Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s37.32.3

c11.s37.32.3

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;