Prelims 2016 · Q39
Easyसम्राट अशोक के राजादेशों का सबसे पहले विकूटन (डिसाइफर) किसने किया था?
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Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?
(a) Georg Bühler · (b) James Prinsep · (c) Max Müller · (d) William Jones
उत्तर और व्याख्या · explanation in English
Answer: (b) जेम्स प्रिंसेप
James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered the Brahmi script of Ashoka's inscriptions in 1838. Once Brahmi could be read, historians found that the king named in them, Piyadassi, was Ashoka.
- ✓ (b) Prinsep deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi in the 1830s and read Ashokan Brahmi in 1838. NCERT says he also found that most inscriptions named a king called Piyadassi, meaning “pleasant to behold”.
- ✗ (d) William Jones came to Calcutta in 1783 as a junior judge of the Company's Supreme Court and is remembered as an Orientalist scholar; he did not read Ashokan Brahmi.
- ✗ (a) Georg Bühler was a later scholar of Indian inscriptions; the first decipherment was Prinsep's.
- ✗ (c) Max Müller is known for editing and translating Sanskrit texts such as the Rig Veda, not for deciphering Ashoka's edicts.
Remember · James Prinsep deciphered Ashokan Brahmi in 1838; the Piyadassi of the inscriptions was identified as Ashoka.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 2 “It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.”
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part I, Chapter 2 “This was when James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi, two scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and coins.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·