PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
During the ten years elapsed since the publication of the second edition of this book knowledge of the subject has made material advances. I have read everything printed that could be of use and am in a position to offer considerable improvements in the versions of the inscriptions, which are now fully understood, with small exceptions. Chapters IV and V have been rewritten, continuous comments on each document or group of documents being substituted for footnotes. The Maski Minor Rock Edict, the latest addition to the collection of edicts, which alone gives Asoka’s name, is duly noticed, and the Gorathagiri labels on the Barabâr rocks have not been overlooked.
The corrections in Chapters I to III are mostly consequential on the revised interpretation of the inscriptions, but some are required by archaeological discoveries, while others merely set right sundry minor slips or errors, or effect necessary changes in references. I do not see any reason to change my scheme of chronology, although it may be open to slight revision at some future time. The Bibliographical Note has been enlarged. The alterations in Chapters VI and VII are few and unimportant.
The war has delayed the completion and publication of the long expected critical edition of the inscriptions by Professor E. Hultzsch. The loss arising from the delay has been neutralized to a large extent because the learned professor published his principal emendations in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society from time to time.
November, 1919.
