6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

2ND GLORIOUS EPOCH 85
of these Indian Buddhists, the plots hatched to undermine
the national independence, and the open instigation to do
anti-national acts which went on incessantly through various
Buddhist monasteries and viharas, Pushyamitra and his gene­
rals were forced, by the exigency of the time, when the war
was actually going on, to hang the IndianBuddhists who were
guilty of seditious acts and to pull down the monasteries
which had become the centres of sedition. It was a just
punishment for high treason and for joining hands with the
enemy, in order that Indian independence and empire might
be protected. It was no religious persecution. As the
supreme authority in the imperial administrative structure of
India, it was Pushyamitra's duty—a religious and kingly
duty according national legal code—to chastise perfidy,
whether it was on the part of the Buddhists or on that of the
Vedic Hindus !
ASOKA AND PUSHYAMITRA
206. In traditional historical writings, mainly based on
Buddhist myths, Asoka has been extolled as tolerant of diff­
erent religious sects while Pushyamitra wholly conniving at
his efforts to establish religious freedom, is generally imputed
with intolerence and persecution of the Buddhist.s. This false
notion has to be corrected. If anybody is at all guilty of reli­
gious intolerence, it was Asoka himself. For, not only with
verbal propaganda but with the abuse of his regal authority
he declared as illegal all the fundamental religious rituals,
such as sacrifice and hunting by the Vedic Hindus who formed
the majority of his subjects. But Pushyamitra did not
issue any royal decree enforcing any performances of sacrifices
in the Buddha Viharas or the worship of Vaishvadeva in every
Buddh household, even as a fitting retort to Asoka's injun­
ctions. The Buddhists were as absolutely free as all other
religious sects to perform their religious rites and enjoy
religious freedom, so long as they abstained from any anti-
national foreign contact. It is likely that in the troubled times
of national war the chastisement of the disloyal Buddhists