The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c29.57

v1.c29.57

Açoka’s relations with the Buddhist *Saṅgha* were, no doubt, friendly and cordial. He had himself been ordained, as had his brother, and by the surrender of his son and daughter also he had acquired a right to the title ‘Kinsman of the Faith.’ But no doubt the monkish chronicles go too far in representing his devotion as without bounds. Even his lavish expenditure upon religious edifices is exaggerated in the statement that he thrice gave away, and purchased back, Jambu-dvīpa or the continent of India¹! It can hardly be that an emperor so conscious of the responsibilities of his unique position should have been made more amenable to the authority of a religious order by himself joining it. Nor is there in his actual references to the *Saṅgha* any note of special deference; nor again do his ordinances accord to it any special regard, since the *parishads* whose affairs were to be supervised by the *dharma-mahāmātras* included the managing committees of all sects. On the other hand, we fail to detect even in the advice which Açoka gives to the *Saṅgha* concerning specially applicable passages from the scriptures any note of the arrogance which might have betrayed an emperor himself at home in the order. In fact such an attitude would be both un-Indian (as sanctity and learning in India excite a *genuine* respect) and anachronistic in what was still an age of faith. On the whole, easy as it would be to imagine flaws, one way or the other, in Açoka’s relations with the clergy, it would be hard to demonstrate them to a sound intelligence: by his grasp of the essential he rises superior to such personal suspicions.