Moral Codes of Ashoka

Ashoka in Rock Edict XII and many other edicts prescribes the following codes:

Obedience to mother and father, elders, teachers and other respectable persons.

Respect towards teachers

Proper treatment towards ascetics, relations, slaves, servants and dependents, the poor and miserable, friends, acquaintances and companions

Abstention from killing of living beings

Non-injury to all living creatures

Spending little and accumulating little wealth

Truthfulness

Purity of heart

Megasthenese the Greek ambassador from the court of Selectus to that of Chandragupta Maurya wrote accounts of India and Indian people. His book 'Indica' is lost but some fragments of it are known to us in the form of quotations in the works of the later Greek writers. However the most important and authentic source for the history of Mauryan period is provided by the inscriptions of Ashoka.