King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

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3. The Mission to Sri Lanka: Brief AccountAśoka, after ascending the throne of Magadha, followed anexpansionist policy and conquered Kalinga in 260 B.C. Thisconquest made a deep impression on his mind and attractedhim to the humanistic teachings of the Buddha. Accordingto tradition, Aśoka’s conversion to Buddhism was due to themeeting of two different monks. The Aśokāvadāna says that itwas on seeing the magical powers of a monk named Samudrathat Aśoka took refuge in the Buddha and Dhamma. 7 Butaccording to the Mahāvaṃsa 8 and Samantapāsādikā 9 Aśoka’sconversion to Buddhism was due to a monk named Nigrodha,a novice of peaceful demeanour who one day happened topass by Aśoka’s royal courtyard. Taken up by his restraint,self-control, disciplined movements, and guarded senses, itoccurred to him: “All these people are confused in mind andare like the perturbed deer; but this one is not confused inmind, surely within him there is bound to be some transcendentalvirtue.” The king’s mind was pleased with the noviceand there arose love towards him. The king invited himin and asked him what doctrine his master taught. Nigrodhapreached to him the chapter on diligence from the Dhammapadaand Aśoka, impressed upon hearing this, was won overto the doctrine of the Buddha. He then purified the Saṅghawith the help of the Thera Moggaliputta Tissa. The Pali Canonof the Theravāda tradition as it exists today was also finallyredacted at a council, the third to be held after the passingaway of the Buddha, which was supported by Aśoka. At theconclusion of this Great Council the Elders sent missionariesto preach Buddhism in the outlying provinces of the MauyraEmpire and elsewhere. Special importance was paid to the115
mission to Sri Lanka by assigning Aśoka’s son, the TheraMahinda, to this task.The king of Sri Lanka at the time was Muṭasīva, who wasvery old. Mahinda therefore waited until the king’s son Tissasucceeded him. Tissa is said to have been a friend of Aśokaeven before his elevation to the throne. After succeeding hisfather as king, Tissa sent envoys with presents to Aśoka. Inreturn Aśoka sent everything that was necessary for a royalconsecration.Just a month after the consecration, Mahinda Thera arrivedin the island. According to the Sri Lankan tradition the meetingbetween Mahinda and Tissa took place at Missakapabbataor Cetiyagiri (now Mihintale), on the full-moon day of Poson(May-June). There Mahinda preached the Dhamma to Tissa,and the king with his retinue took refuge in the Buddha, theDhamma, and the Saṅgha. On the following day they movedto the capital Anuradhapura. The king offered to the Saṅghahis royal Mahāmegha Park, where he eventually built the firstStupa in Sri Lanka, the Thūparāmā, to enshrine bodily relicsof the Buddha. Meanwhile Princess Anulā, wife of Tissa’syounger brother, expressed the desire to become a bhikkhunī,a Buddhist nun. As it was not possible for Mahinda Thera toordain a nun, envoys were sent to Aśoka requesting him tosend his daughter, the Theri Saṅghamittā, to Sri Lanka witha branch of the Sacred Bodhi Tree from Buddha Gaya. Thebranch of the Bodhi Tree was accompanied by different clansof artisans to perform the necessary rituals. Saṅghamittā Therīand the other nuns embarked at Tāmralipti and sailed to SriLanka, landing at Jambukola.Saṅghamittā and the Bodhi branch were received withgreat veneration and ceremony by Tissa himself. The sapling116
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King Asoka and BuddhismHistorical &
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Buddhism / Indian History / Asian S
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ContentsThe Contributors ..........
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3. The Gathering of the Relics ....
