Aśoka

Aśoka (Skt.; Pāli, Asoka). Grandson of Candragupta Maurya, son of Bindusāra, and third incumbent of the Mauryan throne, c.272–231 bce. Aśoka is famous for the edicts he ordered to be carved on rocks and pillars throughout his kingdom. A total of 33 inscriptions have been found which provide invaluable historical and chronological information on early Indian Buddhist history (see Edicts of Aśoka). He was a great patron of Buddhism, and it can be seen from the Edicts that the content of Aśoka's Dharma is essentially that of a lay Buddhist. Dharma consists, he tells us, of ‘Few sins and many good deeds of kindness, liberality, truthfulness and purity’ (Pillar Edict 2). In his edicts Aśoka offers fatherlike advice to his subjects, commending moral virtues such as peacefulness, piety, religious tolerance, zeal, respect for parents and teachers, courtesy, charity, sense-control, and equanimity. No reference is made to the technical aspects of Buddhist doctrine as expounded in the Four Noble Truths. Aśoka relates in Rock Edict XIII that after his bloody conquest of the Kaliṅga region of north-east India, he repented of his warlike ways and became a lay Buddhist. From then on he attempted to rule according to Dharma as a ‘Dharma-rāja’ or righteous king (see cakravartin). He appointed officers known as ‘superintendents of Dharma’ (dharma-mahāmātra) to propagate the religion. However, in the best tradition of Indian kingship, Aśoka supported all religions. One of the edicts towards the end of his reign, known as the ‘schism edict’, condemns schism in the Saṃgha and speaks of monks being expelled. This seems to confirm accounts in Buddhist chronicles of his involvement in a council at Pāṭaliputra around 250 bce, reckoned as the ‘Third Council’ by the Theravāda tradition (see Council of Pāṭaliputra II). The edicts also record that Aśoka sent ambassadors to five named kings reigning in the Hellenistic world, which again seems to support the Buddhist tradition that he did much to promote the spread of the religion. He is credited with sending his son Mahinda, himself a monk, to Sri Lanka to establish Buddhism there, as well as sending missionaries to other parts of south-east Asia. After Aśoka's death in 231 bce Mauryan rule rapidly declined and in the 2nd century bce the north and north-west were extensively invaded by Greeks from the former Seleucid satrapies of Bactria and Parthia, as well as by central Asian nomadic tribes. Various Aśokan emblems, such as the lion capital found on his pillars, have been adopted for official use by the modern state of India.