The pillars of Ashoka are a series of columns dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during his reign from c. 268 to 232 BC.
One of the most important places to visit in Varanasi, the Chaukhandi Stupa at Sarnath is believed to have been constructed in somewhere between the 4th and 6th century, during the Gupta era.