King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

Secondly, related to this are the different accounts of whatinspires Aśoka to build eighty-four thousand stūpas or vihāras.The number 84,000 is, of course, symbolic of totality in the Buddhisttradition, but its specific connotations here should not beoverlooked. In the Mahāvaṃsa, we are told that Aśoka decidesto undertake the vihāra construction project when he learnsfrom Moggaliputta Tissa that there are 84,000 sections of theBuddha’s Dhamma — his Teaching. The vihāras are thus notjust for the Saṅgha, but also symbolic of the Dhamma; theyrepresent, so to speak, the Buddha’s dhammakaya — the corpusof his Teaching. The 84,000 stūpas, on the other hand, donot directly symbolize the Dharma but are commemorativeof the 84,000 atoms that traditionally were thought to makeup a human body. 40 They represent, therefore, the Buddha’srūpakāya — his physical form.This distinction, I would suggest, is reflective of a largerdifference in orientation of the two texts. Simply put, wherethe Mahāvaṃsa seems concerned with what might be called the“dharmalogical” dimension of Buddhism, the Aśokāvadāna isinterested in what might be termed the “rūpalogical.” In otherwords, the one is preoccupied with the purity of the Teachingof the Buddha and its preservation; the other is intrigued bythe person of the Buddha and his veneration.This, of course, is too gross a generalization for it to hold unequivocally,for an entire tradition, but it might be useful to giveone more graphic and not altogether unconnected example ofit here. The Aśokāvadāna, as has been mentioned, highlights therole of the Elder Upagupta as Aśoka’s chief monastic counterpartrather than that of Moggaliputta Tissa. One of the mostfamous stories about Upagupta in the Aśokāvadāna is that ofhis taming of Māra, the Evil One of Buddhism. During his life-159