Discovery of Ratanpurwa
1. Remarks on the Minor Rock Edict of Asoka at Ratanpurwa - Jñāna-Pravāha Research Journal 16 - Harry Falk
In January 2009, not long after my catalogue of Asokan sites (Falk 2006) had appeared, yet one more Minor Rock Edict (MRE) was brought to public notice first by its discoverer Devi Dayal Maurya, teacher at Mughalsarai, Varanasi who had reported it to scholars at the Jnana-Pravaha - Centre for Cultural Studies & Research, Varanasi, which is devoted to the maintenance and promotion of the traditional sciences and arts of India. Startled by a first photograph provided by the discoverer, two young scholars from JnanaPravaha,Dr. Niraj Pandey and Samrat Chakravorty, visited the site, took better photographs and informed the academic world about it. Very soon the text was edited by K.K. Thaplyal and published in the Monograph series of the said Institute with the title A New Asokan Inscription from Ratanpurwa in 2009. Since the text of the edict is almost perfectly preserved, the reading as established by Thaplyal needs no further comment. In his booklet all major issues of the text are touched upon and elucidated. In line with the tenets followed in my Asokan Sites and Artefacts, I can only supply notes on how to reach the site, about the literature that has accrued so far, on the palaeography and relative chronology as compared to the parallel found at Sahasram, as well as on some minor points.
The name of the site as given in Thaplyal is Ratanpurva, as the spot lies in the vicinity of this village in Bihar. Considerably larger, but also further away, is the village of Basaha (2S00l'4S"N, 83°21'36"E), and thus the MRE has also been linked to that site, which is seen 2 km north of the rock shelter, and from where an un-metalled road leads to a few houses close to the Kaimur range to the East of the edict rock.
The Ratanpurva MRE's coordinates in Google map are 25°01'05"N, 83°20'30"E; the relevant US army map would be NG 44-12, which is singularly useless in this case, as it only shows Chakia in UP, but does not contain the important road leading from there eastwards to Saidupur (25°02'N, 83°17'E) and further to Bhabhua. Shortly after Saidupur a narrow road branches off to the South-East at 25°02'32"N, 83°17'32"E leading after about five winding km to the school at Ghurahupur (25°1'10.61"N, 83°19'25.24"E) in District Bhabhua, Bihar. Walking 2.5 km eastwards along the northern slope of the Kaimur range leads to the edict rock. The MRE site is occasionally found connected with the houses of Ghurahupur. The discoverer lives at that place and leads visitors from there to the site. Geographically, Ghurahupur and the Ratanpurva cave site have nothing to do with each other.
Presently, the names "Ratanpurva MRE" and "Basaha MRE" are used in concurrence, and I use here only the first, and propose to follow this example, to honour the pivotal edition of Thaplyal and to simplify reference.MREs are placed at sites which are peculiar in nature, like often on the top of hills requiring an ascent of 20 to 40 minutes. The reason is that the folk religions, still found in many parts of Central and Southern India, held festivals at sacred places during auspicious times of the year, usually away from the settlement in an extraordinary rocky formation. D.D. Kosambi from India and then his erstwhile student Giinther-Dietz Sontheimer from Germany did extensive research on such cults mostly centering on some mata or devi. The latter also established a school of research with Cornelia Mallebrein particularly active in Orissa.