The accounts of Kalinga War is known to us by the

The correct answer is A. Rock Edict XIII is Ashoka's own account of the Kalinga war, fought around 261 BCE. He records the slaughter, deportation and suffering of the people of Kalinga, and his remorse that turned him towards dhamma. It is the only contemporary primary source that describes the war in the king's own words, which is why it is the standard answer.

Why the others fail:

• B: The Rummindei Pillar inscription records Ashoka's visit to Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, and the reduction of the Lumbini land tax. It says nothing about Kalinga.
• C: Hiuen Tsang was a 7th-century Chinese pilgrim, roughly 800 years after the war. He is a later secondary source, so he cannot be the primary account.
• D: Minor Rock Edict I speaks of the king's year-and-a-half as a lay Buddhist and his efforts to bring the Sangha closer. It does not discuss the war.

Core concept: Ashoka's edicts as primary epigraphic sources. For Mains, they help in discussing the shift from conquest to dhamma and the idea of ethical statecraft.

Trap: Candidates often pick Rummindei because it is the famous Ashoka pillar and appears in the same chapter. Remember that Rummindei is about Lumbini, not Kalinga.