Ashokan Edict, Delhi

This rock inscription in east Delhi preserves a set of minor edicts carved on the orders of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE, among the oldest deciphered writings in the capital. Cut into a natural outcrop in the Brahmi script, the text conveys the ruler's moral exhortations following his embrace of Buddhist principles. Discovered in the mid-twentieth century during construction work, the site is now protected within a small enclosure. It links the capital to the ancient period before the Sultanate cities.