THE KING WHO ROSE FROM THE DEAD

• The Golden Pillar

         Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq(1351-88) was on a hunting expedition in the Topra region of modern day Haryana. While searching for game, his hunting party came upon a huge monolithic pillar. The Sultan was highly impressed by its fine polishing and lusture. He called it "Minar-i-Zarin" i.e. the golden pillar. 

Topra pillar

        One similar pillar was also discovered in Meerut(UP). Curious Sultan when inquired about the pillars, was informed by the locals that these giant structures were infact "walking sticks" of Bhim, the strongest of the Pandavs from Mahabharat times. Firoz Shah finding them to be valuable,ordered his men to transport the pillars which stood 42 feet in height and weighing almost 27 tons each to his capital. 

Meerut pillar

• The Enigma Code 

    Firoz Shah was restless even after bringing the pillars to Delhi, he had noticed some strange engraving on both the pillars which looked almost alien to him. He brought in the most renowned Sanskrit scholars and Brahmins of the region to decipher the writings.

      Despite the best of their efforts, they were unable to comprehend the meaning of the scribbling on the pillars. With the death of Firoz Shah in 1388, the zeal to unveil those hidden messages also perished and the monoliths were almost completely forgotten in the sands of time.

Mysterious engravings on the pillars

• The Gora Sahib

        James Prinsep, a metallurgist working in the Benaras mint of East India company was charmed by the Indian history and culture. His interest led him into the field of archaeology and epigraphy(study of old writings). He also became the secretary of the Asiatic society of Bengal which was primarily indulged in Indology. 

       Prinsep when first encountered the alien writings on the pillars, he was puzzled, just as Firoz Shah had been some 5 centuries back. But he was determined to solve this mystery.

      James Prinsep started searching for clues when he came upon similar writings in the North Western part of India. He found out bilingual inscriptions on some pillars. one of the scripts written on them was either Kharoshti or Greek(both were very well known) and the other one was the Enigma script that he was researching about. He compared both the scripts letter to letter and Bingo! He had cracked the code. The script that he deciphered was Brahmi which was prevalent in ancient India. The year was 1837.

James Prinsep(1799-1840)

• The beloved of God

      More startling than the discovery of the Brahmi script was the identification of a person whose name appeared in those inscriptions as "Devanampiya Piyadasi", the meaning of which in Prakrit language is the one who is beloved of God and elegant to look at. 

    When similar findings from Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh were compared, the researchers found out another name of the same person. It was written as "Ranyo Asoko" in Prakrit which translates in Sanskrit as "Raja Ashok".

    And thus, came to limelight one of the greatest rulers of not just India but the entire world. The inquisitiveness of a Delhi Sultan and the determination of a British officer made possible the resurrection of the long forgotten Mauryan Emperor Ashoka(269-32 BCE) almost after 2000 years of his death.

'A' 'SO' 'K' written in Brahmi