Ashoka's bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription at Kandahar
An inscription carved at Chehel Zina near Kandahar in Greek and Aramaic, conventionally dated c. 260 BCE, promulgating Ashoka's dhamma to populations in their own languages. It is hard epigraphic evidence that a South Asian ruler was addressing Hellenistic and Iranian communities on the trade corridor to the west, and that the vocabulary of a tradition was already being translated at its frontier.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Ashoka (Ashoka Maurya) · person · South Asia · not located
- Gandhara · region · Present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan · not located
- Silk Road religious corridor · route · Central Asia, from Iran and north India to northern China · not located
- Buddhism · belief_system · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription of Ashoka (Greek and Aramaic)
Ashoka issued proclamations of dhamma in Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar around 260 BCE, addressing borderland populations in their own languages; the wider corpus comprises about 33 inscriptions in Prakrit dialects in Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts.
Discovered at Chehel Zina, Kandahar, Afghanistan; published in the standard Ashokan epigraphic corpora · c. 260 BCE · Partly verified
Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, Chehel Zina, Kandahar; see the corpus of the Edicts of Ashoka (33 inscriptions on rocks, pillars and cave walls) — summary entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandahar_Bilingual_Rock_Inscription
Recorded on Ashoka (Ashoka Maurya)
- Ashoka's bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription at Kandahar
- Council at Pataliputra and the despatch of Buddhist missions (traditional account)
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.