Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s37.32

Language: English

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But was Aśoka monk and monarch at the same time? Did he accept the position and exercise the duties of the Head of the Buddhist Church? Is it correct to describe his activity as ‘not so much that of a pious Emperor as of an archbishop possessed of exceptional temporal power’³? Such statements derive little support except from false analogies and wrong interpretations of the inscriptions of the reign. Aśoka’s edicts, great as is their value, are not concerned with public affairs, but only with one aspect, though indeed a very important one, of Aśoka's work as ruler—the promotion of Dharma. They are in fact what he calls them, Dharma-lipis. And this Dharma, though inspired by Aśoka's conversion to Buddhism and coloured by the practical ethics so characteristic of that faith, was hardly more distinctive of Buddhism than of any other Indian faith. Again, a church in the strict sense of the term, organised on hierarchical lines, and owning allegiance to a central authority, the Buddhist Saṅgha was not; there was no room for the Head of the Church in an organisation which comprised an infinite number of independent vihāras which were united in their professing a common faith in the triratna (Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha), but regulated themselves each according to their own views of Dhamma and Vinaya.

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Aśoka's letter to the Saṅgha (the Calcutta-Bairat inscription or Bhābrū edict as it is called) commending seven scriptural passages to them, far from asserting royal authority, is couched in the most respectful terms and ends with the statement: 'I desire, sirs, that many groups of monks and many nuns may repeatedly listen to these expositions of Dhamma and may reflect on them. In the same way both laymen and laywomen should act. For the following purpose, Sirs, am I causing this, to be written, (viz.) in order that they may know my intention'¹. Surely this expression of opinion on the part of the great king, coming from him at the conclusion of his study of Dhamma, with the aid of the Saṅgha and the reflection that followed upon it, would have been received with all the respect it merited; but this is hardly an instance of the use of authority of any kind, royal or ecclesiastical. The edict on Saṅghabheda can with better justice be regarded as use of royal authority, for in plain terms it orders the officials of the civil administration to see that within their respective jurisdictions all schismatic monks are expelled from the Saṅgha, compelled to wear white robes, and driven to live in places not suited for the residence of monks (avāsa)². But here the authority of the king was obviously invoked by the Saṅgha which had recently experienced great difficulty by the intrusion of undesirable elements within its fold;

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a Council had been held and a fresh settlement of the affairs reached; not feeling equal to the task of securing its proper observance without the aid of the secular arm, the Saṅgha appealed to the State for aid, and got it; the assistance which Aśoka gave to the Saṅgha in such circumstances, he would have given to any other corporate body which suffered similarly at the hands of assailants from outside. Lastly the evidence for Aśoka's taking orders is very meagre. The phrase *Saṅgham-upa-i* in the Minor Rock-Edict is too vague to convey the precise idea of ordination (*pabbajjā*) which must have been well established by Aśoka's time. And the situation of a king turning monk while retaining the life and prerogatives of royalty is incompatible with all our notions of ancient monachism. And the *Mahāvaṃsa* says that in his message to the king of Ceylon Aśoka said that he had become ‘lay-disciple in the religion of the Śākya son’¹. And barring the vague phrase in the Minor Rock-Edict there is no other evidence in favour of Aśoka's ordination than that centuries afterwards I-tsing records his having seen an image of the emperor in monastic robes. This image may be satisfactorily explained in one of two ways: either Aśoka may have worn the robes of a monk whenever he visited the Saṅgha for listening to the exposition of Dhamma, an act of courtesy to the members of the Saṅgha which was commemorated by such an image;

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or towards the end of his life, Aśoka renounced the empire and turned monk as a prophecy attributed to the Buddha himself in the *Aśokavardhanāvadāna* (XI) of the *Divyāvadāna*² may lead us to suppose.