Topra pillar
Topic: The Mauryan Empire · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"
Meaning
The Topra pillar is a polished stone pillar from Ashoka's time. It once stood at Topra in Haryana. In the 14th century, Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq had it moved to his new city in Delhi. It now stands at Feroz Shah Kotla. It matters because it is the only pillar that carries all seven Pillar Edicts. The seventh edict appears nowhere else.
Example
Firuz Shah Tughlaq (14th century) moved the pillar to Delhi. By then nobody could read its writing. In the 1830s, James Prinsep, an East India Company officer, worked on this inscription and others like it to read the Brahmi script (deciphered in 1838). That is how Ashoka's words came to be read again.
Don't confuse with
- Delhi-Meerut pillar: another Ashokan pillar that Firuz Shah Tughlaq brought to Delhi, now on the Delhi Ridge. It carries only Pillar Edicts I to VI.
Related concepts
- Bindusara
- Ashoka
- Kalinga war
- Rock Edict XIII
- Kalinga edicts
- Dhauli
- Ashoka's dhamma
- Dhamma mahamatta
- Pativedaka
- Devanampiya