It was at one of those monthly gathering of scholars at Asiatic Society in Calcutta, Williams Jones  the founder president of this august body rose to enthrall his audience with the news of his promising success  in deciphering Brahmi script on which the inscriptions were found on the pillars unearthed from various parts of  India like Delhi, Allahabad, Girnar,Dhouli etc. Little did he know then that he was on his way to find the most important link which was missing in the history of India. He was also unaware that his research work would lead to the discovery of role of one of the famous emperors - Emperor Ashoka, in the history, in spreading Buddhism in the world. 

Centuries before the geographical landscape of Northern, Central and Eastern India was dotted with some awe-inspiring huge stoneworks drawing attention of touristsand knowledgeable people. Not only the physical beauty of those stone pillars but what aroused curiosity and tickled their imagination was the appearance of mysterious letters forming words and sentences. Theses unusually  smooth and  shiny pillars measuring some 30 feet to 50 feet in height and weighing 25 to 50 tons were all made  out of a single piece of rock.. Some of them had figures of animals like lion,elephants etc atop them.  Feroze Shah Tughlaq the 14th century Sultan of Delhi was so captivated by the beauty of them that he he decided to bring two of these shining  marvels to decorate his new capital! Europeans were convinced that such wonderful works of art might have been produced by the Greeks.

It is worth remembering in this context that the history of Islamic India was well recorded by the Islamic historians and scholars but no such account existed of the history preceding it. Bits and pieces which were made available to Williams Jones by his Brahmin associates could not throw much light in this regard. the name of Emperor Ashoka existed just like any other and his stellar role in promoting Buddhism in India and other countries, the stupendous geographical length and breadth of his vast empire was all unknown to the world till then! When Jones asked about the Emperor Ashoka   these pundits could not produce anything beyond 18 Puranas  containing brief and incomplete accounts of a few dynasties and their reign covering centuries. It is equally important to note that after Marco Polo's - the Italian adventurer, visit to India the Europe came to know that there was one religious leader named Buddha or his religious order. Even the Hindu scriptures contained no extensive details of the flourishing and flowering endless numbers of sites housing wondrous Buddist Stupas - the splendid works of architecture spreading over a vast expanse of geographical area beyond the shores of ancient India.  Apart from these sketchy details Williams Jones perceived a deep-seated prejudice amongst his Brahmin associates against Buddha. It  was a riddle to him as to why such an attitude marked their evaluation of Buddha whom Hindu scripture portrayed as the ninth Avatar of Lord Vishnu!

With the publication of Jones' path-breaking research work in 1789 the responses and reactions of scholars who were doing their own individual research in this field came in confirmation of the fact that Buddhism originated in India and Gautam Buddha who was born and died in Magadh was the founder of this religion. There were evidences galore in the form of large body of religious texts in Pali and Sanskrit being unearthed from various parts in and around India. Jones, a great scholar and philologist, embarked on an ambitious project of putting the jig-saw puzzle together by drawing on his knowledge gathered in his student days about the Greek accounts of Magasthenese, Herodotus and others who recorded Alexander's invasion of India in their respective works.  Alexander the great set his foot in India in 327 BC and died in 323 on his way back in Babylon. According to their accounts after the demise of Alexander the great his chief lieutenant Selucus attempted to recapture the empire and met with fierce resistance from an Indian Emperor and was forced to abandon his ambition in favor of making peace with him! It is also recorded that he was handsomely rewarded for it. Even he got his daughter married off into one of the royal families in India.

The question may now be asked as to who was this powerful emperor before whom the might of the invading Greeks was humbled? In the historical accounts there are various names bruiting around and the one which comes closest to Chandragupta Maurya is Sandrocoptus  It has to be kept in mind that for the venerable scholar Jones it was not possible at that point of time to verify that Chandragupta and Selucus were contemporaries. The historical evidence in the form of a book named 'Indica' written by Magasthenes who was sent as envoy to the court of Emperor Chandragupta by Selucus. Two important terms in the forms of a place and a river were found in this book. One is 'Palimbrotha' and the other is the name of a river 'Eranobous'. Being curious about these names Jones began a study along with his fellow native scholars to find the existence of them. But their efforts proved futile. It was Bengal's first Surveyor General and Cartographer Major Jame Renel who wrote a letter to Jones confirming that the present city "Patna","Pataliputra" and "Palimbrotha" could be the same place! As Patna is located  at the confluence of the river Ganga and Sone. The river 'Sone' posed difficulties because  the river mentioned in Magasthenes was "Eranobous" which was resolved through a Sanskrit text which confirmed that actually the name was "Hiranyabaha". To a Greek that was turned into "Eranobous"! Not only that how Chandragupta Maurya captured Pataliputra with help of Chanakya are well recorded in Somdev's Kathasaritsagar' and in Vishakhadutta's Mudrarakshasa. So the Greek versions and Indian version converged to confirm that Alexander the Great met Chandragupta Maurya   

With these historical materials Jones was able to reconstruct that the Maurya dynasty was founded at the time when Alexander the Great came to conquer India in 317 BC and its reign spanned till 180 BC. In the trail of Chandragupta the name of Emperor Ashoka also came to surface. With the discovery of pillars and Buddhist stupas and inscriptions on rock-faces and pillars, Jone busied himself in assessing the Emperor Ashoka's true contribution in spreading Buddhism in India abroad. Unfortunately his death in 1795 was a great setback to the research efforts in this regard as his successor in Asiatic Society was not that prfoundly interested like him. In the next twenty years which followed after his death, numerous finds in the form of Buddhist texts started coming in from all corners of the Asia like China, Burma and Srilanka. The credit of reviving research goes to the first Surveyor General of India Collin Mackengie who showed tremendous energy and devotion in his task and at times spent from his own pocket to conduct survey of Southern India. His success in collecting 82 rarest architectural pieces form Buddha stupa at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh. One of such contained the image of the wheel which symbolized  good governance based on Buddhism by the Emperor Ashoka which has found its way into our National Flag.

Francis Bucchanan was another remarkable researcher from Scotland who significantly contributed in this sphere. In the course of his survey in Bihar, he could not identify many figures of Buddha lying around the main temple of Buddhagaya. It was an interesting coincidence that led to the identification. Two of Burmese pilgrims who confirmed that Buddha used to stay there and it was one of the most famous pilgrimage centers in India.

In 1832 James Princep became the head of Asiatic Society and under his stewardship fresh efforts were launched to decipher the mysterious script on the basis of which inscriptions were written as mentioned earlier. He became all the more curious  to find all the inscriptions from pillars unearthed from Delhi, Allhabad and Bihar looked alike. And became more impatient to know their meanings. Gradually it became clearer and clearer that all these inscriptions wrote the tales of life of Buddha, the Emperor's Ashoka's stellar and pioneering role in spreading and popularizing his messages. Therefore , the credit of deciphering Brahmi script and exploring the glorious chapters of one of the most important phases of ancient India must go to him along with illustrious predecessors.

Emperor Asoka was not only the greatest of all Maurya emperors  by establishing his vast empire but he succeeded in promoting Buddhism to make it one of the most dominant religions in India. What was remarkable that it survived and thrived for the next 1500 years. We have to remain indebted to these  scholars  like William Jones, Mackenzie, Bucchanan and Princep for their sterling efforts to illuminate a  dark yet so important part of Indian History.