Ashoka

---

He had only one younger sibling, Vithashoka, but, several elder half-brothers. Right from his childhood days Ashoka showed great promise in the field of weaponry skills as well as academics. Here he met and married Devi, the daughter of a tradesman from Vidisha. Ashoka and Devi had two children, son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra.

Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker |

Asoka quickly grew into an excellent warrior general and an astute statesman. His command on the Mauryan army started growing day by day. The excuse given was to subdue a revolt by the citizens of Takshashila. However, the moment Ashoka reached the province, the militias welcomed him with open arms and the uprising came to an end without any fight. This particular success of Asoka made his elder brothers, especially Susima, more insecure. Susima started inciting Bindusara against Ashoka, who was then sent into exile by the emperor.

Ashoka went to Kalinga, where he met a fisherwoman named Kaurwaki. He fell in love with her and later, made Kaurwaki his second or third wife. Soon, the province of Ujjain started witnessing a violent uprising. Emperor Bindusara called back Ashoka from exile and sent him to Ujjain. The prince was injured in the ensuing battle and was treated by Buddhist monks and nuns.

It was in Ujjain that Asoka first came to know about the life and teachings of Buddha. In the following year, Bindusura became seriously ill and was literally on his deathbed.

Ashoka (non-profit organization)

Sushima was nominated successor by the king but his autocratic nature made him unfavourable among the ministers. A group of ministers, led by Radhagupta, called upon Ashoka to assume the crown. Among all his brothers he only spared his younger brother Vithashoka. His coronation took place four years after his ascent to throne. Buddhist literatures describe Ashoka as a cruel, ruthless and bad-tempered ruler.

After he became the empperor, Ashoka launched brutal assaults to expand his empire, which lasted for around eight years. Although the Maurya Empire that he inherited was quite sizable, he expanded the borders exponentially. His kingdom stretched from Iran-Afghanistan borders in the West to Burma in the east. The only kingdom outside his grasp was Kalinga which is the modern day Orissa. Ashoka launched an assault to conquer Kalinga during B.

Ashoka personally led the conquest and secured victory. On his orders, the whole of province was plundered, cities were destroyed and thousands of people were killed. The morning after the victory he went out to survey the states of things and encountered nothing except burnt houses and scattered corpses.

Having brought face to face with the consequences of war, for the first time he felt overwhelmed with the brutality of his actions. He saw flashes of the destruction that his conquest had wrought even after returning to Pataliputra.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA

It is said up to , soldiers were killed, and more deported. On entering the city, Ashoka was moved by the extent of the destruction and suffering he had caused. Around this time, King Ashoka also gave a famous speech where he talks about the paradox of his victory. Is this a victory or a defeat?

Is this justice or injustice? Is it gallantry or a rout? Is it valour to kill innocent children and women? On hearing this, Ashoka was deeply moved and he spoke to the Buddhist monk Upagupta, saying he wished to learn more. After this incident, Ashoka began his conversion to Buddhism. He sought to relinquish his bloodthirsty past, but live according to the Buddhist principles of compassion and non-violence. As Ashoka became a devout Buddhist, his reign changed dramatically.

He gave up the wars of conquest but sought to provide better public services hospital and schools for his citizens. He travelled extensively throughout India and Ceylon building many temples and statues to the Buddha. He also issued edicts against Vedic animal sacrifices and supported the welfare of animals. This included the banning of hunting and the slaughter of common cattle.

Ashoka also emphasised the importance of religious tolerance and respect for other religions and teachers. Although Ashoka was a Buddhist he was on friendly terms with other religious groups, especially Hindu monks and may have incorporated aspects of Hinduism into his worldview. Ashoka also had many edicts and teachings inscribed in pillars and rocks. This gives a lot of information about his reign, which might otherwise have slipped out of knowledge. His main interests were Sanchi and Sarnath , in addition to Harappa and Mohenjodaro.

Sir Alexander Cunningham , a British archaeologist and army engineer, and often known as the father of the Archaeological Survey of India , unveiled heritage sites like the Bharhut Stupa, Sarnath, Sanchi, and the Mahabodhi Temple. Mortimer Wheeler , a British archaeologist, also exposed Ashokan historical sources, especially the Taxila.

Focus Areas

Information about the life and reign of Ashoka primarily comes from a relatively small number of Buddhist sources. Additional information is contributed by the Edicts of Ashoka , whose authorship was finally attributed to the Ashoka of Buddhist legend after the discovery of dynastic lists that gave the name used in the edicts Priyadarshi —'He who regards everyone with affection' as a title or additional name of Ashoka Maurya. Architectural remains of his period have been found at Kumhrar , Patna , which include an pillar hypostyle hall.

