Asoka the Great

BY PROF. H. C. SETH, M.A., Ph.D. (LONDON)

(The K. E. College, Amraoti)

History can afford few studies as fascinating as the personality of Asoka. The various Buddhist traditions throw some light on the early life of this great monarch, from which we glean a few historical facts. While yet in his teens, he was the Viceroy of Ujjain during his father’s life-time. During this period of Viceroyalty he had a love affair with Devi, a pretty girl belonging to the Setthi caste of Vidisa (modern Bhilsa). She accompanied Asoka to Ujjain and there bore him a son named Mahendra and a daughter, Sanghmitra. Devi continued to reside at Vidisa after Asoka seized the throne, but the children went with their father to Pataliputra, the imperial capital.

During his father’s reign Asoka successfully suppressed a rebellion at Takshasila. His elder brother was unable to suppress another rebellion later on at the same place. This must have proved the greater capabilities of Asoka, and it is likely that out of the many brothers he was specially selected, like the famous Samudra-Gupta, by his father for the throne. But the Buddhist accounts suggest that Asoka won his way to the throne after bloodshed. There might have been some opposition on the part of his brothers to his being raised to the imperial throne, and in the war of succession his eldest brother, Sumana, was killed.

The best record of the events of the period of Asoka’s reign are his own inscriptions, which in certain respects bring out very vividly his personality before our eyes. During the first eight years of his reign we find Asoka, like his grandfather, the mighty conqueror and great administrator, Chandragupta, (and perhaps, too, like his equally powerful father, Bindusara,) busy with the problem of the administration of his vast realm and with the ambition of further extending its boundaries. He is constructing roads and wells, planting trees, opening hospitals, and helping the aged and the infirm. The most important event in the early part of his reign is his invasion, eight years after his coronation, of Kalinga, which he seems to have personally undertaken. He does conquer Kalinga, but the massacre and the horrors of this war touch him to the quick, and bring about a very great change in his outlook on life. The creed of conquest by war is replaced by the creed of conquest through love and kindness. The supreme object of his life henceforth becomes the welfare of all men. He is now extremely solicitous to promote, not only through beneficial administrative measures, but also through moral teachings, the lasting happiness of his own subjects and of his neighbours, including even the distant Greek kings.

His whole youthful energy is directed towards this one big end. In one of his Edicts he remarks: "I am never content in exerting myself and in dispatching business. For I consider it my duty to promote the welfare of all men. For no duty is more important than promoting the welfare of all men." (Major Rock Edict VI.). At all times of the day and night he is open to listen to any complaint lodged by any of his subjects. He instructs his governors to avoid envy, anger, cruelty and laziness and to exert their utmost in the service of the people. He sends out special officers to tour round the country and see that no injustice or harshness is being committed. His own tours of pleasure he converts into tours of morality, where the following takes place, "visiting Brahmanas and Sramanas and making gifts to them, visiting the aged and supporting them, visiting the people of the country, and questioning and instructing them in morality." He introduces the novel scheme of appointing Ministers for the promotion of Morality (Dharma Mahamatras.) "They occupy themselves with all sects in establishing morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality. They help the prisoners and cause their release if they have children or are aged". They help the Emperor and the members of his family in the capital and in the provincial towns to distribute charity to the deserving.

Asoka’s is essentially the code of a gentle, courteous and service-loving life; and it breathes some of the greatest moral truths. He tells people that fierceness, cruelty, anger, pride, envy are sinful. He says that even one who practises great liberality but does not possess self-control, purity of mind, gratitude and firm devotion, is very mean. He constantly reminds people of the necessity of zeal for achieving good things. He preaches moderation in expenditure and moderation in possessions. He lays the greatest emphasis on kindness, not only towards all men but even towards all animals.

The great change in Asoka’s life was not so much the result of the teachings of any particular sect, as it was the result of the reaction on him of the Kalinga war. It was the changed mood of mind after this war that really made Asoka incline towards Buddhism. He, perhaps, found his own new ideology strikingly similar to the teaching of Buddha, with its emphasis on love, kindness, and service of humanity. Asoka for the first time was attracted towards Buddhism after the Kalinga war. With advancing years his devotion to Buddha and his teachings grew deeper and deeper. But Asoka did not fail to see that other religious teachings also contained truths.

