Buddhist India c19.23

c19.23

So, for instance, the tradition—Indian of course in origin, but preserved in Nepal—states that Asoka's mother was the daughter of a brahmin living in Champā. This may well be so. We hear nothing of his youth or early training. The Ceylon books all say that at the time of his father's death he was holding the position of viceroy at Ujjeni, and that he had there married a local lady residing at Vedisa, afterwards the site of the celebrated building now known as the Sānchi Tope. They had two children, a son, Mahinda, and a daughter, Sanghamittā. But as this was really a mésalliance, the lady being only of a merchant's family, she was left behind when Asoka left Ujjeni to go to Pātaliputta and there secure the succession.