Edicts of Ashoka -The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of 33 inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka , as well as boulders and cave walls, made by Ashoka during his reign. These inscriptions are dispersed throughout modern-day Pakistan and India, and represent the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail the first wide expansion of Buddhism through the sponsorship of one of the most powerful kings of Indian history, offering more information about Ashoka's proselytism, moral precepts, religious precepts, and his notions of social and animal welfare.

It is essentially a Hinayana text, and its world is that of Mathura and North-west India. The emphasis of this little known text is on exploring the relationship between the king and the community of monks the Sangha and setting up an ideal of religious life for the laity the common man by telling appealing stories about religious exploits.

Equally surprising is the record of his use of state power to spread Buddhism in an uncompromising fashion. As it often refers to the royal dynasties of India, the Mahavamsa is also valuable for historians who wish to date and relate contemporary royal dynasties in the Indian subcontinent.

It is very important in dating the consecration of Ashoka. Dwipavamsa -The Dwipavamsa, or "Dweepavamsa", i. The chronicle is believed to be compiled from Atthakatha and other sources around the 3rd or 4th century CE. King Dhatusena 4th century had ordered that the Dipavamsa be recited at the Mahinda festival held annually in Anuradhapura.

Numismatic research suggests that this symbol was the symbol of king Ashoka, his personal " Mudra ". The use of Buddhist sources in reconstructing the life of Ashoka has had a strong influence on perceptions of Ashoka, as well as the interpretations of his Edicts. Building on traditional accounts, early scholars regarded Ashoka as a primarily Buddhist monarch who underwent a conversion to Buddhism and was actively engaged in sponsoring and supporting the Buddhist monastic institution.

Some scholars have tended to question this assessment. Romila Thappar writes about Ashoka that "We need to see him both as a statesman in the context of inheriting and sustaining an empire in a particular historical period, and as a person with a strong commitment to changing society through what might be called the propagation of social ethics. In his edicts, Ashoka expresses support for all the major religions of his time: Buddhism , Brahmanism , Jainism , and Ajivikaism , and his edicts addressed to the population at large there are some addressed specifically to Buddhists; this is not the case for the other religions generally focus on moral themes members of all the religions would accept.

For example, Amartya Sen writes, "The Indian Emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE presented many political inscriptions in favor of tolerance and individual freedom, both as a part of state policy and in the relation of different people to each other". However, the edicts alone strongly indicate that he was a Buddhist. In one edict he belittles rituals, and he banned Vedic animal sacrifices; these strongly suggest that he at least did not look to the Vedic tradition for guidance.

Furthermore, many edicts are expressed to Buddhists alone; in one, Ashoka declares himself to be an " upasaka ", and in another he demonstrates a close familiarity with Buddhist texts. He erected rock pillars at Buddhist holy sites, but did not do so for the sites of other religions. He also used the word "dhamma" to refer to qualities of the heart that underlie moral action; this was an exclusively Buddhist use of the word. However, he used the word more in the spirit than as a strict code of conduct. Romila Thappar writes, "His dhamma did not derive from divine inspiration, even if its observance promised heaven.

It was more in keeping with the ethic conditioned by the logic of given situations.

His logic of Dhamma was intended to influence the conduct of categories of people, in relation to each other. Especially where they involved unequal relationships. The Ashokavadana presents an alternate view of the familiar Ashoka; one in which his conversion has nothing to do with the Kalinga war or about his descent from the Maurya dynasty. Instead, Ashoka's reason for adopting non-violence appears much more personal. The Ashokavadana shows that the main source of Ashoka's conversion and the acts of welfare that followed are rooted instead in intense personal anguish at its core, from a wellspring inside himself rather than spurred by a specific event.

It thereby illuminates Ashoka as more humanly ambitious and passionate, with both greatness and flaws. This Ashoka is very different from the "shadowy do-gooder" of later Pali chronicles. Much of the knowledge about Ashoka comes from the several inscriptions that he had carved on pillars and rocks throughout the empire. All his inscriptions present him as compassionate and loving. In the Kalinga rock edits, he addresses his people as his "children" and mentions that as a father he desires their good.

One also gets some primary information about the Kalinga War and Ashoka's allies plus some useful knowledge on the civil administration. The Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath is the most notable of the relics left by Ashoka. Made of sandstone, this pillar records the visit of the emperor to Sarnath, in the 3rd century BCE.

