Karnataka elections: Maski Assembly constituency

Maski is a village and an archaeological site in the Lingasugur taluk of Raichur district. It lies on the bank of the Maski river which is a tributary of the Tungabhadra. Maski derives its name from Mahasangha or Masangi.

Maski is also the place on the Raichur Doab which was also under the hegemony of the imperial Chola empire. The Maski village is also famous of Ashok Shila Shasana. Maski is an important archeological site. Maski was studied initially by Robert Bruce Foote in 1870 and 1888. In 1915 C Beadon a mining engineer discovered Ashoka's rock edict here. The excavations indicated that the region was occupied across four different cultural periods; Neolithic-Chalcolithic, Megalithic, Early historical and Medieval.

Maski inscription is an important inscription. It was the first inscription to give both Priyadarshan and Ashoka, thus identifying Ashoka with Priyadarshin found in other edicts. The earliest specimen of glass was found here.

The total number of electors are 172789. Among them 86501 electors are male and 86273 are female. The current MLA is Pratapgowda Patil from Indian National Congress. He won the election by 19,147 votes.

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