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A Newly Discovered Inscription of Aśoka at Bahapur, Delhi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The inscription under notice is engraved on an outcrop of the Aravallis to the south-east of Delhi in a colony now being developed on the south of Srinivasapuri, a government residential colony on the Ring Road (South). The inscription is within the village limits of Bahapur, west of the modern Kalkajee Temple.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1967

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References

1 In earlier notices about the location of the inscription, the place was wrongly reported as Amarpuri on the basis of information supplied by the contractor and the local people. Cf. Survey of India sheet nos. 53 H/2 and 53 H/6, 1 inch = 1 mile (1928 and 1936).

2 The discovery of this inscription at a site almost in alignment with other ancient sites in the vicinity, stretching from Indraprastha (Purana Qila) to Tilpat—all of them situated on the banks of the Yamuna—suggests the existence of a highway in the pre-Christian era.

3 Very possibly these relics were enshrined at Sarnath, the nearest important Buddhist site from Ahraura. Aśoka's reference to the installation further suggests that the event must have become well known during the first part of his reign itself.

4 Epigraphia Indica, XXXVI, VI (Autumn, 1966), 248Google Scholar.

5 From estampages.

6 The writers are grateful to Shri A. Ghosh, Director General of Archaeology in India, for having permitted them to edit the inscription and publish the results and also for guiding them in the preparation of the paper.