File:012092021 3rd century BCE Saru Maru Panguraria Buddhist site, Madhya Pradesh 201.jpg

English: Saru Maru Buddhist monastic complex – often referred to as the Panguraria or Pangudariyam archaeological site in scholarly literature – is an Ashoka-related 3rd-century BCE site about 25 kilometers west of Narmadapuram in Madhya Pradesh. It is notable for Brahmi inscriptions about Ashoka's life as a prince, and later one of his minor Dharma edicts as the Mauryan emperor. The Saru Maru site offers rare insights into his pre-Buddhist life and the ancient Hindu culture (c. 3rd-century BCE), as well as one of the roots of Sinhalese Buddhism as both Mahinda and Sanghamitta were born to prince Ashoka and Devi when they lived in this region. The site is also important in archaeological study of Buddhism as it has thirty three stupas spread over nearby hills. It was a significant Buddhist monastic site from Ashoka's time till about the 13th-century CE.

Panguraria (Saru Maru, Saro Maro) is located on the southern side of the Vindhya mountains, midst forests and scenic valleys, north of the Narmada river. The site was discovered accidentally in the 1970s by Indian archaeologists. The Panguraria inscriptions survive in a damaged form, were edited and published in 1976 (see DC Sircar (1979), Ashokan Studies, pp. 94–103). The most interesting inscription is inside a rock shelter, in Brahmi script, and it says that Ashoka "now called Piyadasi, once came to this place for a pleasure tour as prince with his consort" (Devi, his future wife, mother of his two children). Other evidence confirms that Devi was the daughter of an Ujjain merchant and banker, so she and prince Ashoka (pre-Buddhist) came to vacation here together from Ujjain, years before their marriage (for other details, see Harry Falk (1997), The Preamble at Panguraria, Indica et Tibetica, pp. 107–121).

The minor Rock edict No 1 inscription is near the prince Ashoka inscription, but more formal and elegantly completed. Both are in the early Brahmi script. The minor edict is damaged too. It is important and interesting because it is the fifteenth version of the same edict found in pre-2nd century BCE Greater India. It has several important language and content differences from 14 versions discovered before the 1970s, so the Saru Maru inscription is helpful in understanding the development of languages and the written script in Ancient India.