King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

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3 rd ed. rev. (New Delhi: Government of India,Publications Division, Ministry of Information andBroadcasting, 1975). On the assumption that most readersof this paper will not have ready access to texts or translationsof Aśoka’s inscriptions and edicts, extensive quotationsare reproduced as found appropriate. Wheneverrequired, comparisons are made with the original textsof edicts and inscriptions as presented by D.C. Sircarwith Sanskritized versions in his Select Inscriptions Bearingon Indian History and Civilization, Vol. I (Universityof Calcutta, 1942), as well as with the texts of edicts inNalinaksha Dutt and Krishna Datta Bajpai, Developmentof Buddhism in Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow: Government ofUttar Pradesh Publications Bureau, 1956).6. This extract is from a fragmentary inscription in Greekpresenting a condensed adaptation of RE XII and RE XIII.It was found at Kandahar in 1963.7. Apart from such pioneers as Prinsep, Cunningham,Bühler, Senart and Hultzch and Bloch, whose contributionwas mainly in exploring or deciphering and interpretingthe archaeological and epigraphical data onAśoka, many scholars have produced monographs. Thefollowing are particularly helpful in assessing the developmentof Aśokan studies: Vincent A. Smith, Aśoka, 3 rded. (Oxford, 1920); Jean Przyluski, La Legende l’EmpereurAśoka (Paris, 1923); James M. Macphail, Aśoka, rev. ed.,The Heritage of India Series (Calcutta: YMCA, 1951);D.R. Bhandarkar, Aśoka, 3 rd ed. (Calcutta, 1955); RadhaKumud Mookerjee, Aśoka, 3 rd ed. (Delhi, 1955); AmulyachandraSen, Aśoka’s Edicts (Delhi, 1956); and Romila85
Thapar, Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (Delhi, 1961).The most comprehensive of the monographs on Aśoka isBeni Madhab Barua’s Aśoka and His Inscriptions, Pts. I andII, 2 nd ed. (Calcutta: New Age Publishers, 1955).8. The Sri Lankan Pali sources consist of the Dīpavaṃsa(Dpv.) and the Mahāvaṃsa (Mhv.), the introduction toSamantapāsādikā (Smp.) by Buddhaghosa, and Mahāvaṃsa-Tīkā, all of which have been drawn heavily from theSinhala commentaries which became extinct after theirtranslation and adaptation in Pali by Buddhaghosa andothers. It had been available for reference in circa 1000 A.C.to the author of the Mahāvaṃsa-Tīkā. Cf. Wilhelm Geiger,The Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa and Their Historical Developmentin Ceylon (Colombo: Government Press, 1908),p. 58: “The founding of the Buddhist church in Ceylonforms the most important subject of the first half of theMahāvaṃsa. The author has here completely exhaustedhis sources. Nowhere do the Mahāvaṃsa and Dīpavaṃsaagree so entirely as in this place. Both works reproducethe Aṭṭhakathā almost exactly.”9. Divyāvadāna and Aśokavadāna (Chinese version: A-yuwang-tchuan),as well as the accounts of the travels ofFa Hien, Hiuen Tsang and I-Tsing, constitute the mainMahāyāna sources of information on Aśoka.10. Lithic records of Aśoka, hitherto discovered, are classifiedas Minor Rock Inscriptions (4 texts), Rock Edicts (16 texts),Cave Inscriptions (3 texts), Minor Pillar Inscriptions(2 texts), Pillar Inscriptions (2 texts), Pillar Edicts (7 texts).Some among these 34 main texts are found in many versions.With repetitions, over 200 inscriptions have so86
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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
Page 48 and 49: That the larger corpus of edicts we
Page 50 and 51: 3Emperor Aśoka and Buddhism:Unreso
Page 52 and 53: to punish them for their crimes, so
Page 54 and 55: Aśokan scholars since the 1830’s
Page 56 and 57: Pandukabhaya had built them a resid
Page 58 and 59: The Mahāmātras stationed at Kauś
Page 60 and 61: The Sri Lankan Pali records, which
Page 62 and 63: problem. Nor would there be a diffi
Page 64 and 65: 17 th Gets concerned over indiscipl
Page 66 and 67: to gratify ambition and enrich the
Page 68 and 69: whose central theme is the conquest
Page 70 and 71: are altogether silent on a Kalinga
Page 72 and 73: All men are my children. Just as, i
Page 74 and 75: within his dominions. The frontier
Page 76 and 77: tendents of matters relating to the
Page 78 and 79: edicts addressed to the Saṅgha; a
Page 80 and 81: evidence of Aśoka’s own lithic r
Page 82 and 83: all these sermons could be describe
Page 84 and 85: ecords relating to Dharma, appointe
Page 86 and 87: the other peoples dwelling about th
Page 88 and 89: earlier, the creation of the new ca
Page 90 and 91: five Greek kings among themselves a
Page 92 and 93: gratitude, amounting at times to sh
Page 94 and 95: e inconsistencies begin to make sen
Page 96 and 97: onistically with a brahmin exponent
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
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it to wither away. But Aśoka manag
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Notes1. G.P. Malalasekera, ed. Va
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ical and Social Studies, Vol. I, No
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6Images of Aśoka:Some Indian and S
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legends and stories that were told
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Sanskrit avadānas each have their
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who pointed out the honey store bec
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the Fierce — an appellation that
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the end of Aśoka’s life, it is o
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somewhat regained consciousness, he
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elics of the Buddha for redistribut
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the glory of Sri Lanka and on its p
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Secondly, related to this are the d
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It is clear, then, that this is a t
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how in the Aśokāvadāna these wer
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eborn as a god in one of the heaven
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the night, the guardian gods came t
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monarch bested by a nāga, nor, out
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as Japan were inspired to emulate i
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ConclusionWith this Lokapaññatti
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6. A.L. Basham, “The Rise of Budd
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y dint of his military power. This
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43. Strong, p. 192. Upagupta has al
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62. T.W. Rhys Davids, E. Carpenter,
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sequently carried on in the histori
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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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