- Illustrations*
- Maps**
- Acknowledgements
- Prelude
- 1. An Apocryphal Early Life
- 2. Pataliputra and the Prince
- 3. Mauryan Taxila
- 4. Affairs of the Heart and State
- 5. The End and the Beginning
- 6. The Emperor’s Voice
- 7. Extending the Arc of Communication to Afghanistan
- 8. An Expansive Imperial Articulation
- 9. The Message in the Landscape
- 10. Building Beliefs into Edifices
- 11. An Ageing Emperor’s Interventions
- 12. Of Wifely Woes and the Emperor’s Death
- Epilogue: The Emperor’s Afterlife
- Appendix: The Inscriptions of Ashoka
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- * Illustrations (Items in italics denote colour pictures)
- Prelude 1. Erragudi rocks as they appear from the surrounding fields
- Prelude 2. Part of Ashoka’s message on the rocks of Erragudi
- 1.1. Ashoka and his queen on a second century CE panel of the Kanaganahalli stupa in Karnataka
- 2.1. The hills of Rajagriha with a stupa in the foreground
- 2.2. The Ganga river near Patna
- 3.1. The city plan of Mauryan Taxila on the Bhir mound
- 4.1 Ujjayini’s ancient mounds with the Sipra river in the background
- 4.2. The Malwa plateau’s hills and forests as they appear near Bhimbetka
- 4.3. Ujjayini’s Kanipura stupa which is associated with Devi
- 6.1. The Rajula Mandagiri edict is engraved on the flat rock in the foreground, in front of the tree dominating a waterbody, with a temple behind it
- 6.2. Worn-out section of the Rajula Mandagiri edict
- 6.3. Palkigundu canopy rock—the edict is on a ledge beneath the canopy
- 6.4. View of the surrounding area from the edict rock at Palkigundu
- 6.5. The Maski edict, relatively legible and easy to read by people standing near it
- 6.6. Siddapura edict, cramped by the ledge above it
- 6.7. Brahmagiri enclosure with Siddapura rocks in the fields and Jatinga Rameshwara hill in the background
- 6.8. Brahmagiri edict
- 6.9. Ashoka’s edict in a rock shelter at Panguraria
- 6.10. View of the countryside around the Panguraria rock shelter
- 8.1. Part of the inscribed Kalsi rock in Uttarakhand as it appeared before a shed was built over it
- 8.2. Stone slab of the Sannathi edict
- 8.3. Rock edicts arranged in columns at Girnar
- 9.1. Part of the historic dam that has survived (and can be seen in the foreground) at Junagadh
- 9.2. Bhoria stupa in the Girnar forest, the massive cut created by nineteenth-century excavations still visible
- 9.3. Copies of the copper, silver, and gold relic boxes found inside the Bhoria stupa (now in the Junagadh State Museum)
- 10.1. Hills around the Barabar caves, the Phalgu river in the background
- 10.2. Interior of the Sudama cave with a hut-like structure carved into the rock
- 10.3. Lomasha Rishi cave architrave, with elephants moving towards a stupa
- 10.4. Ashokan pillar at Lumbini, with the modern Maya-devi temple by its side
- 10.5. Worshipping monks in front of Lumbini’s Ashokan pillar
- 10.6. Gotihawa pillar remnant, once known as Phuteshwar Mahadeva
- 10.7. Nigali Sagar pillar segments
- 10.8. The mud stupa of Vaishali is in the centre, surrounded by later brick constructions
- 10.9. Relic box from the Vaishali stupa (now in the Patna Museum)
- 10.10. Vaishali pillar in the vicinity of a brick stupa
- 10.11. The circular temple at Bairat. The Ashokan inscription was found below the overhanging rock at the edge of the hill
- 10.12. Chunar monolithic railing at Sarnath
- 10.13. The broken Sarnath pillar with the edict inscribed on it
- 11.1. Ashokan pillar at Hissar fort (the lowest part) which was made part of a composite pillar
- 11.2. A close-up of the Ashokan segment of the Hissar pillar with some Brahmi letters still intact
- 11.3. Fatehabad segment of Ashokan pillar (the bottom part)
- 12.1. Tissarakshita, Queen of Ashoka (Abanindranath Tagore)
- 12.2. Sanghamitra with the Bodhi tree (Nandlal Bose)
- Epilogue 1. Depiction of Ashoka supported by his wives on the upper segment of gateway pillar at Sanchi
- Epilogue 2. Depiction of wheel-bearing pillar at Sanchi
- Epilogue 3. Sculpture of Ashoka at Kalinga by Meera Mukherjee
- ** Maps
- Map 1. Distribution of the epigraphs of Ashoka
- Map 2. Magadha’s political capitals: Rajagriha and Pataliputra
- Map 3. Afghanistan in relation to Iran and Pakistan
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library
I Tatti Renaissance Library
Loeb Classical Library
Murty Classical Library of India