war
district in the north to Mysore and the Madras Presidency in the south,
from the Kathiawar Peninsula in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the
east. The pillars are often at the same time monuments of artistic
design and workmanship, as, above all, the Garnath pillar near Benares
with its magnificent capital of the well-known Persepolitan type and its
four lions supporting the stone Wheel of the Law, first promulgated on
that spot. Many more of Asoka's monuments may yet be discovered, but the
eleven pillar edicts and the fourteen rock edicts, not to speak of minor
inscriptions already brought to light and deciphered, constitute a body
of laws which well deserve to have been made thus imperishable. For no
temporal sovereign has ever legislated so fully and exclusively and with
such evident conviction for the spiritual advancement and moral
elevation of his people. Scarcely less important is the autobiographical
value of these inscriptions, which enable one to follow stage by stage
the evolution of the Apostle-Emperor's soul. Within a year of the
conquest of the Kalinjas, for which he afterwards publicly recorded his
remorse, Asoka became a lay disciple of the Buddhist law, and two and a
half years later studied as a Buddhist monk. In 257 B.C., the thirteenth
year of his reign, he began to preach his series of sermons in
stone--sermons that were at the same time laws given to his Empire. His
profession of faith was as lofty as it was simple:

The gods who were regarded as true all over India have been shown
to be untrue. For the fruit of exertion is not to be attained by a
great man only, because even by the small man who chooses to exert
himself immense heavenly bliss may be won.... Father and mother
must be hearkened to. Similarly, respect for living creatures must
be firmly established. Truth must be spoken. These are the virtues
of the law of piety which must be practised.... In it are included
proper treatment of slaves and servants, honour to teachers,
gentleness towards living creatures, and liberality towards
ascetics and Brahmans.... All men are my children, and just as I
desire for my children that they may enjoy every kind of prosperity
and happiness in both this world and the next, so I desire the same
for all men.

These principles are applied in all the instructions to his officials.
He commends to their special care the primitive jungle fol