Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s37.31

c11.s37.31

Aśoka, then, was a great monarch whose reign constitutes one of those ‘rare and lightning epochs’ in the annals of nations when a people is vouchsafed a glimpse of happiness, perceived, if not possessed. His greatness lay in his early and clear realisation of the values of human life, and in his endeavouring strenuously throughout his life to rouse India to listen to the call of moral life she received through him. He did much for Buddhism, and his memory has been kept green through the ages in all the vast lands where Buddhist tradition has prevailed to this day; towards the close of the thirteenth century A. D., the Burmese recognised an old Caitya in Bodh Gayā as one of the 84,000 caityas built by Siri Dhammāśoka when 218 years of the era of the Lord Buddha had passed away³.