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The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23: Chapter VII. Asoka Maurya (Continued); and His Successors

The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23

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Chapter VII. Asoka Maurya (Continued); and His Successors

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THE edicts are devoted mainly to the exposition, inculcation, and enforcement of a scheme of practical ethics, or rule of conduct, which Asoka called *Dhamma*. No English word or phrase is exactly equivalent to the Prākrit *dhamma* (Sanskrit *dharma*), but the expression Law of Piety, or simply Piety, comes tolerably close to the meaning of the Indian term. The rendering Law of Duty may be used if preferred. The validity of this Law of Piety or Duty is assumed in the edicts, and no attempt is made to found it upon any theological or metaphysical basis. Theological ideas are simply ignored by Asoka, as they were by his master, Gautama; and the current Hindu philosophy of rebirth, inaccurately called metempsychosis, is taken for granted, and forms the background of the ethical teaching.

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The leading tenet of Asoka's Buddhism, as of the cognate Jain system, and some varieties of Brahmanical Hinduism, was a passionate, uncompromising belief in the sanctity of animal life. The doctrine of the absolute, unconditional right of the meanest animal to retain the breath of life until the latest moment permitted by nature, is that of the edicts; and was based upon the belief that all living creatures, including men, animals, gods, and demons, form links in an endless chain of existence, or rather of 'becoming'.¹

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¹ The first of the three 'characteristic doctrines of Buddhism' is that 'all the constituents of being are transitory' (*πάντα ῥεῖ*); the second, that they are all misery; and the third, that they are lacking in an Ego (Warren, *Buddhism in Translations*, p. xiv).

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The being that is now a god in heaven may be reborn in the course of aeons as an insect; and the insect, in its turn, may work up to the rank of a god. This belief, associated with the faith that the mode of rebirth is conditioned by the *karma*, the net ethical result, or balance of good or evil of the life of each creature at the moment of its termination, lies deep down at the roots of Indian thought, and is inseparably bound up with almost every form of Indian religion. Sometimes it is combined with theories which recognize the existence of a personal soul, but it is also firmly held by persons who utterly deny all forms of the soul theory.

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It is easy to understand that believers in ideas of this kind may be led logically to regard the life of an insect as entitled to no less respect than that of a man. In practice, indeed, the sanctity of animal was placed above that of human life; and the absurd spectacle was sometimes witnessed of a man being put to death for killing an animal, or even for eating meat. The most pious Buddhist and Jain kings had no hesitation about inflicting capital punishment upon their subjects, and Asoka himself continued to sanction the death penalty throughout his reign. He was content to satisfy his humanitarian feelings by a slight mitigation of the sanguinary penal code inherited from his stern grandfather in conceding to condemned prisoners three days' grace to prepare for death.¹

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¹ Pillar Edict IV.

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In early life Asoka is believed to have been a Brahmanical Hindu, specially devoted to Siva, a god whose consort delights in bloody sacrifices; and he appears to have had no scruple about the shedding of blood. Thousands of living creatures used to be slain on the occasion of a banquet (*samāja*) to supply the kitchens of the overgrown royal household with curries for a single day. As he became gradually imbued with the spirit of Buddhist teaching, this wholesale daily slaughter became abominable in his eyes, and was stopped; only three living creatures at the most, namely, two peacocks and one deer, being killed each day; and in 257 B. C. even this limited butchery was put an end to.²

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² Rock Edict I. D. R. Bhandarkar's comments in 'Epigraphic Notes and Questions' (*J. Bo. R. A. S.*, 1902) deserve attention. E. Thomas believed that Asoka was a Jain in early life, but without sufficient reason.

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Two years earlier, in 259 B. C., Asoka had abolished the royal hunt, which formed such an important element in the amusements of his grandfather's court. 'In times past,' he observes, 'their Majesties were wont to go out on pleasure tours, during which hunting and other similar amusements used to be practised.' But His Sacred and Gracious Majesty no longer cared for such frivolous outings, and had substituted for them solemn progresses devoted to inspection of the country and people, visits and largess to holy men, and preaching and discussion of the Law of Piety.¹

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¹ Rock Edict VIII. The formula, 'His Sacred and Gracious Majesty', is a fair equivalent of *devānaṁpiya piyadasi*, which words formed an official title, and cannot be rendered faithfully by etymological analysis. The words mean literally, 'Dear to the gods, of gracious mien.' According to G. Yazdani, *piyadasi* means 'well-wisher' (to all).

