Missionary and monarch
P K
Chhetri 24 July, 2015 The
Statesman
Asoka might be one of the greatest emperors the
world has seen; yet a lot of his history is shrouded in obscurity.
For instance, did he become a monk or did he simply remain an
illustrious disciple of the Buddha? It is believed that he entered
the Buddhist order shortly before his death. How he reconciled the
duties of a monarch and a monk is a matter of conjecture, but there
is no scope for doubt that he was at once a missionary and a
monarch.
Asoka converted to Buddhism sometime in 261 or 260
BC. The conquest of Kalinga was definitely not his first military
exploit, but it did turn into his last. After the bloodbath at
Kalinga, he did not make any attempt to extend his kingdom further,
but his empire was so vast, it was enough to tax all his
energies.
There are 14 rock edicts inscribed on pillars and
rocks, in a language closely allied to Prakrit. It was the
vernacular of Asoka’s day, and despite differences in script and
dialect in certain localities, it was more or less uniformly
spoken. This speaks volumes about his administration. On the
eastern side of India are found revised editions of edicts dealing
with the administration of Kalinga; one is located near the village
of Dhauli, about seven miles south of Bhubaneswar, and another one
in Ganjam district of Odisha.
Both the edicts exhort officials to do their duty,
using phrases like “all men are my children” and “the world is my
parish” in them. With regard to these two special Edicts known as
Borderers’ Edict and Provincials Edict, it was Asoka’s command to
the officials to recite their contents aloud, the former in the
three seasons of hot, wet and cold, whereas the latter at least
once a month. “Borderers” were the jungle tribes, who still inhabit
the tributaries of Odisha, and it was Asoka’s greatest concern that
his officers should win their confidence by spreading the message
of love. He didn’t want them to feel afraid of their new ruler, but
to trust him.
“We conquer but to save” was the spirit of his
proclamation. He wanted to show them that he was like their father;
he loved them as he loved himself. He knew a message in writing
reaches only a small segment of the people, who could read them,
whereas it’s recitation at the beginning of each of the three
seasons, before the gatherings in villages, would spread the King’s
message far and wide. By reading aloud the Provincials’ Edict,
officials were warned to see that no one is unjustly imprisoned. By
following the message incorporated in these edicts, any present
government in the world can learn how to win the heart of its
people and to tame any hostile elements in the country. Though
Asoka’s empire was more than double the size of present day India,
peace prevailed everywhere without modern day means of
communication.
Asoka’s edicts are the main source of information,
if we want to know about him and his strategies of administration
and his Law of Piety. From his first minor rock edict, we learn
that for more than two-and-a-half-years, Asoka was simply a lay
disciple of Buddha’s, even though he had joined the faith more than
a year before he wrote the edict. He went through the country no
fewer than 256 times as an itinerating missionary in a layman’s
clothes — his way to win people’s hearts. He never engaged in the
pompous display of his magnificence and splendour. Asoka was not
only the temporal and spiritual head of the Church, but he also had
a clear conception of his responsibility as head of state. His
office acted as the defender of the
Faith.
The royal hunt was totally abolished, but he never
shunned his kingly rank. Immediately after his conversion, he
settled down to spread the faith not only throughout his own
dominions and amongst his subjects, but the regions beyond it, too.
The Rock Edicts II, V, and XIII furnish details about his
missionary operations. His missionary activities extended to
Western Asia, including Syria, North Africa, including Egypt and
Cyrene, Eastern Europe, including Macedonia and the Epirus, South
India, and Sri Lanka as well as the extreme northwestern slopes of
the Himalayas.
Asoka’s territory in South India was up to Nellore
and although the Jaugada inscription was the earliest one in the
South, not far from his most northern boundary, the Mysore
inscriptions are much further south than Jaugada. In August 1915,
another inscription was discovered in the previous Nizam’s
dominions. It is actually at Maski, a village in the Raichur
district in Karnataka, and is a copy of Minor Rock Edict I. It has
a peculiarity, because it is the only inscription, which
incorporates the name Asoka, while in others Asoka is either
addressed as “Devanapiya” or “Piyadasi”. His missionaries preached
in the kingdoms of Cholas of the Coromandal Coast, Pandyas of
Madurai’s Tinnevelley in Malabar and other regions on the West
Coast and inspired them to make “curative arrangements for men and
beasts” by digging wells and planting trees.
According to local tradition, the most important and
successful missions of Asoka was establishment of Buddhist faith in
Sri Lanka. Though prima facie this task appeared to be easy, it
wasn’t so. It was done by exertion of Asoka’s son Mahendra, who,
accompanied by a band of monks and Pitakas or scriptures, had
crossed over to Ceylon or Sri Lanka from South and converted the
Ceylonese King and his 40,000 subjects to Buddhism. Though we do
not find reference of this remarkable achievement mentioned in any
of the edicts, yet local traditions support this fact. However,
Mahendra or Mahinda is sometimes confused as the brother instead of
son. History records Mahendra did not go alone; his sister
Sanghamitra, and a band of nuns accompanied him.
