Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s24.1

c11.s24.1

Like his father Bindusāra, Aśoka was an adherent of the Vedic religion at the commencement of his reign. According to the *Dīpavaṃsa*, Aśoka entered upon a religious quest and began ‘searching where truth and where falsehood was’ among the sects; he sent for the exponents of all the various doctrines, offered them presents, and propounded questions. None of the answers he got satisfied him until one day standing at the window of his palace he saw the Samaṇa Nigrodha going along the road for alms and felt attracted to him. Nigrodha was the posthumous son of the elder brother of Aśoka, Sumana, whom Aśoka had slain to clear his way to the throne. Aśoka adopted Buddhism as his religion as the result of Nigrodha's sermon to him. This was in the fourth year after the king's coronation¹.