Ashokan inscriptions
E122567
The Ashokan inscriptions are a series of edicts issued by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, carved on rocks and pillars across the Indian subcontinent to promote Buddhist ethics and moral governance.
All labels observed (22)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1023058 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashokan inscriptions Context triple: [Brahmi script, usedIn, Ashokan inscriptions]
-
A.
Telang inscription
The Telang inscription is an ancient stone record from early medieval Java that provides important historical evidence about the Medang Kingdom’s political and religious life.
-
B.
Anjukladang inscription
The Anjukladang inscription is an ancient Javanese stone inscription commemorating a 10th-century victory and land grant during the era of the Medang Kingdom in East Java.
-
C.
Canggal inscription
The Canggal inscription is an early 8th-century Sanskrit stone inscription from Central Java that records the establishment of a Shivaic lingam and provides one of the earliest written attestations of the Medang (Mataram) Kingdom.
-
D.
Karang Brahi inscription
The Karang Brahi inscription is an early stone inscription written in Old Malay that provides important evidence of the language, script, and political culture of early Malay-speaking polities in Southeast Asia.
-
E.
Prasasti Mantyasih
Prasasti Mantyasih is an Old Javanese stone inscription that records a royal charter of the Medang Kingdom, notably listing its kings and affirming political authority in Central Java.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashokan inscriptions Target entity description: The Ashokan inscriptions are a series of edicts issued by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, carved on rocks and pillars across the Indian subcontinent to promote Buddhist ethics and moral governance.
-
A.
Telang inscription
The Telang inscription is an ancient stone record from early medieval Java that provides important historical evidence about the Medang Kingdom’s political and religious life.
-
B.
Anjukladang inscription
The Anjukladang inscription is an ancient Javanese stone inscription commemorating a 10th-century victory and land grant during the era of the Medang Kingdom in East Java.
-
C.
Canggal inscription
The Canggal inscription is an early 8th-century Sanskrit stone inscription from Central Java that records the establishment of a Shivaic lingam and provides one of the earliest written attestations of the Medang (Mataram) Kingdom.
-
D.
Karang Brahi inscription
The Karang Brahi inscription is an early stone inscription written in Old Malay that provides important evidence of the language, script, and political culture of early Malay-speaking polities in Southeast Asia.
-
E.
Prasasti Mantyasih
Prasasti Mantyasih is an Old Javanese stone inscription that records a royal charter of the Medang Kingdom, notably listing its kings and affirming political authority in Central Java.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (62)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ancient inscriptions
ⓘ
archaeological artifact ⓘ historical source ⓘ royal edicts ⓘ |
| associatedWithDynasty |
Maurya Empire
ⓘ
surface form:
Maurya dynasty
|
| chronologyEstablishedBy | James Prinsep ⓘ |
| contentTheme |
administrative reforms
ⓘ
compassion for all beings ⓘ justice and fair punishment ⓘ moral conduct (dhamma) ⓘ non-violence (ahimsa) ⓘ planting of trees and wells ⓘ prohibition or restriction of animal sacrifice ⓘ promotion of medical facilities ⓘ religious tolerance ⓘ respect for parents and elders ⓘ welfare of subjects ⓘ |
| dateToCenturyBCE | 3rd century BCE ⓘ |
| deciphermentOfBrahmi | aided by Ashokan inscriptions ⓘ |
| foundInModernCountry |
Afghanistan
ⓘ
People's Republic of Bangladesh (from East Pakistan) ⓘ
surface form:
Bangladesh
India ⓘ Nepal ⓘ Pakistan ⓘ |
| geographicDistribution |
South Asia
ⓘ
surface form:
Indian subcontinent
|
| historicalSignificance |
earliest extensive corpus of Indian inscriptions
ⓘ
evidence for early spread of Buddhism ⓘ evidence for use of Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts ⓘ key source for Mauryan history ⓘ |
| includes |
Cave Inscriptions
ⓘ
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Major Rock Edicts
Minor Rock Edicts ⓘ Pillar Edicts ⓘ |
| inscriptionType |
bilingual inscriptions
ⓘ
trilingual inscriptions ⓘ |
| issuedBy | Ashoka ⓘ |
| language |
Aramaic
ⓘ
Greek ⓘ Prakrit ⓘ |
| medium |
monolithic pillar
ⓘ
rock face ⓘ stone ⓘ |
| notableSite |
Ashokan inscriptions
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Dhauli rock edicts
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Girnar rock edicts
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Kalsi rock edicts
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Lauriya Nandangarh pillar edicts
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Lumbini inscription
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Mansehra rock edicts
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Sanchi pillar inscription
Ashoka Pillar ⓘ
surface form:
Sarnath pillar edict
Ashokan inscriptions self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Shahbazgarhi rock edicts
|
| purpose |
promote Buddhist ethics
ⓘ
promote moral governance ⓘ publicize royal policy ⓘ |
| religiousOrientation | Buddhism ⓘ |
| royalTitleUsed | Devanampiya Piyadassi ⓘ |
| script |
Aramaic script
ⓘ
Brahmi script ⓘ Greek script ⓘ Kharoṣṭhī script ⓘ
surface form:
Kharosthi script
|
| writtenOn |
rock surfaces
ⓘ
stone pillars ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ashokan inscriptions Description of subject: The Ashokan inscriptions are a series of edicts issued by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, carved on rocks and pillars across the Indian subcontinent to promote Buddhist ethics and moral governance.
Referenced by (27)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
rock edicts of Ashoka
this entity surface form:
pillar edicts of Ashoka
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edict
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edicts
this entity surface form:
edicts of Ashoka
this entity surface form:
Ashokan rock edicts at Junagadh
this entity surface form:
Major Rock Edicts
this entity surface form:
Girnar rock edicts
this entity surface form:
Dhauli rock edicts
this entity surface form:
Kalsi rock edicts
this entity surface form:
Sanchi pillar inscription
this entity surface form:
Lauriya Nandangarh pillar edicts
this entity surface form:
Shahbazgarhi rock edicts
this entity surface form:
Mansehra rock edicts
this entity surface form:
Lumbini inscription
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edict inscription
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edicts
this entity surface form:
Rock Edict 13
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edicts
this entity surface form:
Edicts of Ashoka
this entity surface form:
Maski inscription of Ashoka
subject surface form:
Ashoka Pillar (Lumbini)
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edict
this entity surface form:
Ashokan pillar inscription
this entity surface form:
Ashokan edicts