When I wrote the post on Ashoka’s Rock Edicts I had made a suggestion at the end of the post to the department concerned, which was to put up a proper and readable translation of the edicts at the site — both in English and Urdu.
To my pleasant surprise, I discovered the other day, when I stopped by at the site while traveling on the Karakoram Highway, that a new signboard had been installed alongside the old signboard displaying a gist of the edicts both in English and Urdu. (See pictures.) One would like to think that the new signboard was the result of suggestions and comments made on the ATP post, but the fact is that the Archaeology Department had done it on their own much before the ATP post appeared. (And I doubt if anyone in the Archaeology Department reads ATP.)
Even though one would have preferred to see the whole translation of the edicts, rather than just a summary, the new attempt is definitely an improvement over the old and unreadable signboard. The new board is neat and written clearly in English and Urdu. Otherwise, too, the place looked reasonably clean and well kept. They also have a caretaker (chowkidar) now who looks after the place from 8 to 5 at daytime.
Talking to the caretaker I found that back in 2002 (when the era of “Enlightened Moderation” was just beginning to dawn in Pakistan) a hand grenade was tossed by someone at a group of foreign tourists visiting the rocks. Luckily, other than minor injuries to some of the visitors, no significant injury or damage was caused either to the visitors or to the rocks. The attack did, however, scare away any potential tourists.
The rocks, with their benign message, have been sitting here quietly for over two thousand and two hundred years. One hopes that they would remain there, undisturbed, in the future as well.
Guys, read my comments again.I just said that Asoka and his legacy is in no way hindu or related to hinduism.He is part of our South Asian history and we can not deny that.I never said that such articles should not be published.Infact I believe that we should be proud of our history and history should be preserved.The other part of my comment was related to Zakoota’s position on indian pop culture being promomted in Pakistan.That in no way is related to Asoka or our heritage.I agreed with him that our channels are promoting indian culture and thats it.
Agree with zakoota and saad on one point: STOP publishing these articles. I’d rather not know that these wonders exist than be disgusted at how they were mutilated. Bamiyan and Jehanabad were just the tip of the ice-berg.
Question for zakoota and saad: are Katrina and Bipasha haraam because they’re Indian or because the swim with boyfriends? Or is it that the combination of two evils – Indian AND swimming with boyfriends – is just too much to tolerate. Maybe watching Jessica Simpson swim with her boyfriend is not nearly as bad? Just exceedingly curious.
Its really amazing that people of South Asia do not want to acknowledge their history because of narrow religious outlook.
Dear Zakoota – It is history we are talking about not something fiction. It simply cannot be wished away, because you dont agree. BTW there were humanity and civilization existing before rise of Islam maybe even that need not be taught in any country.
I am afraid some comments here only go on to portray Islam as an extremely fragile philosophy which unable to tolerate mere acknowledgement of our history and cultural heritage? Our heritage is our heritage; we can
Zakoota & Saad: with all due respect, this is NOT indian culture. Your comments are witness to the depths of the abyss of ignorance that the Pakistani “education” system has taken our people to.
Pakistan is home to one of the oldest civilizations on earth. It is navel gazing attitudes such as you two gentle people which have brought us to the edge of destruction.