Major Rock Edicts and Major Pillar Edicts by Devanampiya Piyadasi

Priyadasi, also Piyadasi or Priyadarshi (

Brahmi Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

: 𑀧𑀺𑀬𑀤𑀲𑀺 ''piyadasi'',

Kharosthi The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and e ...

: 𐡐𐡓𐡉𐡃𐡓𐡔 ''Prydrš''), was the name of a ruler in

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

, or simply an honorific epithet which means "He who regards others with kindness", "Humane", "He would glances amiably". The title "Priyadasi" appears repeatedly in the ancient inscriptions known as the

Major Rock Edicts The Major Rock Edicts of Indian Emperor Ashoka refer to 14 separate major Edicts of Ashoka which are significantly detailed and represent some of the earliest dated rock inscriptions of any Indian monarch. These edicts are preceded chronologica ...

or the

Major Pillar Edicts The Major Pillar Edicts of Indian Emperor Ashoka refer to seven separate major Edicts of Ashoka inscribed on columns, the Pillars of Ashoka, which are significantly detailed and are among the earliest dated inscriptions of any Indian monarch. An E ...

, where it is generally used in conjunction with the title ''" Devanampriya"'' ("Beloved of the Gods") in the formula "Devanampriya Priyadasi". Some of the inscriptions rather use the title "Rajan Priyadasi" ("King Priyadarsi"). It also appears in Greek in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription (c. 260 BCE), when naming the author of the proclamation as βασι ��ὺς Πιοδασσης ("

Basileus ''Basileus'' ( el, ) is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean "monarch", referring to either a "king" or an "emperor" and al ...

Piodassēs"), and in Aramaic in the same inscription as "our lord, king Priyadasin" (

: 𐡐𐡓𐡉𐡃𐡓𐡔, Modern Hebrew: ''pryd’rš''). According to

Christopher Beckwith Christopher I. Beckwith (born October 23, 1945) is an American philologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He has a B.A. in Chinese from Ohio State Univer ...

, "Priyadasi" could simply be the proper name of an early Indian king, author of the

or the

inscriptions, whom he identifies as probably the son of

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) was a ruler in Ancient India who expanded a geographically-extensive kingdom based in Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. The Maurya kingdom expanded to become an empi ...

, otherwise known in Greek source as Amitocrates.

Prinsep Prinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family. The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire. ...

had originally identified Priyadasi with the King of Ceylon

Devanampiya Tissa Tissa, later Devanampiya Tissa, was one of the earliest kings of Sri Lanka based at the ancient capital of Anuradhapura from 247 BC to 207 BC. His reign was notable for the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka under the aegis of the Mauryan ...

. However, in 1837,

George Turnour George Turnour Jnr, CCS (1799–1843) was a British colonial administrator, scholar and a historian. A member of the Ceylon Civil Service, he served as a Government Agent, Assistant Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of the Colony. He is known for h ...

discovered a Siamese version of the Sri Lankan manuscript Dipavamsa, or "Island Chronicle", associating Piyadasi with the early

Maurya dynasty The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until ...

: It was then supposed that this Priyadasi, being a Mauryan, was probably the Ashoka of Buddhist accounts. Because of the association in the '' Dipavamsa'', the title "Priyadasi" is thought to have been used by the Indian Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

(r.269-233 BCE) in his inscriptions (the

Edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expre ...

). In inscriptions, the title "Priyadarsin" is often associated with the title " Devanampriya" ("Beloved of the Gods"). Separately, the title also appears in " Devanampriya" in conjunction with the name "Ashoka" as in the

Minor Rock Edict The Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka (r.269-233 BCE) are rock inscriptions which form the earliest part of the Edicts of Ashoka, and predate Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts. These are the first edicts in the Indian language of Emperor Ashoka, written in th ...

inscription discovered in

Maski Maski is a town and an archaeological site in the Raichur district of the state of Karnataka, India.Amalananda Ghosh (1990), p282 It lies on the bank of the Maski river which is a tributary of the Tungabhadra. Maski derives its name from Mahasa ...

, associating Ashoka with Devanampriya:

References

{{reflist Edicts of Ashoka