Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s26: Pilgrimage

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s26

Language: English

Pilgrimage

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In the fifteenth year (250 B. C.) he enlarged the stūpa of Koṇakamana at Nigālī Sāgar in the Nepalese Tarāī to double its original size; six years later he came himself to the spot for worship and set up a pillar bearing an inscription briefly recording both the facts. Koṇakamana, also called Koṇāgamana and Kanakamuni, is the name of one of the legendary Buddhas that preceded the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, and Hiuen Tsang records that in the course of his travels he saw the stūpa containing the relics of Kanakamuni Buddha, and in front of it an inscribed pillar about 20 feet high and surmounted by a lion ; he heard that the pillar was erected by Aśoka.

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Aśoka's pilgrimage (244 B.C.) must have extended to other sacred spots as well. The short Rummindeī pillar inscription states that he visited Lumbinivana and worshipped the spot where the Buddha Śākyamuni was born, caused a memorial pillar to be set up on the spot to show ‘that the Blessed One was born here’, and declared the village of Lumbini to be thenceforth free of taxes (*ubalika*) and liable to only an eighth of its produce (*athabhāgiye*) in land assessment instead of the higher rate usually taken. The *Divyāvadāna* preserves the memory of Aśoka's pilgrimage to the sacred places under the guidance of Upagupta to whom Aśoka declares his desire to go and worship all the spots hallowed by the presence of the Buddha and to leave marks there for the benefit of future generations of men. Lumbinivana is placed first among the places to which Upagupta guided Aśoka¹.

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¹ Div. pp. 389-96. Upagupta is said to have made Aśoka worship at the stūpas of the apostles of Buddhism also. He made large gifts at each of the spots visited, except in the stūpa of Vakkula where he gave a *kākaṇī* for the reason that Vakkula did not do so much good to his fellow-creatures as others. Cf. *hida Budhe jate Sakyamuni and hida Bhagavan jateti* of the Rummindei inscr. with Upagupta's words to Aśoka : *asmin mahārāja pradeśe Bhagavān jātaḥ*. (Div. p. 389).

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*Other edicts*

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In 238 B. C. Aśoka began the issue of the Pillar Edicts which together with the Fourteen Rock Edicts form the most important records of the reign. The first six Pillar Edicts which were issued in the first instance contained further elaboration of the principles of Dhamma and the administrative measures calculated to secure their voluntary observance by the people, and their enforcement, where necessary, by the officials of the imperial government. A year later in 237, another edict, the longest in this series, was added ; and this inscription, found only on one pillar, constitutes a more or less systematic review of all the steps taken by Aśoka so far for the promotion of Dhamma and the motives which actuated them ; incidentally it gives some idea of the results obtained by the action of the monarch and of his hopes for the future.

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Aśoka continued to reign for ten years after he issued the seventh Pillar edict, and the closing decade of the reign is nearly as poor in its epigraphy as the first. We have only two inscriptions, both undated but most certainly belonging to this period. One of them is the order of the king issued to his *mahāmātras* that the monk or nun who causes schism in the Sangha should be punished by expulsion, being required to wear white robes and live outside the *vihāra* in a place not fit for the members of the Sangha to live in ; this order was to be properly circulated among the monks and nuns and lay worshippers; officials and lay worshippers were to assist in carrying out this instruction by attending service on every *uposatha* day. In the other record the king gives effect to the request of his second queen, Kāluvāki, the mother of Tivala, and orders all his *mahāmātras* to register in her name all the gifts made by her, mango-groves, gardens, alms houses or anything else.