Major Rock Edict
(A) These rescripts on morality have been caused to be written by king Devānaṁpriya Priyadarśin either in an abridged (form), or of middle (size), or at full length. (B) And the whole was not suitable everywhere. (C) For (my) dominions are wide, and much has been written, and I s…
Girnar Discovery Story Major Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, first visited Girnār in December 1822, at that time the inscription seems to have been intact. It probably had laid buried in dense forest and might never have come to light had not a local notable made a causeway through the jungle for the benefit of pilgrims to the hill, which is one of the most sacred places venerated by the Jains. He described it as a huge hemispherical mass of dark granite, which, like a wart upon the body, has protruded through the crust of mother earth, without fissure or inequality, and which, by the aid of the ‘iron pen,’ has been converted into a book. Tod was a famous Rajasthan annalist and army antiquarian of the East India Company. His reaction to Girnār was written before the Brahmi script had been deciphered. His account is arresting for the recognition that the edict is both monument and inscription, an ancient rock transformed to a monument by the writing on it. The measurement of its arc is nearly ninety feet; its surface is divided into compartments or parallelograms, within which are inscriptions in the usual antique character. The way in which the Girnār edicts were inscribed on a sin…
1 (A) ayaṁ dhaṁma-lipī Devānaṁpriyena Priyadasinā r[ā]ñā l[e]khāpitā asti eva 2 saṁkhit[e]na asti majhamena asti vistatana (B) na ca sarvaṁ [sa]rvata ghaṭitaṁ 3 (C) mahālake hi vijitaṁ bahu ca likhitaṁ likhāpayisaṁ ceva (D) asti ca eta kaṁ 4 puna puna vutaṁ tasa tasa athasa mādhūratāya kiṁti jano tathā paṭipajetha 5 (E) tatra ekadā asamāt[a]ṁ likhita[ṁ] asa desaṁ va sachāya [kā]raṇaṁ va 6 [a]locetpā lipikarāparadhena va
