Sopara Discovery Story
RE8 was found in April 1882 by Bhagvānlāl Indrajī in Sopārā near Bhātelā pond to the east of the town in the Bassein Taluk of the Thana District, Maharashtra. He discovered a broken slab of basalt bearing part of some lines of Rock Edict VIII of Aśoka (roughly one-third of the edict). This artificial water-hole is full of spoliae of all sorts and might well contain still more Asokan fragments.
RE9, a broken part of an Asokan inscription, was discovered by a school-boy from Bhuigaon, Sopara, and was brought to the notice of Shri N.A. Gore, Assistant Secretary and Librarian, Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 1st of January, 1956. On examination, it turned out to be a damaged version of the Ninth Edict. It is now almost certain that Sopārā contained a complete set of the Rock-edicts of Asoka. In Bhuigaon there’s a temple of Champavati Mata, who used to be venerated in the shape of a large stone, painted red, deposited under a huge Pippal tree at Bhuigaon. As usual, all sorts of worked stones from the neighbourhood were assembled at the side of the devï. Around 1975, the tree was cut and the modern “temple” was built. The red stone was replaced by a ready-made metal statue. The edict stone once had its place pretty much exactly where today the centre of the temple is. In 1955 Prof. Jhala from St. Xavier´s College, Bombay, came to take the edict stone with him. This account was narrated by S.J. Main, a Christian local, who lives in one of the houses right behind the temple and who as a boy has been a witness to all events.
Both the fragments are now preserved in the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay
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