The country, where the stone inscription of emperor Ashoka is found

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 3:
Afghanistan is correct because the edicts and inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka the Great (c. 268 to 232 BCE) were dispersed throughout the vast Maurya Empire, which at its peak included territories outside modern India. Significantly, some of the most important Ashokan inscriptions, like the famous bilingual rock edict in Greek and Aramaic, were discovered in Kandahar, which is located in modern-day Afghanistan. These inscriptions, written in foreign scripts, were specifically aimed at the non-Indian populations in the northwestern frontier of his empire to propagate his policy of *Dhamma*. The presence of these major rock and pillar edicts definitively confirms Afghanistan as a country where Ashokan stone inscriptions are found.

The incorrect option is 1:
Sri Lanka, while having a deep connection with Buddhism and Ashoka's patronage (he sent his children, Mahendra and Sanghamitra, there), does not contain his primary stone *inscriptions* or edicts on its soil.

The incorrect option is 2:
China was outside the geographical boundary of the Mauryan Empire, and no stone inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka have ever been discovered within its territory. Ashoka's influence did not extend to China directly through stone edicts.

The incorrect option is 4:
Japan, like China, was geographically far outside the political and cultural reach of the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka’s imperial dominion and the distribution of his inscriptions were limited to the Indian subcontinent and its immediate bordering regions to the west and north.