King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

the night, the guardian gods came to her and told her to fearnothing, for in a past life she had made an offering of cloth toa pratyekabuddha and her resulting merit was great indeed.And sure enough, the next day, miraculously (or rather karmically)she had no difficulty in procurring the sixty thousandsets of robes when needed.Aśoka is tremendously impressed by this and makesAsaṃdhimittā his favorite queen, going so far as to offer herhis own sovereighty. She refuses this privilege, but the favouritismit reflects occasions the jealousy and ill will of Aśoka’ssixteen thousand other wives, all members of his harem. Inorder to silence these jealous concubines, Aśoka orders anothertest of Asaṃdhimittā’s merit. He has sixteen thousand identicalcakes baked, one of them containing his royal seal. Hethen asks all of his wives, including Asaṃdhimittā, to choosea piece of cake and to break it in two. They all do so, Asaṃdhimittāgetting the last piece left, but such is her worthiness thatthat is the one that contains the royal seal. Aśoka then proclaimsto all the great merits of his queen, chiding the otherwives for their jealous spite. 58Clearly these two stories, fairy tales almost, are designed toglorify and enhance the figure of Aśoka’s wife, and, throughher, of Aśoka himself. For even though it is not true in ancientIndia that the woman makes the man, it is true that the qualitiesof the queen directly reflect on those of the king. Thus oneof the seven signs of the great cakravartin monarch is the perfectlybeautiful and meritorious queen.But Asaṃdhimittā’s merit is operative on Aśoka in moredirect ways than that. Thus, in the Trai Bhūmi Kathā, it is she whoencourages her husband to turn himself towards Buddhism bylistening to the Dharma, observing the precepts, and by under-167