King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

disbelieve these events associated with King Aśoka since theSri Lankan and Indian traditions mutually agree that KingAśoka was the only Buddhist monarch who then ruled the vastdominion of India and gave patronage to the propagation ofBuddhism within and outside his dominions. But the Sakyanconnection of Aśoka and Tissa is suspicious since it seems adeliberate ad hoc attempt on the part of the Sri Lankan monksto connect Aśoka and Tissa with the Sakyan clan to whichGotama Buddha belonged.According to Indian purāṇa traditions, the Nandas were ofthe Sudra caste. Chandragupta Maurya, who succeeded theNandas in 321 B.C., belonged to the Moriya tribe; his caste wastherefore low as the family apparently were Vaishyas. 12 TheDivyāvadāna maintains that the Mauryas were of Kshatriyaorigin. 13 At the death of Chandragupta’s son, Bindusāra, in272 B.C. practically the entire Indian sub-continent had comeunder Maurya suzerainty and the extreme south was alsoready to submit. Only one area remained hostile: Kalinga.This was left for Bindusāra’s son Aśoka 14 who in the eighthyear campaigned successfully against Kalinga. In the words ofthe Maurya Emperor: “A hundred and fifty thousand peoplewere deported and a hundred thousand were killed and manytimes that number perished in other ways.” 15The battle with Kalinga, which brought death and destructionto thousands of people, filled the king with remorse. Inorder to console himself Aśoka found refuge in the teachingsof the Buddha. This was not an overnight conversion but, asone inscription says, it was two and a half years after the battlethat Aśoka became a zealous devotee of Buddhism. 16 Deepsensitivity to the cruel consequences. of war worked a revolutionin the character of Aśoka. Says the Kalinga edict: “Directly119