The late emergence of writing in India has often been associated with the impulse of one individual, Aśoka, who in the 3rd c. BCE wanted to spread his royal and ethical discourse throughout his vast empire. Massive discoveries of inscribed sherds in southern India and Sri Lanka, some dated before Aśoka’s reign, raise questions.
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Is this an invention of writing or a new way of using an existing tool? Confronting the inscribed sherds with Aśoka’s epigraphs engraved in South India allows us to better define ‘the Aśokan breakthrough’.