Lauriya Areraj

Lauriya Areraj Lauriya Areraj: The site is situated about 38 km north from Patna and 26 km west from Motihari in the district of East Champaran in Bihar.The village Lauriya is famous for the inscribed Aśokan Pillar. The pillar is situated close to the east of the village and is locally called as Laurbaba. According to Falk in 1758–1769, while Padre della Tomba was aresident Capuchin missionary at Bettiah, hevisited two pillars, copied some of theirinscriptions and sent them to the HinduAcademy of Benares. Although he seems to have noted their situation faultily, there can be no doubt that the Areraj pillar was seen by him. In 1784 Mr. Law had contributed a paper in the meeting of Asiatic Society of Bengal giving a "Short Account of Two Pillars to the North of Patna". This account was perhaps of a cursory nature, and was therefore neither published nor preserved in archives of society. It is not known whether he then referred to the pillar at Lauriya Areraj or not.The pillar was first brought to notice of Scholars by B.H Hodgson. In 1834 he sent a note to James Princeps, with drawing of the pillar, its measurements and its transcription which was published with his commen…