King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

the end of Aśoka’s life, it is once again his ministers, this timeas a group, who restrain him from making gifts to the monkswhen these threaten to deplete the state funds, arguing that“the power of kings lies in their state treasury.” 28 As a minister,then Rādhagupta’s association with Aśoka in his gift of dirtserves to emphasize the power-conscious Kautilyan aspect ofhis kingship.In the Mahāvaṃsa’s gift of honey, however, Aśoka is associatednot with a future minister but with a future monk(Nigrodha), a future king of Sri Lanka (Devānampiya Tissa),and his own future queen (Asaṃdhimittā). Each of these karmiccompanions serves in his or her own way to reinforce thetext’s positive image of Aśoka. The association with Nigrodha— the charismatic and enlightened novice who is to bring aboutAśoka’s conversion — looks forward to his close and devotedrelationship to the Buddhist Saṅgha as a whole. The connectionwith the future Devānampiya Tissa, his Sri Lankan namesake,hints at his later intimacy with Sri Lanka, while the karmictie with Asaṃdhimittā, whom the Pali tradition consistentlyportrays as a perfect wife, reinforces Aśoka’s own claimto be a perfect king: a gem of a queen for a gem of a ruler.By way of contrast, it might be added here, Asaṃdhimittādoes not figure at all in the Aśokāvadāna. Instead, there, placeis given to the wicked Tiṣyarakṣitā, who turns out to be as evilas Asaṃdhimittā is meritorious. 29 Through her malignant conniving,Tiṣyarakṣitā manages to obtain from Aśoka a boon: hegrants her his kingship for a period of seven days. Then, inpossession of his royal seal, she secretly uses her new-foundauthority to order the torture and blinding of Aśoka’s virtuousson Kuṇāla, who had previously angered her by refusing herincestuous sexual advances. 30 In the story, however, her cruel151