Words from the golden lip of Emperor Asoka 325 B.C
"May the Dhamma Last as Long as my Sons and Grandsons and the Sun
and the Moon will be, and may the people follow the path of the
Dhamma, for if one follows the Path, happiness in this and in the
Other World will be attained"
Sashu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
Asoka
went through a 4 year war of succession after his father's death
before recieving the throne. Then, he started conquering new lands.
The turning point came during the war of Kalinga which killed
thousands of people. With feelings of regret, he became a Buddhist
convert. Asoka
tried to convert people to Buddhism, as he had done, by leaving
messages on rocks in the cities, but didn't force conversion onto
anyone.
Bindusara
was succeeded by his son Asoka, the best known of the Maurya
emperors (see Asoka). He came to the throne in about 274 and
remained in power for 42 years. More is known about Asoka's reign
because of the many edicts he issued. These were often carved on
rocks or pillars in public places. The empire was divided into four
provinces, and at the head of each was placed a prince of the royal
family. The provinces were subdivided into districts, and these in
turn were divided into smaller units. The basic unit of
administration was the village. Society was divided into seven
castes: philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans,
magistrates, and councillors. The
philosophers included monks, priests, and teachers. The farmers,
herdsmen, and artisans paid taxes to support the empire.
http://blye.tripod.com/index4.html
Post from AEN
KING ASOKA TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF
Adapted from the book Buddhist
Tales 1 based on the Buddhist sutras
Publisher: Jen Chen Buddhist Book Publisher.
Author: Shih Ta-Lien.
One hundred years after Buddhas Nirvana (liberation from Birth and
Death), there appeared a great King in India by the name of
Asoka.
Asoka means worriless; therefore he was known as both King Asoka
and Worriless King. In his childhood, he was much disliked by his
father for his fiery temper. After the old King died, there came
distressing fights for the throne among these princes. In the end
Prince Asoka succeeded the throne, and only one of his younger
brothers, Tisya, survived from this Cain and Abels fight.
In his initial years as a king, King Asoka was very arrogant and
pitiless. He destroyed temples, banished Sanghas (Buddhist monastic
community), slandered Buddha and treated his rivals cruelly. In
addition, he took the evil Girikas idea to build a huge prison
filled with all sorts of inhumane instruments like the dreadful
Avici Hell of the underworld. There were many different hellish
rooms within the Inhumane Hell. These rooms were fully equipped
with knives, iron-hammers to smash criminals bodies to pieces;
iron-hooks to pull out the criminals tongues; iron-chains to
circle round criminals necks; molten steel to pour into criminals
mouths; burning flames and boiling oil to burn criminals to ashes;
pits of urine and manure to drown criminals; iron-swords and the
iron-forks to pierce through the criminals bodies as well as many
other kinds of instruments of torture.