King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

holy places connected with the Buddha’s life including shrinesin honour of important disciples. 32(6) In munificence to the Buddhist Order he wished toexcel Anāthapiṇḍika and spent as much as 96 crores. In hisold age when misfortune had struck him and his grandson,Sampadi, controlled the treasury and he was reduced to theposition that he could offer the Saṅgha only the juice of halfa myrobalan, Aśoka makes a final bid to raise the balance4 crores (to come up to his target of 100 crores) by donatingthe entire empire to the Saṅgha. His heirs had to redeem it bypaying the 4 crores. 33These according to their tradition are the contributions to thepromotion of Buddhism which had impressed the Mahāyānaand Vajrayana Schools of Buddhism. Their adherents consideredAśoka to be an exceptionally virtuous person. To them hewas the ultimate ideal of a lay devotee and hence extolled in somany Avadānas. Thus, according to them, had Aśoka gaineda place in history.When the Chinese pilgrims, Fa-hien, Hiuen-tsang andI-tsing toured various parts of India, they not only visitedshrines still believed to be constructed by Aśoka, saw pillarswith inscriptions still attributed to him, and collected manylegends which were prevalent among the Buddhists. Becauseof the Avadānas, Aśoka must have occupied a special placeof veneration among Chinese Buddhists. As late as 1021 A.C.,Chaing Hsia-pias in his hymn in honour of BuddhagayāVihāra complimented Aśoka “as the righteous emperor wholived in the right perception of the truth of the religion of theBuddha and as the great builder of Buddhist shrines in India194