His inscriptions clearly show the catholic interest he took in all the religious sects. He desires that all sects may reside everywhere, for all these desire both self-control and purity of mind. (Major Rock Edict VII). In another Edict he again shows the same concern for all sects: "King Devanampriya Priyadarsin is honouring all sects, with gifts and with honours of various kinds. But Devanampriya does not value either gifts or honours so highly as this, viz., that a promotion of the essentials of all sects should take place. Other sects ought to be duly honoured in every case. If one is acting thus, he is both promoting his own sect and benefiting other sects. If one is acting otherwise than thus, he is both hurting his own sect and wronging other sects as well. For whosoever praises his own sect or blames other sects, he rather injures his own sect very severely. Therefore concord alone is meritorious, i.e., that they should both hear and obey each other’s morals. For this is the desire of Devanampriya, that all sects should be full of learning, and should be pure in doctrine and that a promotion of the essentials of all sects should take place." (Major Rock Edict XII). Donatory inscriptions of Asoka also reveal the same concern for all sects. If he enlarges the ‘stupa’ of Buddha Konakamana, he is giving caves to the Ajivikas. This policy of religious toleration was, perhaps, as much a political dictum handed down from the time of Chandragupta and Chanakya as it was the attitude of a virile mind enquiring after what was really true in the various religious sects, the same sort of urge which, several centuries later, we find in the case of the great Moghul, Akbar.

We have already suggested why Buddhism had an irresistible appeal for Asoka, and it was he who made Buddhism, which before his time was a local sect confined mostly to Eastern India, a world religion. But his exclusive religious pre-occupation, particularly towards the end of his reign, perhaps weakened the fabric of the empire established by the genius of Chandragupta and Chanakya. Asoka diverted the resources of this vast and mighty empire to spread to the world the gospel of Buddha, and it consumed itself like a flame to light the world, for, after Asoka, the Mauryan Empire crumbled to pieces.

As we look through the centuries, we find Asoka as one of the most remarkable personalities in the history of the world. In his youth he commenced in right earnest the task of uniting the whole of India under one empire, a task left partly unfinished by his father and grandfather. If Asoka had continued his career of conquest which he started with Kalinga, it is likely that, after he had incorporated in his empire parts of the extreme south of India, which were yet outside the Mauryan Empire, his attention might have been diverted towards the west. Under the great Chandragupta himself the Mauryan Empire towards the west extended far beyond the confines of the present Indian Empire. It included, besides the whole of the modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, considerable parts of Eastern Persia, as well as Russian and Chinese Turkestan.¹ After his victory over Seleucus, Chandragupta emerged as the greatest power of his time. If only his attention had been diverted towards the west he could have rehabilitated the great Persian Empire which was tottering then under the death-blow of Alexander. He could have easily reclaimed the distant Provinces of Egypt, Macedonia and Greece. But he directed his attention to build up an Indian Empire. With Seleucus, his western neighbour, he concluded a peace treaty and also entered into marriage relations with him, accepting, perhaps, the hand of his daughter. During the brief space of a twenty-four years’ reign, his hands were really full of problems arising out of the conquest and consolidation of the vast empire won by his own efforts. Even if he wanted he could not get time to conquer the more distant western Provinces of the Persian Empire. It was for his son and grandson to extend further west the bounds of the Mauryan Empire. We know very little about his son Bindusara. It is, perhaps, rightly assumed that he must have been a powerful person, as he kept intact the big empire he had inherited, and perhaps added something to it, maybe towards the south. Asoka, as we know him through his inscriptions, certainly had the vigour and enthusiasm, prerequisites of a great conqueror. And if he had only pursued the career of conquest, which he so successfully began with the Kalinga war, the strength of the Mauryan arms might have been felt westwards as far as Greece, Macedonia and Egypt. But fate had decreed Asoka not to be a great conqueror, but to be the first great royal messenger of universal love, peace and brotherhood. After the Kalinga war he declared this message to his own people and also to his near and distant neighbour monarchs. He vigorously pursued this new ideal. His Edict runs: "Even the hundredth part or the thousandth part of all those people who were slain, who died and who were deported in Kalinga, now will be considered deplorable by Devanampriya." He desires towards all beings abstention from hurting, self-control and impartiality. This conquest by morality is considered the principal one by him. And this conquest has been won repeatedly by Devanampriya both among his own people and among all his borderers, even as far as at the distance of six hundred Yojanas, where the Yona king Antiyoka (Antiochus III of Syria) is ruling, and beyond this Antiyoka, where four kings are ruling, Turamaya (Ptolemy II of Egypt), Antikini (Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia), Make (Magas of Cyrene), and Aliksundara (Alexander of Epirus or Corinth); and towards the south the Chodas and Pandyas as far as Tamraparni. This conquest, which has been won everywhere and repeatedly, causes the feeling of satisfaction. And for the following purpose has this rescript on morality been written, in order that the sons and great-grandsons, who may be born to me, should not think that a fresh conquest ought to be made, that, if a conquest is necessary, they should take pleasure in mercy and light punishments, and that they should regard the conquest by morality as the only true conquest." (Rock Edict XIII. Shahbazgarhi.)

