Asoka

/euh soh"keuh/, n.

died 232 B.C., Buddhist king in India 269?-232? B.C.

* * *

▪ emperor of India

also spelled  Ashoka  

died 238?, BC, India

      last major emperor in the Mauryan (Mauryan empire) dynasty of India. His vigorous patronage of Buddhism during his reign (c. 265–238 BC; also given as c. 273–232 BC) furthered the expansion of that religion throughout India. Following his successful but bloody conquest of the Kaliṅga country on the east coast, Aśoka renounced armed conquest and adopted a policy that he called “conquest by dharma (principles of right life).”

      In order to gain wide publicity for his teachings and his work, Aśoka made them known by means of oral announcements and also engraved them on rocks and pillars at suitable sites. These inscriptions—the rock edicts and Pillar Edicts (e.g., the lion capital of the pillar found at Sarnath, which has become India's national emblem)—mostly dated in various years of his reign, contain statements regarding his thoughts and actions and provide information on his life and acts. There is such a ring of frankness and sincerity in the utterances of Aśoka that they appear to be true.

      According to his own accounts, Aśoka conquered the Kaliṅga country (modern Orissa state) in the eighth year of his reign. The sufferings that the war inflicted on the defeated people moved him to such remorse that he renounced armed conquests. It was at this time that he came in touch with Buddhism and adopted it. Under its influence and prompted by his own dynamic temperament, he resolved to live according to, and preach, the dharma and to serve his subjects and all humanity.

      By dharma, as Aśoka repeatedly declared, he understood the energetic practice of the sociomoral virtues of honesty, truthfulness, compassion, mercifulness, benevolence, nonviolence, considerate behaviour toward all, “little sin and many good deeds,” nonextravagance, nonacquisitiveness, and noninjury to animals. He spoke of no particular mode of religious creed or worship, nor of any philosophical doctrines. He spoke of Buddhism only to his coreligionists and not to others.

      Toward all religious sects he adopted a policy of respect and guaranteed them full freedom to live according to their own principles, but he also urged them to exert themselves for the “increase of their inner worthiness.” He, moreover, exhorted them to respect the creeds of others, praise the good points of others, and refrain from vehement adverse criticism of the viewpoints of others.

      To practice the dharma actively Aśoka went out on periodic tours preaching the dharma to the rural people and relieving their sufferings; he ordered his high officials to do the same, in addition to attending to their normal duties; he exhorted administrative officers to be constantly aware of the joys and sorrows of the common folk and to be prompt and impartial in dispensing justice. A special class of high officers, designated “dharma ministers,” was appointed to foster dharma work by the public, relieve sufferings wherever found, and look to the special needs of women, of people inhabiting outlying regions, of neighbouring peoples, and of various religious communities. It was ordered that matters concerning public welfare were to be reported to him at all times. The only glory he sought, he said, was for having led his people along the path of dharma. No doubts are left in the minds of readers of his inscriptions regarding his earnest zeal for serving his subjects. More success was attained in his work, he says, by reasoning with people than by issuing commands.

      Among his works of public utility were the founding of hospitals for men and animals and the supplying of medicines; and the planting of roadside trees and groves, digging of wells, and construction of watering sheds and resthouses. Orders were also issued for curbing public laxities and preventing cruelty to animals. With the death of Aśoka the Maurya Empire disintegrated and his work was discontinued. His memory survives for what he attempted to achieve and the high ideals he held before himself.

      Most enduring were Aśoka's services to Buddhism. He built a number of stūpas (commemorative burial mounds) and monasteries and erected pillars on which he ordered inscribed his understanding of religious doctrines. He took strong measures to suppress schisms within the order (the Buddhist religious community) and prescribed a course of scriptural studies for adherents. Tradition recorded in the Ceylonese chronicle Mahāvaṃsa says that, when the church decided to send preaching missions abroad, Aśoka helped them enthusiastically and sent his own son and daughter as missionares to Ceylon. It is as a result of Aśoka's patronage that Buddhism, which until then was a small sect confined only to particular localities, spread throughout India and subsequently beyond the frontiers of the country.

      A sample quotation that illustrates the spirit that guided Aśoka is: “All men are my children. As for my own children I desire that they may be provided with all the welfare and happiness of this world and of the next, so do I desire for all men as well.”

Amulya Chandra Sen

Additional Reading

Amulyachandra Sen (ed.), Asoka's Edicts (1956), deals with all aspects of Aśoka's life and work on the basis of archaeological and literary materials. D.R. Bhandarkar, Asoka, 3rd ed. (1955); and R.K. Mookergee, Asoka, 3rd ed. (1962), are studies based on historical materials.

* * *