Ashoka Edicts — Jaugada: Confessions of a conqueror

Somen Sengupta

In south Odisha’s Ganjam district flows the Rishikulya river slowly towards the Bay of Bengal. On the bank of the river stands Purushottampur village, which makes no significant impression except for a mass of rock that towers over the little hamlet. It is only after reaching the village one sees an Odisha tourism signboard that reads “Ashoka Edicts — Jaugada.” There inside an iron cage, a massive flank of elephantine boulder can be found on which edicts of Ashoka, the king of Magadha, who once conquered this land of Kalinga had his declaration of Dharma written more than 2,000 years ago in a unique way.

The edict, with an inscription covering 270 sq ft, remained unknown until James Prinsep of the Asiatic Society came to know of it in 1837 but due to his ill-health the discovery wasn’t pursued further. In 1854, Walter Elliot, another official of the East India Company, visited the place with an IAS officer. He tried to copy the alphabets of the edict by pouring hot tamarind juice over the incription and beat the same with hammer. A large portion of the rock broke, deleting many an important information. He never mentioned the discovery.

In 1872, the edict was officially reported by W F Grahame, a district official. Considering its size and content, the newly found Jaugada was counted as one of the major Ashokan rock edicts found in the subcontinent.

The edict of Jaugada was in no way similar to other rock edicts, except for the one found in Dhauli. Dhauli (ancient name Toshali) and Jaugada (earlier known as Samapa) in Odisha, fell in ancient Kalinga, a kingdom attacked and plundered by Ashoka’s soldiers. These new Kalinga rock edicts were different from other edicts of Ashoka.

Out of the 14 edicts found on the rock of Jaugada edict, 1 to 10 are similar to other edicts found elsewhere. However with some very well calculated political gambit, creators of this public declaration mode replaced edicts no 11 to 13 which mention Ashoka’s brutal and gory conquest of Kalinga and his subsequent remorse at the suffering of people. This was exactly done in other rock edict found in Dhauli of north Kalinga. It is clear that with specific political agenda, Ashoka’s administration did its best to make people forget the unimaginable brutality caused by the emperor’s army in the Kalinga war. According to historian Charles Allen, “In Kalinga itself, those remarks had been deliberately omitted”.

In place of the three missing edicts, two new edicts were inserted to spread Ashoka’s famous doctrine of Dharma. These two newly inserted edicts are known as separate rock edicts. In one of these, an appeal is circulated to Mahamartyas (special religious officers of Toshali and Samapa) to involve themselves in spiritual welfare and impartiality to subjects so that they can live in peace. In other new edict, reforms instituted by Ashoka are expressed by assuring people to live without fear and practice the Dharma of forgiveness. It also says that the king is like a father to subjects and subjects are his own children.

Interestingly, Jaugada geographically comes in the south of Kalinga, a territory Ashoka did not conquer in war. This was the new style of diplomatic expansion introduced by an intelligent chamber of politicians. All other rock edicts are typical of Ashokan’s doctrine of spreading Buddhism through peace and tolerance. Today Jaugada is, perhaps, the most forgotten rock edict of Ashoka, though it is exceptional in its content and huge in its size. Though ASI has done a good job by installing an iron cage before it but still marks of vandalism are palpable on its surface. The place is badly guided. Signboards describing the history, importance of the place and explanation of every edict are faded beyond legibility.