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Deotak Inscriptions: Ashoka’s Edict and a Vakataka Temple in Stone

Deotak Inscriptions: Ashoka’s Edict and a Vakataka Temple in Stone
Deotak Inscriptions: Ashoka’s Edict and a Vakataka Temple in Stone

Archaeologists have long noted that Vidarbha’s history is pieced together from scattered stone inscriptions. Among these, the Deotak slab stands out.


Discovered under a small ruined temple near Nagbhir in Chandrapur district, it bears two distinct texts from very different eras. One portion belongs to the Mauryan period, and its Brahmi letters mark it as an Ashokan-era edict. The stone is today kept in Nagpur’s Central Museum, but its message is far older. In one portion, it enacts an Ashoka-style decree written in early Prakrit, and in another, it records a 4th-century CE Vakataka king building a temple. Together, the carvings link a Mauryan moral proclamation to a later Vakataka temple foundation, making Deotak virtually the oldest inscription in Vidarbha.


Historical records confirm that this dual inscription slab is unparalleled in the region. Vidarbha scholars note that the area holds a wealth of epigraphic evidence spanning Ashoka’s time through the Gupta and Vakataka ages.


In Deotak, also called Devtek, a dilapidated laterite temple stands over the slab. Archaeologist V. V. Mirashi, who studied the site in the 1930s, described it as a small plain shrine consisting essentially of a single cell with a simple entrance. When the British explorer J. D. Beglar first recorded Deotak in 1873, he sketched the inscription’s outlines, but no translation was made. It took decades more before Indian epigraphists fully analysed the text. Later researchers discovered that the slab carried two inscriptions, one Mauryan and the other Vakataka.


These studies confirm that one text was carved in Emperor Ashoka’s reign in the 3rd century BCE and the other during the reign of King Rudrasena I in the 4th century CE.


An Ashokan Edict on a Stone Slab


The older text on the Deotak slab is carved along its length in early Brahmi script. Its language is archaic Prakrit, closely resembling the style of Ashoka’s Rock Edicts.


In fact, the content mirrors Ashokan ideals as it forbids the hunting and slaughter of animals. Translations of fragments show that it was a royal order banning the capture of certain beasts, with penalties for violators.

Epigraphist V. V. Mirashi noted that its lines mention an official assigned to enforce the ban and even include a date of fourteen, likely the 14th regnal year.


Scholars now agree that this decree was issued by Ashoka’s own moral inspector, known as a Dharmamahāmātra, for this region.


Ashoka created Dharma officials in his 13th year, and by the 14th year, they were specifically charged to prevent the capture and slaughter of animals.


It is believed that Ashoka’s Dharmamahāmātra for ancient Vidarbha had this precise order inscribed at Chikamburi, also known as Chikmara, a town named in the text.


The edict appears to have been incised there to proclaim the command of the emperor to his subjects living in the neighbourhood. In other words, Ashoka’s message prohibiting killing in certain seasons was literally etched in stone for the people of Vidarbha.


The slab’s usage history highlights its age. Reportedly the stone had even been used as a seat by villagers and smoothed by time, which is why some letters peeled away.

What remains, however, still clearly echoes Ashokan policy. The inscription provides rare evidence that Ashoka’s laws reached the far east of his empire. Because such horizontal slabs are not found elsewhere in Ashokan epigraphy, Deotak’s text is a unique local

testimony to Mauryan rule.


The Vakataka Temple Inscription


Beneath the Ashokan text is a later inscription cut across the width of the slab. These letters are in a box-shaped Brahmi alphabet typical of the 4th century CE, and the language switches to Sanskrit prose.


The content is entirely different as it records the construction of a temple. The Vakataka king Rudrasena I, who reigned around 335 to 360 CE, is named as the builder of a dharma-sthāna, or place of worship, at the same site.


Mirashi’s published translation of this portion states that at Chikkamburi, there was a special place of religious worship of King Rudrasena, born in the family of the Vakatakas.

In short, King Rudrasena I proudly points out that he founded a temple at Chikamburi, the same location mentioned in the Ashokan text.


The stele specifically calls the new shrine a dharma-sthāna. Archaeological notes on the site agree that the ruined laterite temple matches this description. It was small, consisting simply of a cell and its entrance, likely with only a brief porch attached. Graffiti at the site show a later Ganapati figure, but the inscription implies the original temple was dedicated to Shiva, Rudrasena’s family deity.


This Vakataka record also proves to be historically important. It establishes that Rudrasena I’s influence extended into Vidarbha, since he carried out building work on this frontier.


By noting his title rājā and lineage, the inscription reinforces that Rudrasena was indeed a sovereign monarch of his house, the Nandivardhana–Pravarapura branch.

It also gives an early indication of Rudrasena’s devotion to Shiva, since the term dharma-sthāna can refer to a Śaiva shrine.


In the broader context, such temple inscriptions were a typical way for kings to advertise piety and power. Here at Deotak, the royal dedication stone lay broken by the laterite sanctum, but its words carved in stone link the Vakataka dynasty directly to the site.


Significance of the Deotak Inscriptions


Taken together, the two inscriptions at Deotak span over six centuries. The Deotek inscription is widely regarded as the earliest known inscription from Vidarbha, and the discovery ties Vidarbha firmly to Mauryan and later dynastic narratives.


The Ashokan edict in Prakrit provides one of the very few first-millennium BCE records in this part of India, confirming that the Mauryan state’s ethical laws were proclaimed in the region.

The later Sanskrit text adds a chapter of Vidarbha’s history by recording that a Vakataka king built a shrine here. No other site in Vidarbha has such a continuous epigraphic thread from Ashoka’s time to the Gupta-Vakataka era.


Scholars emphasise that each detail on the slab is evidence. Its very existence shows that a Mauryan officer visited Vidarbha to install edicts, and that a Vakataka ruler cared enough to leave a lasting record of his temple. Local traditions had already linked Deotak to an Ashokan official, and the texts now provide the proof.


Ashoka’s Dharma-mahāmātra is explicitly mentioned. Likewise, Ramtek inscriptions and Vakataka copper-plate grants speak of Rudrasena I, but the Deotak slab is a rare in-situ temple inscription by Rudrasena himself.


Armed with these findings, historians of Vidarbha can trace cultural and political shifts across eras. The slab effectively anchors a timeline, with its Brahmi letters marking the spread of Ashoka’s script and ideas eastward, while the later Sanskrit inscription shows the evolution of royal titulature and temple patronage by the 300s CE.


Every scratched letter is now a voice from the past. Deotak’s inscriptions no longer sleep in obscurity.


They have proved a durable link between two distant chapters of Indian history, and they will continue to guide researchers piecing together Vidarbha’s ancient narrative.

 


References




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