Dhauli

Discovery of Dhauli 1. Asokan Sites and Artefacts - Harry Falk Page-113-114 Discovery: A first reading of some initial words was published by Prinsep 1837a: 471. Kittoe gave his report in 1838a: 435: “I had the good fortune to discover by the merest accident: a byragí priest, native of Mirzapoor near Benares having described it to me; such, however, is the aversion the Ooriyahs have, to our going near their places of worship, that I was actually decoyed away from the spot, when within a few yards of it, being assured that there was no such place,and had returned for a mile or more, when I met with a man who led me back to the spot by torch-light. I set fire to the jangal and perceived the inscription which was completely hidden by it.” Later, Kittoe went to the rock “before day-break and had to wait till it was light; for the two bear cubs which escaped me there last year,when I killed the old bear, were now full grown and disputed the ground” (1838b: 684). Today, all memory of bears once living in this area is gone. Kittoe (1838a: 451) reported an old name asvastama for the rocks with the inscriptions, but today nothing similar to asvastama has any meaning to the local population…