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Stone tablets preserve Pali verses—memory hammered into rock.

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Inscriptions teach ethics, announce rulers, record gifts to monasteries.

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Carved for public hearing, they sounded in courtyards and shrines.

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Metre aided recall; dates and places anchored belief to history.

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Weather scars the faces, yet the meanings endure and travel.

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Scholars trace networks of monks, patrons, and kingdoms through them.

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Listen closely: each groove is a syllable of the past.