Asoka

This study of King Asoka brings together the main features of his rule. It presents him as a humanitarian, statesman, administrator, social reformer and upholder of truth, law and order, and it offers a very large body of information on the social and cultural setting of his reign.

The book has eight chapters. The first six cover the emperor's early life and family, the course of his career as king, his administration, his religion, his monuments, and the social conditions of the country in his time. The last two chapters give the text of the inscriptions, with translation and annotation.

Several appendices support the main chapters. Chapters II and VII are each followed by appendices on Asokan chronology, drawn from the legends and from the Rock Edicts. Chapter VIII has an appendix on the script, dialect and grammar of the inscriptions. The volume also includes an index, addenda on some further inscriptions and Rock Edicts, fifteen plates and a map of Asoka's empire.

The author, Dr. Radhakumud Mookerji, was a historian and politician. He began as Professor of History at the Bengal National College under Sri Aurobindo as principal, then taught at Mysore University from 1917 to 1921. He later headed the history department at Lucknow University for twenty-five unbroken years and stayed on as Emeritus, where friends endowed a lectureship in his name. He wrote 15 books on different aspects of ancient India.