The two recent discussions of the chronology of Aśoka'searly missionary activities, as described in hisfirst Minor Rock Edict, came to differentconclusions. For the idea of a 256-day pilgrimage,which stems ultimately from mistranslation, Falk hadsought to substitute a calculation involving 256non-consecutive Uposatha nights. Without detailedrefutation of Falk's arguments, Norman rejected thisresult and retained the assumption of a date countedin days from the beginning of a regnal year. Falk'sVedic and Arthaśāstra materialpoints, however, in the right direction. Adescription of Aśoka as256-rātra-vyuṣṭo “having spent a256-day season” would date his proclamation to theclose of an eight-month campaigning season,corresponding closely withvarṣā-rātra-uṣita Rāma (R4.19.1), literally ‘having spent the rains season’,but dating the activity in question to the first dayof autumn. Late Vedic and epic use ofvyuṣṭa and instances ofcalculation by binary, apparently solar, weeks of 8days and months of 32 days (of which eight wouldyield 256), suggest that Aśoka was seeking to givehis proselytizing campaign the status of a religiousobservance defined in Kṣatriya terms.Arthaśāstra includes theproposition that a 32-day military month was usedfor administrative purposes in the field.

Just as in rock edicts the phrase[devānaṃpiyena] …abhisitena lekhite dates eventsto a regnal year, so[devānaṃpiyena] … vivuṭhenasāvane dates Aśoka's MRE proclamation,but with reference to his years of religiousseniority. The additive chronology, more than twoyears plus more than one year, suggested by Normanand upheld by Falk, is supported by the syntax ofthe passage. It would tend to associate the MRE withAśoka's 13th regnal year. Aśoka's epigraphs implythat, inspired perhaps by early residence in Ujjain,he was at first drawing on late Vedic and epiccalendrical motifs, before starting to display aknowledge of Vinaya calendrical material in thepillar edicts.