Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c8.5

c8.5

The forty years of Aśoka's rule form a great epoch not only in the history of India, but in the annals of mankind. In the remarkable series of his inscriptions found over the entire length and breadth of India, we hear the authentic voice of the great emperor explaining the purpose behind many of his actions. This enables us to check and control the numerous legends that have gathered round his name, as around the names of all great leaders of humanity. One war of conquest was enough to turn the mind of this monarch for ever from all thought of war and military conquest, so sensitive was he to the sufferings of men, and indeed of animals as well. He found instruction in the company of the Sangha and solace in the religion of the Buddha. His abstention from war and conquest was by no means a mere negation of a part of the king's duty as it was generally understood; the true emperor was a conqueror (*vijigīshu*) according to the political theory of Ancient India, and Aśoka accepted this ideal, and practised it vigorously for the rest of his life; only the conquest he pursued was of a higher order than that dictated by lust of power or territory; he became a *vijigīshu* in the cause of Dhammavijaya. But he was no visionary who sacrificed temporal well-being in the pursuit of spiritual objects. He combined energy and benevolence, justice and charity, as no one else did. He bent all the material resources of his great empire to the ethical education of his subjects and to the organisation of peace within his realm, and universal amity and order throughout the world. Aśoka strikes us as the most modern of all the great rulers of India.