The Edict Project | T.M. Krishna | Ashoka Edicts | Edition 3

Launched in 2020, The Edict Project is a unique initiative that brings Emperor Ashoka’s timeless words into contemporary discourse through music, dance, theatre, film, and conversations.

The third edition focuses on Ashoka’s Ecological Ruminations, examining the emperor’s reflections on ecology, nature, and ethical co-existence.

Why Ashoka's Edicts?
Ashoka's edicts are simple, brief, personal yet profound, abiding and universal. They have been translated, published, quoted as signals of the soul.

Edition 3
1:47 - Musical rendition by T.M. Krishna
24:20 - A Conversation with Professor Nayanjot Lahiri, Ashoka University

Film by Kapila Venu & Naveed Mulki: Releasing Soon.

ASHOKA’s ECOLOGICAL RUMINATIONS

1. Minor rock edict II (at Brahmagiri, Karnataka)

Ashoka, Beloved of the Gods, says –
Care for your parents and elders. Be kind to all life forms. Be truthful. Such is the Dhamma that should be practiced.

Inscribed by the scribe Chapada.

2. Kandahar Bilingual Edict / Chehel Zina Edict

For ten years now, the king Piyadasi is practicing Dhamma. In this time, he has checked crime and misfortune among his people. Joy prevails over the land. And in regard to the royal meal: killing is minimal. Fisherfolk are restrained in fishing, Hunters have refrained from hunting.

Ten years have passed since king Piyadassi disclosed Dhamma (eusebia) to humankind. Ever since, people have been more pious, and there is prosperity throughout the world. The king abstains from killing living beings, and the royal hunters and fisherfolk too have refrained from fishing.

3. Major Rock Edict I | Girnar / Erragudi

This writing on dharma has been made to be inscribed by the Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi. Here no living creature is to be slaughtered and offered in sacrifice. And no festivals are to be held, for the
Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi, sees much evil in festivals. There are, however, some festivals that the Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi, considers good.

Formerly, in the kitchen of the Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi, many hundreds of thousands of creatures were slaughtered every day for food. But now when this writing on dharma is being inscribed only three animals are killed for food: two peacocks and one deer, and the deer only sometimes. In the future, these three too will not be slaughtered.

4. 5th Pillar edict of Ashoka (Delhi-Topra)

Twenty-six years after my royal consecration, I have declared the following as ‘protected species’—parakeets, myna birds, whistling teals, shelducks, geese, comb-ducks, wagtails, bats, grey geese, moorhens, hard-shelled tortoises, soft-shelled turtles, water-snakes and eels, gangetic dolphins, sankuja fish, pangolins, civets and squirrels, swamp deer, iguanas, geckos, green pigeons, white doves and rock pigeons; doves as well as all quadrupeds that are neither useful nor edible.

Those nanny goats, ewes and sows that are pregnant or nursing the young are exempt from slaughter, as also the young before they are six months old. Cocks should not be caponed. Rice-husk containing living beings should not be burnt. One should not set a forest on fire without reason or for killing. Animals should not be fed to animals.

5. Major rock edict 2 (Girnar/ Erragudi)

Everywhere—in the territory of the Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi, as well as in those at the frontiers, namely, Codas, Pandyas, Satiyaputras, Keralaputras, Tamraparnis, the Greek king named Antiochus, and other kings who are that Antiochus’s neighbours—everywhere the Beloved of Gods, King Piyadasi, has established two kinds of medical services: medical services for humans and medical services for domestic animals.

Wherever medicinal herbs beneficial to humans and domestic animals were not found, he had them brought in and planted everywhere. Likewise, wherever root vegetables and fruit trees were not found, he had them brought in and planted everywhere.

Along roads he had trees planted and wells dug for the benefit of domestic animals and human beings.