The great “stupa” of Sanchi further adds that a
branch of the sacred Bo-tree of Gaya was also carried over to
Ceylon. After his death, Mahendra was buried at
Ceylon. Ceylon’s King Tissa followed the example of Asoka and built
many beautiful buildings in support of his new religion. Thomas
William Rhys Davids , a British scholar of the Pali language and
founder of the Pali Text Society wrote, “I shall not easily forget
the day, when I first entered that lonely, cool, and quiet chamber,
so simple and so beautiful, where more than 2,000 years ago the
great teacher of Ceylon had sat, and thought, and worked through
the long years of his peaceful and useful life.”
Asoka undertook pilgrimage to the places associated
with the Buddha in 249 BC. The commemorative records on pillars at
Rummindei and Nigliva, in the Nepalese Terai testify Asoka’s visit
to Lumbini Garden, where Buddha was born, and also to the stupa of
Konakamana. To instruct his subjects in the Law of Piety or the Law
of Duty, Asoka maintained a system of official circuits occurring
every five years. Dhamma, the colloquial form of dharma, used in
his edicts does not stand for Buddhism, but for simple piety, which
Asoka urged all his subjects, irrespective of faith to follow.
Though Asoka does not deny the existence of a supreme deity, he
insists that man should free himself by his own exertion from all
vices and move towards the path of happiness. The Dhammapada sums
up this teaching: “By ourselves is evil done; by ourselves we pain
endure; by ourselves we cease from wrong; by ourselves we become
pure. No one saves us but ourselves; no one can do and no one may;
we ourselves must tread the Path; Buddhas only show the
way.”
In fact, Buddhists believe that there were many
Buddhas before Gautama. Every officer was expected to combine the
work of piety with his ordinary duties. In 256 BC, Asoka appointed
special officers of high rank, called the Dharma-mahamatras, to
enforce the edicts related to the Law of Piety. The subordinates
were called Dharmayuktas. The emperor attached utmost importance on
two virtues: one on sanctity of animal life and the other on
reverence towards parents, instructors, and other superiors. Asoka
disliked blood shedding of any kind. He completely stopped
slaughtering of any kind of animal for the royal kitchen. Any
merry-making, which involved the use of meat, was
prohibited.
No mutilation of animals was allowed including
castrating of cocks, young bulls, rams, etc, and branding of horses
and cows. In fact, he ordered building of asylums for animals.
Trees were planted, wells were dug and rest houses were built along
the sides of the roads. Though death penalty was not fully
abolished, yet it was used very sparingly and even then condemned
criminals were allowed time to regret and reform, so that death
penalty could be postponed indefinitely. He built hospitals and
infirmaries for the care of the sick in villages, inspired by
Chanakya’s Arthasatra. He displayed his sagacity in his efforts to
plant medicinal herbs, both in his own and other countries. Now the
Western medicine has gradually become more disposed than ever to
recognise the importance of indigenous drugs of India, because of
the toxicity associated with the use of antibiotics.
Asoka was a master builder of roads. His roads were neither
metalled nor bridged, yet as a builder in stone he challenges
comparison with his rivals of all ages in any land, because his
works display extreme finesse and sophistication. His stupas
or cupolas built in stones were found by Huien Tsang in Kapisa in
Kafiristan and Nangrahar, near Jalalabad, on the bank of the river,
Kabul. Very few are aware that he found a new city in Nepal called
Lalita Patan. The principal stupa at Sanchi built by Asoka in about
250 BC is still famous for its historical significance. Asoka’s
pillars bear testimony of his artistic and architectural genius.
They all consist of fine sandstone and were queried at Chunar in
the district of Mirjapur, and transported either as rough blocks or
finished pillars for hundreds of miles to the places of erection.
The buildings built at Sarnath, where Buddha delivered his first
sermon, still stand intact.
The edicts on the whole reflect the intentions,
ambitions and ideals of their author. He gave utmost importance on
protecting the interests of the people. Asoka exhibited inimitable
tolerance to other religions, and made no discrimination among his
subjects. Asoka’s effort to spread Buddhism did not go in vain;
after his death, it travelled across Eastern Turkestan via the
northwest Himalayas to China, where it became the state religion in
the fourth century AD, and then it spread to Korea, Japan and
Mongolia. Despite his contributions to the world, nothing is known
either about the circumstances of the death or about the last days
of this great emperor. The world should take a leaf
from the ideas on tolerance propagated by one of India’s greatest
prophets.