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As time went on Asoka's passionate devotion to the doctrine of the sanctity of animal life grew in intensity; and, in 243 B. C., resulted in the production of a stringent code of regulations applicable to all classes of the population throughout the empire, without distinction of creed. Many kinds of animals were absolutely protected from slaughter in any circumstances; and the slaying of animals commonly used for food by the flesh-eating population, although not totally prohibited, was hedged round by severe restrictions. On fifty-six specified days in the year, killing under any pretext was categorically forbidden; and in many ways the liberty of the subject was very seriously contracted.² While Asoka lived, these regulations were, no doubt, strictly enforced by the special officers appointed for the purpose; and it is not unlikely that deliberate breach of the more important regulations was visited with the capital penalty, as it was later in the days of Harsha.

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² Pillar Edict V. Compare Chāṇakya's rules in *Arthaśāstra*, Bk. ii, ch. 26. A notable difference is that Asoka's Edict does not give protection to the cow or other horned cattle, whereas the *Arthaśāstra* prohibits their slaughter under a penalty of a fine of 50 *paṇas*. See also Bk. xiii, ch. 5, transl. R. Shamasastry, Bangalore, 1915.

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The second cardinal doctrine inculcated and insisted on by Asoka was that of the obligation of reverence to parents, elders, and preceptors. Conversely, superiors, while receiving their due of reverence, were required to treat their inferiors, including servants, slaves, and all living creatures, with kindness and consideration.¹ As a corollary to these obligations, men were taught that the spirit which inspires reverence on the one side, and kindness on the other, should further induce them to behave with courteous decorum to relatives, ascetics, and Brahmans, and likewise to practise liberality to the same classes, as well as to friends and acquaintances.

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¹ For the law concerning slaves and servants see *Arthaśāstra*, Bk. iii, chs. 13, 14. The general rule was laid down that an Ārya could not be in the status of slavery (*Na tv-ev-āryasya dāsabhāvaḥ*), but it was subject to exceptions. When Megasthenes averred that slavery was unknown in India, he may have had some such rule in his mind.

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The third primary duty laid upon men was that of truthfulness. These three guiding principles are most concisely formulated in the Second Minor Rock Edict, which may be quoted in full:—

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‘Thus saith His Majesty:
“Father and mother must be obeyed; similarly, respect for living creatures must be enforced; truth must be spoken. These are the virtues of the Law of Piety which must be practised. Similarly, the teacher must be reverenced by the pupil, and proper courtesy must be shown to relations.
This is the ancient standard of piety—this leads to length of days, and according to this men must act”’.

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Among secondary duties, a high place was given to that of showing toleration for and sympathy with the beliefs and practices of others; and a special edict, No. XII of the Rock series, was devoted to the exposition of this topic, The subjects of the imperial moralist were solemnly warned to abstain from speaking evil of their neighbours’ faith; remembering that all forms of religion alike aim at the attainment of self-control and purity of mind, and are thus in agreement about essentials, however much they may differ in externals.

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Asoka openly avowed his readiness to act upon these latitudinarian principles by doing reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by means of donations and in other ways. The Cave Inscriptions, which record costly gifts bestowed upon the Ājīvikas, an independent sect of self-mortifying ascetics, testify that Asoka, like many other ancient kings of India, really adopted the policy of universal toleration and concurrent endowment.¹

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¹ The notion of toleration being a royal duty still survives. Bühler was 'told in Rājputāna, a rājā ought not to be exclusive in the point of worship, but favour all the various sects among his subjects' (*Ind. Ant.*, vi, 183). This principle has been acted on frequently. The *Arthaśāstra* goes so far as to prescribe that the king who has acquired a new territory 'should follow the people in their faith with which they celebrate their national, religious, and congregational festivals or amusements' (Bk. xiii, ch. 5).

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But his toleration, although perfectly genuine, must be understood with two limitations. In the first place, all Indian religions, with which alone Asoka was concerned, had much in common, and were all alike merely variant expressions of Hindu modes of thought and feeling. There was no such gap dividing them as that which yawns between Islam and Purānic Brahmanism. In the second place, the royal toleration, although perfect as regarding beliefs, did not necessarily extend to all overt practices. Sacrifices involving the death of a victim, which are absolutely indispensable for the correct worship of some of the gods, were categorically prohibited, at least at the capital, from an early period in the reign;² and were further restricted, in all parts of the empire, by the code promulgated later in the Pillar Edicts. The conscientious objector was not permitted to allege his conscience as a justification for acts disapproved on principle by the government. Men might believe what they liked, but must do as they were told.

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² Rock Edict I.

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While almsgiving was commended, the higher doctrine was taught that 'there is no such charity as the charitable gift of the Law of Piety; no such distribution as the distribution of piety'.³ The sentiment recurs in curiously similar language in Cromwell's earliest extant letter. He wrote from St. Ives: 'Building of hospitals provides for men's bodies; to build material temples is judged a work of piety; but they that procure spiritual food, they that build up spiritual temples, they are the men truly charitable, truly pious.'⁴

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³ Rock Edict XI.

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⁴ Letter dated Jan. 11, 1635, in Carlyle's edition.