It has a four-lion capital four lions standing back to back , which was adopted as the emblem of the modern Indian republic. The lion symbolises both Ashoka's imperial rule and the kingship of the Buddha. In translating these monuments, historians learn the bulk of what is assumed to have been true fact of the Mauryan Empire. It is difficult to determine whether or not some events ever actually happened, but the stone etchings clearly depict how Ashoka wanted to be thought of and remembered. Recently scholarly analysis determined that the three major foci of debate regarding Ashoka involve the nature of the Maurya empire; the extent and impact of Ashoka's pacifism; and what is referred to in the Inscriptions as dhamma or dharma , which connotes goodness, virtue, and charity.

Some historians [ who?

The dhamma of the Edicts has been understood as concurrently a Buddhist lay ethic, a set of politico-moral ideas, a "sort of universal religion", or as an Ashokan innovation. On the other hand, it has also been interpreted as an essentially political ideology that sought to knit together a vast and diverse empire. Scholars are still attempting to analyse both the expressed and implied political ideas of the Edicts particularly in regard to imperial vision , and make inferences pertaining to how that vision was grappling with problems and political realities of a "virtually subcontinental, and culturally and economically highly variegated, 3rd century BCE Indian empire.

Nonetheless, it remains clear that Ashoka's Inscriptions represent the earliest corpus of royal inscriptions in the Indian subcontinent, and therefore prove to be a very important innovation in royal practices. Until the Ashokan inscriptions were discovered and deciphered, stories about Ashoka were based on the legendary accounts of his life and not strictly on historical facts. These legends were found in Buddhist textual sources such as the text of Ashokavadana. The Ashokavadana is a subset of a larger set of legends in the Divyavadana , though it could have existed independently as well.

Following are some of the legends narrated in the Ashokavadana about Ashoka:.

Once when Jaya was playing on the roadside, the Buddha came by. Ashoka wanted to become king and so he got rid of the heir by tricking him into entering a pit filled with live coals. He is said to have subjected his ministers to a test of loyalty and then have of them killed for failing it. He is said to have burnt his entire harem to death when certain women insulted him.

He is supposed to have derived sadistic pleasure from watching other people suffer. And for this he built himself an elaborate and horrific torture chamber where he amused himself by torturing other people. A Chinese traveler who visited India in the 7th century CE, Xuan Zang recorded in his memoirs that he visited the place where the supposed torture chamber stood. Ashoka is said to have started gifting away the contents of his treasury to the Buddhist sangha. His ministers however were scared that his eccentricity would be the downfall of the empire and so denied him access to the treasury.

As a result, Ashoka started giving away his personal possessions and was eventually left with nothing and so died peacefully. At this point it is important to note that the Ashokavadana being a Buddhist text in itself sought to gain new converts for Buddhism and so used all these legends. Devotion to the Buddha and loyalty to the sangha are stressed.

Keep Exploring Britannica

Such texts added to the perception that Ashoka was essentially the ideal Buddhist monarch who deserved both admiration and emulation. According to Buddhist legend, particularly the Mahaparinirvana , the relics of the Buddha had been shared among eight countries following his death. This story is amply depicted in the reliefs of Sanchi and Bharhut. This scene is depicted on the tranversal portion of the southern gateway at Sanchi. According to Indian historian Romila Thapar, Ashoka emphasized respect for all religious teachers, and harmonious relationship between parents and children, teachers and pupils, and employers and employees.

As a Buddhist emperor, Ashoka believed that Buddhism is beneficial for all human beings as well as animals and plants, so he built a number of stupas , Sangharama , viharas , chaitya , and residences for Buddhist monks all over South Asia and Central Asia. According to the Ashokavadana, he ordered the construction of 84, stupas to house the Buddha's relics. According to the Mahavamsa XII, 1st paragraph , [76] in the 17th year of his reign, at the end of the Third Buddhist Council , Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to nine parts of the world eight parts of Southern Asia, and the "country of the Yonas Greeks " to propagate Buddhism.

Ashoka also invited Buddhists and non-Buddhists for religious conferences.

Page Title

He inspired the Buddhist monks to compose the sacred religious texts, and also gave all types of help to that end. Ashoka also helped to develop viharas intellectual hubs such as Nalanda and Taxila. Ashoka helped to construct Sanchi and Mahabodhi Temple. Ashoka also gave donations to non-Buddhists. As his reign continued his even-handedness was replaced with special inclination towards Buddhism. Ashoka also helped to organise the Third Buddhist council c. Emperor Ashoka's son, Mahinda, also helped with the spread of Buddhism by translating the Buddhist Canon into a language that could be understood by the people of Sri Lanka.

The VIth Rock Edict about "oral orders" reveals this.

• Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promises of Digital Democracy
• Liderazgo peligroso (Spanish Edition)
• Ill Find You
• Claras Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression
• The English School of Murder (Robert Amiss Mysteries Book 3)
• Death at Hilliard High (Susan Lombardi Mysteries Book 3)
• King & Milk Snakes (Complete Herp Care)