Engraved on a 15-meter-high stone pillar are 14 eternal edicts. Carved in the 2nd century BCE, the edicts were made by Piyadasi or Devanampiyadasi, the king who ruled the area that now forms most of India.

Almost all its lines are fascinating, but the most stirring is the seventh edict:

"Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all religions should reside everywhere, for all of them desire self-control and purity of heart."

It was later discov