar District of the North-West Frontier Province, about forty miles to the north—east of Peshawar, and more than a thousand miles in a direct line distant from Asoka's capital. The principal inscription, containing all the Fourteen Edicts except the twelfth, is recorded on both