The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.34

c21.34

Although a modern student may feel difficulty in believing that Asoka could have assumed monastic vows and robe while still exercising autocratic control over a vast empire, there is no doubt about the fact that he did so. Nine centuries later the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing noted that the image of Asoka was clothed in a monk's garment of a particular pattern.¹ The incongruity involved according to our notions in an emperor turning monk, without abdicating, did not strike I-tsing, who was familiar with the exactly similar case in his own country of the Emperor Wu-ti or Hsiao Yen, the first of the Liang dynasty, who was a devout Buddhist, and adopted the monastic garb on two occasions, in A. D. 527 and 529.² A less exact parallel is supplied by the story of a Jain king of Western India in the twelfth century, who assumed the title of 'Lord of the Order', and at various periods of his reign bound himself by vows of continence and abstinence.³ A Buddhist monk is always at liberty to return to lay life, and it is probable that Asoka retired to a monastery from time to time for a short period, making suitable arrangements for carrying on the administration during his retreat. There is some reason to believe that Minor Rock Edict I and the Bhābrū Edict were issued while the emperor was thus in retreat at Bairāt. It is easy to understand that an all-powerful monarch could have arranged the apparent difficulty to his satisfaction in more ways than one. Asoka distinctly adopted the position of ruler of both church and state during the last twenty-five years of his life, just as Charlemagne did long afterwards in Europe.