John Irwin indeed wrote a series of papers on Ashokan pillars in the Burlington Magazine back in the 1970s, largely from the perspective of his theories regarding axiality and the pillars' links with older cosmogonic traditions. 

This is the second of several such articles:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/877843?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Best wishes

Julia

---

Dr Julia Shaw

Lecturer in South Asian Archaeology

Institute of Archaeology UCL

31-34 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PY

 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/shaw

Message: 7
Date: Fri, 19 May 2017 09:19:17 +0200
From: Jonathan Silk <kauzeya@gmail.com>
To: Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi@gmail.com>
Cc: Artur Karp <karp@uw.edu.pl>, indology
        <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Ashokan Pillars' transport
Message-ID:
        <CAMGmO4JN9wCb_562UUJxUG7nNUByLy9twsMDb7S1=ADyN6FdZw@mail.gmail.com>
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It's been a very long time and my memory is getting worse and worse, and no
doubt a colleague can help, but if I am not entirely mistaken John Irwin
wrote about this question somewhere...

Jonathan