First published by the Clarendon Press in 1961, this authoritative work is based largely on the edicts of Asoka, whose policies are analysed against the background of Mauryan civilization during the third and fourth centuries BC - one of the most important periods of Indian civilization. The author offers an interpretation of Asoka's connection with Buddhism and shows how he was able to make use of a general movement of social and spiritual change for the political and moral integration of his Empire. This edition contains an additional map showing sites discovered since 1961, a revised up-to-date Bibliography, a new Index, and an extensive Afterword where the author discusses additions to scholarship in this area since the book's first publication.