Thus spoke King Asoka: Noble words ravaged by time

The Asoka Rock edicts, inscribed on three large boulders, are under serious threat of being lost forever.

ISLAMABAD: The Asoka Rock edicts speak volumes about lost glory.

Dispersed across the subcontinent stand these huge rocks and pillars, engraved with messages of moral principles and religious tolerance in the intricate Kharoshti script.

These once grand monuments are King Asoka’s reminders about the welfare of mankind, preserved in rock, from ancient times – 256 to 257 BC – to the present day.

And yet, despite the history, the edicts in Pakistan – spread over three large rocks near Khalabutt Bridge in Mansehra, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and two rocks in Shahbaz Garhi, Mardan – are under serious threat of environmental degradation. They have been ravaged by urbanisation and by the apparent apathy of the Department of Archaeology.

Damaged chronicles

Today, the rocks are placed inside tiny walls, with flimsy shelter overhead. A small metal board reads: Don’t damage the heritage and do not take pictures of them [the rocks].

This message has clearly been ignored.

The shelter cannot even protect the edicts from animals grazing in the fields nearby. There is a thick layer of dust over each, deep scratches that narrate stories of neglect, a drain of waste-water and a garbage dump close by – a far cry from the glorious history of Maharaja Asoka, the king who ended the bloodbath at the time and inscribed laws to nurture and preserve life.

One of the rocks, located near the lower end of the Karakoram Highway, is heavily encroached and extremely scratchy.

Who guards the guards?

Nidaullah Sehrai, the acting director of archaeology department, Peshawar, says that there is, in fact, a security guard to protect and take care of the rocks.

“Besides the guard, the officials of the department concerned in Mansehra occasionally visit the site, too,” he adds firmly.

“Guarding the site for 24 hours a day is not possible for a single guard. It is not just the department’s responsibility, but the entire society’s, to protect their culture and heritage,” he exclaims. “People here don’t think of these edicts as part of their culture and have no desire to protect them!”

Sehrai denies any militant involvement in the digging and damage of the rocks, but does say that a suicide attack near the site damaged a good portion of the edicts.

Unearthed heritage

There are hundreds of archaeological sites in the Hazara division, where most of them have been ruined even before excavation.

Dr Muhammad Zahir, a lecturer at Hazara University’s archaeology department, said that the entire K-P province is rich in heritage but there is a dire need to protect them.

Preservation is under way, but it’s sporadic and slow.

Words without meaning

The edits are carved boldly in the ancient Karoshthi script, characters which very few in the country understand.

“Worthless ceremonies should be changed to fit behaviour of love for all beings, with firm commitments and good deeds, such as observing obedience towards parents, and prohibiting festivals that result in social evils,” declare some of the proclamations.

And yet, these messages cannot be understood by the common man.

In this vein, a crucial reason for deterioration is that the heritage has been left at the mercy of a security guard, who is not a specialist at all.

These edicts are a part of thirty-three inscriptions on pillars of Asoka in four countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2013.