Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?

The correct answer is James Prinsep.

Among the four options provided — George Bühler, James Prinsep, Max Müller, and William Jones — it was James Prinsep who first successfully deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka. Let us understand this in detail, step by step.

Step 1: Who was Emperor Ashoka and what are his edicts?
Emperor Ashoka (ruled approximately 268–232 BCE) was one of the greatest rulers of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India. After the devastating Kalinga War, Ashoka embraced Buddhism and began spreading the message of Dhamma (righteousness, non-violence, and moral conduct). He had his messages and policies inscribed on rock surfaces, stone pillars, and cave walls across his vast empire. These inscriptions are collectively called the Edicts of Ashoka. They were written primarily in the Brahmi script and the Kharosthi script, both of which had been lost to memory over the centuries.

Step 2: The Challenge of Decipherment
For nearly two millennia, the Brahmi script used in Ashoka's edicts remained undeciphered. European scholars who came to India during the colonial period encountered these mysterious inscriptions but could not read them. This made the edicts a great historical puzzle. Several scholars attempted to decode the script, but none succeeded — until James Prinsep.

Step 3: James Prinsep's Breakthrough (1837)
James Prinsep (1799–1840) was a British antiquary, philologist, and scholar who served as an officer of the British East India Company. He was deeply passionate about Indian history, epigraphy (the study of inscriptions), and numismatics (the study of coins). In 1837, Prinsep achieved the landmark feat of deciphering the Brahmi script, which unlocked the meaning of Ashoka's edicts for the first time in over 2,000 years.

His method was methodical and brilliant:
— He began by studying short inscriptions on ancient coins, identifying recurring letter patterns.
— He cross-referenced bilingual inscriptions (texts written in both known and unknown scripts).
— By carefully mapping the frequency and position of letters, he successfully decoded the Brahmi alphabet.
— Once the script was cracked, the content of Ashoka's pillar edicts and rock edicts became readable, revealing Ashoka's identity as their author for the very first time.

Step 4: Why not the other options?
— George Bühler was a later German Indologist (1837–1898) known for translating Sanskrit texts and studying Indian scripts, but he did not first decipher Ashokan edicts.
— Max Müller (1823–1900) was a celebrated German philologist and Orientalist famous for translating the Rigveda and other Sanskrit texts, but he had no role in deciphering Ashoka's edicts.
— William Jones (1746–1794) was a pioneering British philologist who founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and famously identified the relationship between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin — laying the foundation of comparative linguistics. However, he passed away in 1794, decades before Prinsep's 1837 decipherment.

Step 5: Historical Significance
James Prinsep's decipherment was a monumental contribution to the study of Indian history. Before his work, the very name of Ashoka had been forgotten by history. The edicts referred to the king as "Devanampiya Piyadasi" (Beloved of the Gods, of Gracious Mien). It was only through further research, after Prinsep opened the door, that historians connected this title to the Mauryan emperor Ashoka. His work is therefore considered the founding moment of modern Indian epigraphy and ancient Indian historical studies.

Conclusion:
James Prinsep is the correct answer because he was the first person to decipher the Brahmi script in 1837, thereby reading and understanding the edicts of Emperor Ashoka for the first time in history. This single achievement transformed our knowledge of ancient Indian civilization and remains one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of South Asian archaeology and history.