Priyadasi

[3] It also appears in Greek in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription (c. 260 BCE), when naming the author of the proclamation as βασι[λ]εὺς Πιοδασσης ("Basileus Piodassēs"), and in Aramaic in the same inscription as "our lord, king Priyadasin" (Imperial Aramaic: 𐡐𐡓𐡉𐡃𐡓𐡔), Modern Hebrew: פרידארש‎ pryd’rš).

[1] Prinsep, who deciphered the Brahmi script had originally identified Priyadasi with the King of Ceylon Devanampiya Tissa.

However, in 1837, George Turnour discovered a Siamese version of the Sri Lankan manuscript Dipavamsa, or "Island Chronicle", associating Piyadasi with the early Maurya dynasty: "Two hundred and eighteen years after the beatitude of the Buddha, was the inauguration of Piyadassi, .... who, the grandson of Chandragupta, and the son of Bindusara, was at the time Governor of Ujjayani.

Both the lowly and the exalted must be told : "If you act thus, this matter (will be) prosperous and of long duration, and will thus progress to one and a half.

He argues that "Priyadasi" could simply be the proper name of an early Indian king, not necessarily Ashoka, who was the author of the Major Rock Edicts or the Major Pillar Edicts inscriptions but not the rest, and who can be identified as probably the son of Chandragupta Maurya (otherwise known in Greek source as Amitocrates, i.e. Bindusara)[3] However, this interpretation has been questioned on methodological grounds by several other historians.