Minor Pillar Edicts

Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka
Minor Pillar Edict on the Sarnath pillar.
Material	Sandstone
Created	3rd century BCE
Present location	India, Nepal
Sarnath Sanchi Lumbini Nigali Sagar Kosambi/ Allahabad class=notpageimage| Locations of the Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka.

The Minor Pillar Edicts of Indian Emperor Ashoka refer to 4 separate minor Edicts of Ashoka (Schism Edict, Queen's Edict, 2 Commemorative inscriptions) inscribed on columns(Pillars of Ashoka) at 5 locations which are among the earliest dated inscriptions of any Indian monarch. A full English translation of the Edicts was published by Romila Thapar.^[1]

These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts(11th year of his reign) and may have been made in parallel with the Major Rock Edicts(12th year of his reign). The inscription technique is generally poor compared for example to the later Major Pillar Edicts. However they are often associated with some of the artistically most sophisticated pillar capitals of Ashoka. This fact led some authors to think that the most sophisticated capitals were actually the earliest in the sequence of Ashokan pillars and that style degraded over a short period of time.^[2]

These were probably made at the beginning of the reign of Ashoka (reigned 262-233 BCE), from 12th year of his reign, that is, from 250 BCE.^[3]