ASOKA DHARMA: ITS
INTERPRETATIONS AND PARADIGMS AS
GLEANED FROM ROCK EDICTS
Dharma is one of
those Sanskrit terms that defy all attempt at an exact rendering into English
or any other language. This term has passed through several changes. My attempt
here is to briefly define and examine the Asoka ‘Dharma’ through the lances of epigraphic
traditions of Asoka ’s times and explain the
paradigms of Dharmaas reflected in the edicts of Asoka
and the changes introduced over the time. The notion of dharma which has been depicted in Asoken epigraphic traditions time
and again in all-comprehensive, confusing and the same time difficult to define
or understand.
