 Ashoka's edicts were the first written inscriptions in India after the ancient city of Harrapa fell to ruin.Several authors have pointed out that the Major Rock Edicts do not have a very strong Buddhist flavour, in particular compared to the Minor Rock Edicts.The subject of the Major Rock Edicts is the Dharma, which is essentially described as a corpus of moral and social values ("compassion, liberality, thruthfulness, purity, gentleness, goodness, few sins, many vituous deeds") and neither the Buddha, nor the Samgha, nor Buddhism are ever mentioned.