Mauryan India and Ashoka the Great — Kingship Transformed by Conscience — Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts c. 268-232 BCE

Recite Three Promises. Pivot announcement: today we begin the Indian arc — Mauryan + Gupta + comparative-religions. Cold Call: Who is one ancient Indian thinker we met in G6-Fall? (Buddha was named in G6-Fall but not deeply explored; Confucius and Laozi were the deep G6-Fall figures. Indus Valley civilization was G6-Fall. We move to post-Vedic post-Buddha-era India today.)

• Recite Three Promises
• Pivot to Indian arc
• Display MG-3 Mauryan map + MG-13 handout

M-6-S-CUL-08-B Photograph

Photograph of the Sarnath Lion Capital (sandstone, c. 250 BCE, currently in the Sarnath Museum, Uttar Pradesh, India) — four Asiatic lions standing back-to-back on a circular abacus carved with four animals (elephant, bull, horse, lion) and four chakras (wheels of dharma); originally surmounted by a fifth chakra (now lost). The capital was the head of an Ashokan pillar erected at Sarnath where Buddha is traditionally said to have delivered his first sermon. Caption: 'Sarnath Lion Capital c. 250 BCE — Ashoka commissioned this pillar at the site of Buddha's first sermon. Since 26 January 1950 the Lion Capital has been the official emblem of the Republic of India. The Ashoka Chakra at the center of the capital appears on the Indian national flag. Living legacy.' Style: high-resolution museum photograph.

The Mauryan Empire (322-185 BCE) was founded by Chandragupta Maurya c. 322 BCE in the wake of Alexander the Great's withdrawal from northwest India (327-325 BCE). Chandragupta unified most of the Indian subcontinent for the first time under one political authority. His chief minister Kautilya wrote the Arthashastra — a political-theoretical-economic text comparable in scope to Aristotle's Politics or Sun Tzu's Art of War. Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka (r. c. 268-232 BCE) inherited the empire and consolidated its rule. In c. 261 BCE Ashoka conquered the eastern kingdom of Kalinga (modern Odisha). The conquest was bloody — Rock Edict XIII (which we read today via MG-13) records 100,000 killed and 150,000 deported. AFTER the Kalinga conquest Ashoka transformed his kingship — he promulgated 'dhamma' as imperial policy via Major Rock Edicts (14 of them, inscribed on rocks across the empire) and Pillar Edicts (7 of them, inscribed on sandstone pillars). The dhamma program included: medical care for humans AND animals (Rock Edict II — possibly the earliest extant declaration of universal medical care and veterinary care in world history); rest-houses and wells along roads; environmental protection (banning hunting on certain days); religious tolerance; concern for the welfare of slaves and servants; refusal of conquest by violence (Rock Edict XIII). Ashoka's son Mahinda is recorded by Sri Lankan tradition as the missionary who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka; Ashoka's role in spreading Buddhism beyond South Asia (via missions also named in Rock Edict XIII to Hellenistic kingdoms — Antiochus II Theos, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Antigonus Gonatas, Magas of Cyrene, Alexander of Epirus) is historically significant. Ashoka's Sarnath Lion Capital is the modern emblem of the Republic of India. PRIMARY SOURCE — MG-13 handout. APPLY MG-7 6-Question Source Card.

• Notice: the LANGUAGE of an edict matters for sourcing — Ashoka chose Prakrit for ordinary readers.

  model Ashoka's imperial chancery inscribed the edict c. 260-258 BCE, on a rock face in northwest India (Shahbazgarhi version) and in 13 other locations, to communicate Ashoka's dhamma policy to subjects, frontier kingdoms, and Hellenistic Greek-speaking neighbors. The edict was inscribed in Prakrit (the everyday spoken language) using Brahmi script + Kharosthi script in the northwest; not in Sanskrit. This tells us Ashoka was speaking to ORDINARY readers, not to a Sanskrit-literate elite.

  prompt Apply MG-7 Wineburg Move 1 (Sourcing) to Rock Edict XIII.
• Notice: 'genuine' and 'rhetorical' are not mutually exclusive. Real historical actors can be both at once.

  model Romila Thapar's analysis: genuine AND rhetorical. The edict was inscribed across the empire — including in places where Ashoka had no military reason to compromise. The personal expression of remorse is unusual for ancient imperial rhetoric. BUT — the edict serves political purposes (legitimizing dhamma policy, deterring future rebellions, signaling to Hellenistic neighbors). Move 6 silences: the edict does not record the Kalingan perspective; the Kalingan survivors' voices are not preserved; we know about the conquest only through the conqueror's testimony.

  prompt Is Ashoka's Kalinga-remorse genuine, rhetorical, or both? Apply Wineburg Move 4 (Close Reading) + Move 6 (Whose Silences).

• Cold Call: Who founded the Mauryan Empire and when?
• Cold Call: What is dhamma in Ashoka's edicts?
• Cold Call: Apply MG-7 Move 6 — whose perspective is missing from Rock Edict XIII?