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owing to the inability of certain s
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1Aśoka — The Great UpāsakaRICHA
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Buddhism which Aśoka announced in
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not only urges diligence on others,
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84,000 monasteries and as many stū
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e Aśoka, a layman, who tests monks
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eousness can hardly have been Buddh
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Notes1. P.H.L. Eggermont, The Chron
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2Aśoka and Buddhism as Reflectedin
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elation to Brahmanism. There was ce
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the correct doctrine. What is of si
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is the nearest that we get in the i
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days remains unclear unless the com
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since he showed them the way and th
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the importance of trade, the first
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accordance with dhamma was preferab
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in Kalinga, is interestingly omitte
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was largely absent. The phrase that
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That the larger corpus of edicts we
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3Emperor Aśoka and Buddhism:Unreso
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to punish them for their crimes, so
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Aśokan scholars since the 1830’s
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Pandukabhaya had built them a resid
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The Mahāmātras stationed at Kauś
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The Sri Lankan Pali records, which
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problem. Nor would there be a diffi
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17 th Gets concerned over indiscipl
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to gratify ambition and enrich the
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whose central theme is the conquest
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are altogether silent on a Kalinga
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All men are my children. Just as, i
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within his dominions. The frontier
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tendents of matters relating to the
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Page 86 and 87: the other peoples dwelling about th
Page 88 and 89: earlier, the creation of the new ca
Page 90 and 91: five Greek kings among themselves a
Page 92 and 93: gratitude, amounting at times to sh
Page 94 and 95: e inconsistencies begin to make sen
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Page 98 and 99: 3 rd ed. rev. (New Delhi: Governmen
Page 100 and 101: far been found, the latest being th
Page 102 and 103: made, it rendered subsequent steps
Page 104 and 105: its Culture, 2nd. ed. rev. (Colombo
Page 106 and 107: The central theme in the majority o
Page 108 and 109: on a statement made by I-tsing 5 th
Page 110 and 111: confused accounts of the Sanskrit S
Page 112 and 113: the Vinaya. Some of them tended the
Page 114 and 115: In the foregoing data we have two i
Page 116 and 117: Aśoka cannot be expected to decide
Page 118 and 119: and while Aśoka who meted out such
Page 120 and 121: (2) Aliyavasāni (P. Ariyavaṃsān
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Page 124 and 125: 5Aśoka and the Emergence of a Sinh
Page 126 and 127: 5. the Mahābodhivaṃsa (10 th or
Page 130 and 131: was planted in the Mahāmegha Park
Page 132 and 133: disbelieve these events associated
Page 134 and 135: and he saw to it that his actions s
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Page 138 and 139: missionaries to propagate the Buddh
Page 140 and 141: To the first question the answer is
Page 142 and 143: fore Mahinda Thera’s Buddhist mis
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Page 146 and 147: order. 55 Their son Sumana was a me
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Page 150 and 151: Notes1. G.P. Malalasekera, ed. Va
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Page 154 and 155: 6Images of Aśoka:Some Indian and S
Page 156 and 157: legends and stories that were told
Page 158 and 159: Sanskrit avadānas each have their
Page 160 and 161: who pointed out the honey store bec
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Page 168 and 169: elics of the Buddha for redistribut
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Page 172 and 173: Secondly, related to this are the d
Page 174 and 175: It is clear, then, that this is a t
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eborn as a god in one of the heaven
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the night, the guardian gods came t
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monarch bested by a nāga, nor, out
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as Japan were inspired to emulate i
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ConclusionWith this Lokapaññatti
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6. A.L. Basham, “The Rise of Budd
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y dint of his military power. This
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43. Strong, p. 192. Upagupta has al
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62. T.W. Rhys Davids, E. Carpenter,
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sequently carried on in the histori
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Aśoka remained largely a name in t
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of Jalauka’s name in other record
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the Sanskrit original is no longer
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Upagupta commanded immense venerati
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(5) His conversion to Buddhism is a
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whose noble fame travelled far and
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surrounded by a coating of inventio
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missionary role claimed by Aśoka i
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Aśoka and, by implication, these m
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of forbearance and light punishment
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from the pens of many an intellectu
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ascribed to Aśoka ideas and deeds
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the only scholar of the West to dis
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such a way that no heretical monks
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(2) that he used Buddhism — or ra
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in this by the fact that these sect
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of the land’s greatest moments in
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ecame infinitely more spiritual. Bu
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frontier areas as a reaction agains
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Present-day India has been so impre
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3. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, Age of th
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y V. Sirinivasa Sarma (Delhi: Banar
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Pali et Traduction, L’Ecole fran
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I have drawn closer to the Sangha a
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The chronological constraints have
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MapsAśoka’s Indian Empire235
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