Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s37.32.1

c11.s37.32.1

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.