MG-7 6-Question Source Card applied jointly to Rock Edict XIII (the Kalinga remorse text). MG-13 handout has Rock Edict II (medical care), Rock Edict XIII (Kalinga remorse), and Pillar Edict VII (legacy declaration).

M-6-S-CUL-08-A Chart

MG-13 8.5x11 inch educator handout: top quarter shows photograph of the Girnar inscription site in Gujarat (one of the surviving Rock Edict locations) with Brahmi-script text visible on the rock face; next three quarters show three selected edicts in N.A. Nikam and Richard McKeon 1959 translation: (1) ROCK EDICT II 'Everywhere in the dominions of his Majesty the King... two kinds of medical treatment have been provided — medical treatment for men and medical treatment for animals'; (2) ROCK EDICT XIII Kalinga remorse with explicit reference to the 100,000 killed and 150,000 deported and Ashoka's recorded remorse; (3) PILLAR EDICT VII the legacy declaration 'Let it endure as long as my sons and great-grandsons shall reign... for the welfare and happiness of the world.' Bottom edge: 'Source: Ashoka Major Rock Edicts c. 268-232 BCE. Translation: Nikam and McKeon 1959.' MG-7 Source Card prompts printed on reverse.

MG-13 Chart

8.5x11 inch educator handout: top quarter shows photograph of one of the rock-cut Ashokan edicts (e.g., the Girnar inscription site in Gujarat); next three quarters show three selected edicts in N.A. Nikam and Richard McKeon 1959 translation: (1) ROCK EDICT II — 'Everywhere in the dominions of his Majesty the King... two kinds of medical treatment have been provided — medical treatment for men and medical treatment for animals' (the world's earliest known imperial declaration of veterinary care + universal human medical care); (2) ROCK EDICT XIII — 'When His Majesty the King had been consecrated eight years the (country of the) Kalingas was conquered. One hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried away thence as captives, one hundred thousand were there slain... His Majesty feels remorse on account of the conquest of the Kalingas' (the famous Kalinga-remorse edict — one of the earliest extant royal-conscience declarations); (3) PILLAR EDICT VII — 'His Majesty thus speaks: I have caused this Edict of Dhamma to be written. Let it endure as long as my sons and great-grandsons shall reign... for the welfare and happiness of the world.' Bottom edge: 'Source: Ashoka Major Rock Edicts c. 268-232 BCE. Translation: Nikam and McKeon 1959.' MG-7 Source Card prompts printed on reverse.

MG-7 Interactive Physical / non-image

8.5x11 inch laminated double-sided card. FRONT: 'MG-7 Ancient-and-Classical Source Card' header; 6 numbered questions: (1) SOURCING — Who created this source? When? Where? Why? (Wineburg Move 1); (2) CONTEXTUALIZATION — What was happening at the time and place this source was created? What had just happened? What was about to happen? (Wineburg Move 2); (3) CORROBORATION — Does another source from the same time and place agree or disagree? Is the creator a partisan? (Wineburg Move 3); (4) CLOSE READING — What does the source literally say in its words? What does it leave unsaid? (Wineburg Move 4); (5) LIVING DESCENDANTS — Who today is a living descendant of the people who created or were addressed by this source? How do they treat this source as a living heritage? (NMAI Essential Understanding 5 extended); (6) WHOSE TRANSLATION? WHOSE SILENCES? — Who translated this source into English and when? What perspective is MISSING from this source (e.g., the slave perspective on Diocletian's edicts, the dasi/dasa perspective on Ashoka's edicts)? (WHA / SHEG move). BACK: scaffolded sentence frames for each question; a short-form version (4 Wineburg-only questions) for students still building source-analysis stamina.

• Apply MG-7 Move 5 (Living Descendants) to Ashoka's Rock Edicts — who today is a living descendant?

  scaffold Hint: modern Indian + Pakistani + Bangladeshi + Nepali + Bhutanese + Sri Lankan + South-Asian-diaspora communities AND modern Buddhist communities across the world AND the Republic of India (the Sarnath Lion Capital is the national emblem of India today); refer to MG-8
• Apply MG-7 Move 3 (Corroboration) to Rock Edict II's universal-medical-care claim — does any other ancient source corroborate medical care for humans AND animals in Mauryan India?

  scaffold Hint: Megasthenes (Greek ambassador c. 305 BCE) reported on Mauryan governance — but predates Ashoka; Kautilya's Arthashastra discusses public welfare; Sri Lankan tradition corroborates Mahinda's mission

• What is Ashoka's dhamma policy? Name 2 elements.
• Why does the Republic of India use the Sarnath Lion Capital as its national emblem?

• Show Call — display strong student source-card response on Rock Edict XIII
• Preview Lesson 9 (Gupta India and the Indian Mathematical Golden Age — Aryabhata + decimal place value + zero)

• Find one photograph of an Ashokan pillar or rock edict at its original location in India / Pakistan / Bangladesh / Afghanistan (Kandahar has Ashokan edicts in Greek and Aramaic — yes, Greek!). Write 2-3 sentences applying MG-19 SIMULTANEITY — what was happening in OTHER civilizations at the same time as Ashoka's reign 268-232 BCE?