Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s1.6

c12.s1.6

But strategic position and material wealth cannot suffice to raise a nation to greatness. As Burke says, it is the quality and spirit of the people 'that give all their life and efficacy to them'. As in several Atlantic lands, so in Magadha, we have a fusion of folks and cultures. Kīkaṭas mixed here with enterprising clans coming from upper India as Celts did with Latins and Teutons in Mediaeval France and some adjoining territories. It is not difficult to find out two strands in the cultural—no less than the racial—texture of the population. The same nation that produced relentless fighters and, 'exterminators of kings' and clans like Jarāsandha of epic legend, Ajātaśatru, Mahāpadma, Chaṇḍāśoka (the ruthless conqueror of Kaliṅga) and perhaps Samudra Gupta, hearkened at the same time to the devout teachings of Madhyama Prātibodhīputra, Varddhamāna Mahāvīra, and Gautama Buddha, and played a conspicuous part in the propagation of a world religion as it did in the establishment of an empire embracing nearly the whole of India. The birth of Ajātaśatru and the enlightenment of the Buddha took place in the same country and the same age, and they met in Rājagṛiha as Charles V and Martin Luther did at Worms. The symbol of aggressive imperialism stood face to face with the preacher of piety and morality, leader of a movement that was destined to convulse a continent. The two ideologies did not long remain apart. They were harmonised and the magician who worked the miracle was Dharm-āśoka who combined in himself the imperial tradition of his forbears as well as the spiritual fervour of the sage of the Śākyas.