During the time of Asoka (third century BCE)

[Full title: Political and Religious History of Orissa (3): During the time of Asoka (third century BCE) ]

After the demise of the Lord Buddha, Buddhism passed through many phases, during which different sects and sub-sects cropped up. In-spite of the differences in the sects, Buddhism during pre-Asokan period managed to develop large missionary activities without any imperial patronage. Since Asoka patronized Buddhism, its popularity spread in India as well as in the neighboring countries.

The unclear history of Buddhism in Kalinga becomes clear during the reign of Asoka. Asoka in his eighth regnal year under took an expedition Kalinga. The war though a victory in some sense, turned to be as turning point in his career. He gave up wars and conquests and became a follower of Buddhism. He confessed that after the Kalinga war there commenced in his mind ardent desire for the practice of Dhamma and for the purpose he mobilized the state machinery. His reign saw an all-round development of Buddhism, and he started propagating Dhammavijaya.

Kalinga became the fifth province of the Asokan Empire, with its capital at Tosali. Asoka during his sovereignty had constructed many stupas, chaityas, monasteries and excavated caves for the monks to reside. The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang is said to have visited the Asokan stupa that he located to the south of the capital of Kalinga, which justifies the above hypothesis. Asoka also got rock edicts engraved at Dhauli as instructions for his officials, for smooth administration and propagation of Dhamma, which is amply attested by Madhaeipeta inscription of third century CE (Vogel 1929-30: 7&22).

Asoka got another set of these rock-edicts engraved at Jaugada in Ganjam district (Bhandarkar 1925:122). He also inscribed in this rock edict, two special edicts known as special Kalinga edicts to proclaim this principle of rajadharma (Barua 1946:98). It is said that Asoka erected a pillar at Bhubaneswar also, which has been converted into a huge Sivalinga enshrined in the Bhaskaresvara temple at Bhubaneswar (Fabri 1974:6). Another spectacular example of Asokan Buddhist art is the forepart of a miniature elephant hewn on top of the hillock containing the Asokan edicts at Dhauli. The elephant is believed to be representing Buddha, as the latter is believed to have entered his mother’s womb in this form.

Asoka took keen interest for the propagation of Buddhism in Orissa. But at the same time, it is very likely that Asoka did not impose excessive pressure while propagating Buddhism in Kalinga. He had sent Buddhist scholars to Kalinga and he constructed a monastery called Bhojakagirivihara for his brother Tissa later known as Ekavihariya (Mitra 1978:5), who chose Kalinga to be his place of retirement. Dharmarakshita, a great scholar who had spent most of his time preaching in western India spent his last days with Tissa in the Bhojakagiri Monastery (Malasekhara 1960:585).

The discovery of the stupa ruins in the shape of railing pieces (vedhikas), lenticular sockets, crossbars (suchis) and the coping stones (usnisas) from different sites like Tarapur Duburi hill, Janakinagar, Radhanagar, Kaima hill, Dharmasala (in Jajpur, District), Dumduma, Bhaskareswara temple area (Bhubaneswar), Aragarh (in Puri, District); along with the main stupa, containing three sets of the relic caskets from Lalitgiri (District, Cuttack) and the stupa remains from Langudi hill (District, Jajpur) proves the fact that Buddhist establishments started in Orissa in the Pre-Christian era.

The Ceylonese chronicles, states that Emperor Asoka sent a sapling of the Bodhi tree in the hands of his daughter Sanghamitra along with eight families from Kalinga to Sinhala. These families are said to have settled there and played an important role in the spread of Theravada doctrine in Ceylon (Das 1977:127). From the above discussion, it is observed that during the Asokan period Hinayana form of Buddhism was very popular in Kalinga, which continued in the post Asokan period also. The period saw erection of large number of stupa, chaityas and viharas constructed in different part of India due to the growing popularity of Buddhism and Kalinga was not an exception to this. Evidences of constructional activities can be seen at Dantapura, Tosali, Kuruma and Pushapagiri, which were chief centers of Hinayana Buddhism (Sahu 1958:47). Orissa remained a strong hold of Hinayana Buddhism till the rise of Mahayana form of Buddhism and the difference between them became apparent. Even till the advent of the Bhaumakaras (736 CE), Hinayana form of Buddhism was more popular among the people of Orissa (Mishra 1999:131).