SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 10 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In which of the following Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka is the Kalinga war mentioned?

(a)XI
(b)XIII
(c)XII
(d)X

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Major Rock Edict XIII is the Kalinga edict: it records the conquest, counts the dead and the deported, and states Ashoka's remorse in his own voice.

It is also where he sets dhamma-vijaya, conquest by dhamma, against conquest by arms, and names the Hellenistic kings to whom he sent envoys.

Rock Edicts X, XI and XII deal with fame, the gift of dhamma and tolerance between sects. The war belongs to XIII alone — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
XI — Rock Edict XI explains dhamma-dana, the gift of dhamma, which Ashoka calls the best of all gifts. It carries nothing on Kalinga.
(c)
XII — Rock Edict XII is the tolerance edict. It asks the sects to honour one another and to restrain the praise of their own, and it is not a war record.
(d)
X — Rock Edict X rejects fame and glory as ends in themselves, saying that Ashoka desires renown only for adherence to dhamma.

Concept

Ashoka's inscriptions divide into Major Rock Edicts (fourteen, at sites such as Girnar, Dhauli, Jaugada, Kalsi, Shahbazgarhi and Yerragudi), Minor Rock Edicts, Pillar Edicts and cave inscriptions.

They are written in Prakrit, in Brahmi across most of the empire, in Kharosthi in the north-west, and in Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar.

Rock Edict XIII is the historical centrepiece. It places the Kalinga war eight years after his consecration, gives casualty figures, and names Antiochus with four other Greek kings — the anchor for Mauryan chronology.

Rock Edict XIII is left out of the two copies inside Kalinga itself, at Dhauli and Jaugada, which carry two Separate Edicts on the administration of the conquered instead.

The conqueror's remorse, in other words, was not published to the conquered.

Key facts

Major Rock Edict XIII describes the Kalinga war and Ashoka's remorse.
The edict places the war eight years after his consecration, about 261 BCE.
It records 150,000 people deported and 100,000 killed, with many more dead.
Rock Edict XIII is omitted at Dhauli and Jaugada, where two Separate Edicts appear in its place.

Study next

The fourteen Major Rock Edicts and the subject of eachAshoka's dhamma: its content and the machinery that propagated itSites and scripts of the Ashokan inscriptions

Common traps

Confusing Rock Edict XIII with the two Separate Kalinga Edicts at Dhauli and Jaugada.
Placing the Kalinga war at the start of the reign. It comes eight years after the consecration.

SSC comes at Ashoka through the sources — the name Piyadassi at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.4, and the attributes of his Dhamma at 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.