Asoka, as revealed in his own inscriptions, is one of the greatest and most striking figures in the history of the world. H. G. Wells correctly observes: "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines almost alone, a star. From the Volga to Japan his name is still honoured. China, Tibet, and even India, though it has left his doctrine, preserves the tradition of his greatness. More living men cherish his memory today than have ever heard the names of Constantine or Charlemagne." ²

Asoka had an irresistible attraction for Buddhism, because it stood for those very principles, which became so dear to his heart after the Kalinga war. The Buddhism of Asoka was the simple and human teaching of the Great Master, free from the accretions which grew round it, as they do in the case of every good movement, in the course of centuries. Asoka’s own inscriptions and his life, as we see through these, are the best commentaries on what Buddha’s teaching really stood for. If kindness, sympathy for those who are suffering, spending of life in the service of humanity, purity and self-control, form the essence of religious teachings, then Buddha is certainly the greatest religious teacher. Christianity, if carefully looked into, may after all be an offspring and a sect of Buddhism. It not only borrowed the moral teachings of Buddhism, but also borrowed its monkish order, congregational worship, and confession of sins. The Buddhist Jataka stories provided the material for the church sermons. ³ Buddhist cave temples or ‘chaityas’ provided the model for the early Christian churches.⁴ There is no wonder that the intense Buddhist missionary propaganda initiated by Asoka, and, perhaps, carried on after him, in Syria and the surrounding countries, stirred up their new currents of thought, and in course of time gave birth to a new faith based on the teachings of Buddha. But, as elsewhere, the doctrine of Buddha, which Christ preached in those distant lands, obtained some colouring of local beliefs and practices.

In the present world, torn by international strife and uncontrolled ambitions for national expansion, Buddha’s teachings and Asoka’s life may have little appeal. But if civilisation is to endure, the teachings of Buddha have a permanent value, and the life of Asoka will ever remain an inspiring monument of a great task nobly achieved. For Asoka’s was the first great and successful effort in civilising mankind at large.

1 "Central Asiatic Provinces of the Mauryan Empire." Indian Historical Quarterly. Vol. XIII. Pt. III.

And "The Kingdom of Khotan under the Mauryas." VIII International History Congress. Zurich.

2 ‘The Outline of History.’

3 Fausboll remarks regarding these stories: "These fables and stories introduced through the various channels became very popular during the Middle Ages, and were used as the subjects of numerous sermons, story-books, romances, poems, and edifying dramas. Thus extensively adopted and circulated, they had a considerable influence on the revival of literature, which, hand in hand with the revival of learning, did so much to render possible and to bring about the Great Reformation. The character of the hero of them–the Buddha, in his last or in one or other of his supposed previous births–appealed so strongly to the sympathies, and was so attractive to the minds of mediaeval Christians, that he became, and has ever since remained, an object of Christian worship. And a collection of these and similar stories–wrongly, but very naturally, ascribed to a famous story-teller of the ancient Greeks (Aesop)–has become the common property, the household literature, of all the nations of Europe."–Buddhist Birth Stories or Jataka Tales, p. xlix.

4 Compare the following remark of Fergusson regarding the Karle Cave, which belongs to the first century B. C.: "The building resembles, to a very large extent, an early Christian Church in its arrangements; consisting of a nave and side-aisles, terminating in an apse or semidome…….As a scale for comparison, it may be mentioned that its arrangements and dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral, or of the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen."–History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. p. 144.