Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c15.s1.t1.2

c15.s1.t1.2

¹ The view held by some wellknown writers that the conversion of Aśoka took place *before* the Kaliṅga war rests on the evidence of the *Mahāvaṁsa* (Ch. V) and on certain assumptions, *viz.*, that Aśoka's *dhramakamata* became *tīvra* (intense) immediately after the Kaliṅga war (there being no interval) and that Aśoka was indifferent during the period of Upāsakatva (when he was only a lay disciple) which, therefore, must have preceded the Kaliṅga war, immediately after which his devotion became *tīvra*. But the so-called indifference or want of activity is only relative. On the other hand, the supporters of the new theory have to explain why a recent convert to Buddhism should engage in a sanguinary conflict involving the death of countless *Śramaṇas*. Why again do the Minor Rock Edicts refer to contact with the *Saṁgha*, and not the Kaliṅga war, as the prelude and cause of more intense activity? It is to be noted that activity in the period of Upāsakatva is also described as *parākrama*, though it was surpassed by the greater energy of the period after contact with the Holy Order. Note also the explicit reference to *dhramakamata* as the result of the annexation of Kaliṅga *sometime after* (*tato pachhā adhunā*) the war. The use of the expressions *tato pachhā* and *adhunā* suggests that an interval supervened between the war and the intensity of Aśoka's *dhramaśīlana* and *dhramakamata*. Moreover, we learn from the Minor Edicts and Pillar Edict VI that pious proclamations began to be issued a little more than 2½ years after Aśoka became an *Upāsaka* and 12 years after his coronation. This would place his conversion a little less than 9½ years after his *Abhisheka*, *i.e.*, a little less than 1½ years after the Kaliṅga war.