Sometimes, history is set in stone, quite literally. There was an Ashokan edict dating back to 250 BC that was located in Nalasopara in the 19th century for example, which offers a window into what the world had been like during the Mauryan era. That piece of rock had messages written on it in the Brahmi script, and similar edicts were found in places as far off as Kandahar in modern-day Afghanistan, helping historians gauge the scale of the empire’s vast swathes of territory. They acted as rudimentary forms of telegrams, says type designer and researcher Tanya George, with the durability of the material ensuring that the messages remained imprinted in time, again quite literally, since they have survived well over 2,000 years. Their purpose could well have been to propagate the ruler’s Buddhist leanings.

A folio from an illustrated manuscript of Devi Mahatmya dating back to the 18th century