Brief History of Kalsi:
According to historical evidences, the place was a part of the
kingdom of Mauryan emperor Ashoka who ruled India from 269-232 B.C. A
few wrecked pieces of pillars, railings, broken bits of pottery and some
sculptures were found in the region by the Archeological survey of
India. The most important discovery was a bulky rock about 10 ft long,
10 ft wide and 8 ft thick at the bottom at the banks of River Yamuna.
The rock has now been preserved by the Archeological survey of India.
The rock has a set of 14 inscriptions in Brahmi and Prakrit language.
Since King Ashoka was a follower of Buddha's teachings and a preacher of
non-violence himself, he spread the message of ahimsa and peacefulness.
He appointed an array of ministers who were assigned this job of
writing inscriptions on rocks and pillars along the significant
pilgrimage and trade routes throughout India. Probably, this was his way
of spreading his generous thoughts. 
Kalsi is a tiny village in the backdrop of Himalaya en route Chakrata
from Dehradun and flaunts an alluring serenade of innate and artistic
beauty. An untainted, unexplored and uncharted implicit heaven for
exhilarating adventure, Kalsi offers an exquisite amiable charm which
surpasses every description. The major attraction of Kalsi is the
vivacious River Yamuna which disposes off its insistent temperament in
this region and takes along the affluent history of Kalsi steadily.
River Yamuna attains calm and tranquility at Kalsi only. An unfamiliar
milieu in the foothills of the Himalayas, Kalsi was once a chief
township in the Jaunsar Bawar area. Subsequently, it was decrepit into a
deserted tiny rural community. The astounding sheathe of land, fostered
by the unspoiled stream of River Asan and the confluence of unruffled
Yamuna with its offshoot stream, River Tons at Kalsi extends numerous
breathtakingly beautiful landscapes of the Doon valley.
A report by archeologist survey of India :
THE INSCRIBED ROCK EDICT OF ASOKA (KALSI)
Location Geo- Coordinates
Lat. 30 ° 32' N: Long 77° 53' ENOTIFICATION NO.: UP-3119-M/367 :23-11-1909
The site of Asoka's inscriptions at Kalsi the only place in north India
where the great Mauryan emperor has inscribed the set of the fourteen
rock edicts (res). The language of these edicts is Pali and the script
Brahmi which reflect Asoka's humane approach in his internal
administration, his fatherly concern for the moral and spiritual welfare
of his subjects, and his commitment to non-violence and abandonment of
warfare. For this Asoka proclaimed certain restrictive and prescriptive
policies. The essence of the restrictive policies are restraint in
worldly amusement, in gratuitous slaughter or non destruction of
animals, in participating in despicable and useless beliefs and
practices, and in glorification of one's own faith. That of prescriptive
ones: self-control, purity of mind, gratitude, and firm attachment
service to parents and ascetics, alms to brahmins and sramanas
(ascetics), seemly behaviour towards friends, relatives, acquaintances,
servants and slaves, concordance in religious matters.
To implement his policies Asoka put restraint in killing animals for the
royal kitchen, established hospitals and planted medicinal herbs for
both human beings and animals. He did not only within his empire but
also in the neighbouring kingdoms: Chodas, Pamdiyas, Satiyaputras,
Kerlaputras upto tambapamni (srilanka) in the south, and of hellenic
kings in the west. He appointed dhamma mahamatra-s (overseers of the
sacred law) for the promotion of righteous conduct, and replacing sound
of trumpet signalling war used sound of dhamma (righteousness) whereby
he claims to have gained dhamma vijay (victory by means of
righteousness) even in the kingdoms of his contemporary hellenic kings,
namely, antiochus (i) theos of Sriya, Ptolemy (ii) Philadelphia of
Egypt, Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, magas of Cyrene and Alexender of
epirus. Thus, these inscriptions bear testimony to the facts that what
Asoka preached also practiced. That is why he is acclaimed as one of the
greatest emperors in the world.
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