King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

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it to wither away. But Aśoka managed to nurture and revivewhat was left of it and thus saved the tree. Aśoka is reportedto have died in the year 233 – 232 B.C. in the thirty-seventh yearof his reign, while Tissa was still ruling in Anuradhapura. TheSacred Bodhi Tree still exists in Anuradhapura.Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka continued to rule the islandfor forty years, from 250 – 210 B.C. During the whole of thisperiod Mahinda Thera and Saṅghamittā Theri engaged themselvesin propagating Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Tissa was succeededby his brother Uttiya. Mahinda Thera passed away inthe eighth year of Uttiya’s reign while spending the vassāna(rainy) season at Cetiyagiri (Mihintale). 59 He would then havebeen eighty years old. He may have come to Sri Lanka at theage of thirty-two and lived here for forty-eight years, settingan inspiring example to the people and the rulers. His sisterSaṅghamittā Theri died the following year while she was livingin the Hatthālhaka Vihāra. 609. ConclusionGiven the account of Aśoka’s remarkable activities associatedwith social and religious life in Sri Lanka, he seems to havepaved the way for a truly national consciousness and a uniqueSinhala-Buddhist identity in the island starting with the reignof King Devānampiya Tissa in the year 250 B.C. Aśoka changedafter the Kalinga war as a result of his direct encounter with thesuffering he had wrought. The noble message of the Buddhabrought him consolation and peace of heart. He thereafterstrove for the welfare of the people, whom he treated as hisown children. He spread the teaching of the Buddha throughouthis dominion and beyond it. In doing so he also toleratedthe beliefs and practices of other religions through his new135
concept of Dharma, the Universal Law, founded entirely onBuddhism.He had a very special place in his heart for the people of SriLanka. It may have been the Kalinga war that prompted himto pay special tribute to Sri Lanka, or the friendship and openmindednessof the people and their ruler may have made theisland a special country to him. The message of the Buddhawas sent to Sri Lanka through his own son Mahinda Thera anddaughter Saṅghamittā Theri, who devoted their long lives forthe well-being of the people of Sri Lanka. To them the wholenation is ever grateful.T136
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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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edicts addressed to the Saṅgha; a
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evidence of Aśoka’s own lithic r
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all these sermons could be describe
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ecords relating to Dharma, appointe
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the other peoples dwelling about th
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earlier, the creation of the new ca
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five Greek kings among themselves a
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gratitude, amounting at times to sh
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e inconsistencies begin to make sen
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onistically with a brahmin exponent
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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
Page 122 and 123: to it as sambuddhasamayaṃ, “the
Page 124 and 125: 5Aśoka and the Emergence of a Sinh
Page 126 and 127: 5. the Mahābodhivaṃsa (10 th or
Page 128 and 129: 3. The Mission to Sri Lanka: Brief
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
Page 136 and 137: at Kalinga, would have paid special
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
Page 144 and 145: and the countries they visited. 47
Page 146 and 147: order. 55 Their son Sumana was a me
Page 150 and 151: Notes1. G.P. Malalasekera, ed. Va
Page 152 and 153: ical and Social Studies, Vol. I, No
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 164 and 165: the end of Aśoka’s life, it is o
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Page 168 and 169: elics of the Buddha for redistribut
Page 170 and 171: the glory of Sri Lanka and on its p
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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Page 178 and 179: eborn as a god in one of the heaven
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Page 182 and 183: monarch bested by a nāga, nor, out
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Page 186 and 187: ConclusionWith this Lokapaññatti
Page 188 and 189: 6. A.L. Basham, “The Rise of Budd
Page 190 and 191: y dint of his military power. This
Page 192 and 193: 43. Strong, p. 192. Upagupta has al
Page 194 and 195: 62. T.W. Rhys Davids, E. Carpenter,
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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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