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Asoka cared little for ritual, and was inclined to look with some scorn upon ordinary ceremonies, which, as he observes, ‘bear little fruit, and are of doubtful efficacy’. Just as true charity consists in a man’s efforts to diffuse a knowledge of the Law of Piety among his fellow creatures, so true ceremonial consists in the fulfilment of that law, which ‘bears great fruit’; and includes kind treatment of slaves and servants, honour to teachers, respect for life, and liberality to ascetics and Brahmans. These things, with others of the same kind, are called ‘the ceremonial of piety’.¹

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¹ ^1 Rock Edict IX.

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The preacher looked to men’s hearts rather than to their outward acts, and besought his congregation, the inhabitants of a vast empire, to cultivate the virtues of ‘compassion, liberality, truth, purity, gentleness, and saintliness’. He hoped that the growth of piety would be promoted by the imperial regulations devised for that purpose; but, while enforcing those regulations with all the power of an autocrat, he relied more upon the meditations of individuals, stimulated by his teaching. ‘Of these two means,’ he says, ‘pious regulations are of small account, whereas meditation is of greater value.’²

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² ^2 Pillar Edict VII.

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Notwithstanding his avowal of the comparative powerlessness of regulations, the emperor did not neglect to provide official machinery for the promulgation of his doctrine, and the enforcement of his orders. All the officers of State, whom, in modern phraseology, we may call Lieutenant-Governors, Commissioners, and District Magistrates, were commanded to make use of opportunities during their periodical tours for convoking assemblies of the lieges, and instructing them in the whole duty of man. Certain days in the year were particularly set apart for this duty, and the officials were directed to perform it in addition to their ordinary work.³

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³ ^3 Rock Edict III; the Kaliṅga Edicts.

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A special agency of Censors was also organized for the purpose of enforcing the regulations concerning the sanctity of animal life, and the observance of filial piety, in the most extended sense. These officers were expressly enjoined to concern themselves with all sects, and with every class of society, not excluding the royal family; while separate officials were charged with the delicate duty of supervising female morals.¹ In practice, this system must have led to much espionage and tyranny; and, if we may judge from the proceedings of kings in later ages, who undertook a similar task, the punishments inflicted for breach of the imperial regulations must have been terribly severe.

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¹ Rock Edicts V, XII; Pillar Edict VII.

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It is recorded by contemporary testimony that in the seventh century King Harsha, who obviously aimed at copying closely the institutions of Asoka, did not shrink from inflicting capital punishment without hope of pardon on any person who dared to infringe his commands by slaying any living thing, or using flesh as food in any part of his dominions.²

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² Beal, *Records*, i, 214.

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In the twelfth century, Kumārapāla, king of Gujarāt in Western India, after his conversion to Jainism in A. D. 1159, took up the doctrine of the sanctity of animal life with the most inordinate zeal, and imposed savage penalties upon violators of his rules. An unlucky merchant, who had committed the atrocious crime of cracking a louse, was brought before the special court at Anhilwāra and punished by the confiscation of his whole property, the proceeds of which were devoted to the building of a temple. Another wretch, who had outraged the sanctity of the capital by bringing in a dish of raw meat, was put to death. The special court constituted by Kumārapāla had functions similar to those of Asoka's Censors, and the working of the later institution sheds much light upon the unrecorded proceedings of the earlier one.³

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³ Bühler, *Ueber das Leben des Jaina Mönches Hemachandra*, Wien, 1889, p. 39. For an account of Kumārapāla ('Koomâr Pâl) see A. K. Forbes, *Rās Mālā, Hindoo Annals of the Province of Goozerat in Western India*, 2 vols., Richardson, 1856, vol. i, ch. 11. The whole story of Kumārapāla's conversion (pp. 29–42) is instructive as a commentary on the Asoka edicts.

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More modern parallels to Asoka's Censors are not lacking. In 1876, when a pious Mahārāja was in power in Kashmīr, breaches of the commandments of the Hindu scriptures were treated by the State as offences, and investigated by a special court composed of five eminent pundits, belonging to families in which the office was hereditary, who determined appropriate penalties.¹

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¹ Bühler, 'Report of a Tour', &c., in *J. Bo. Br. R. A. S.* (1876), vol. xii, Extra No., p. 21.

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Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, and possibly until a later date, similar hereditary Brahman officers exercised jurisdiction over offenders charged with breaches of caste rules in Khandesh, the Deccan, and some parts of the Konkan, and imposed suitable expiations in the shape of fine, penance, or excommunication.²

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² *Calcutta Review* (1851), vol. xv, p. xxv; quoted in *Ind. Ant.* (1903), vol. xxxii, p. 365.

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These cases, ancient and modern, are sufficient to prove that when Asoka made an innovation by appointing Censors, officers who 'had never been appointed in all the long ages past', the new departure was in accordance with Hindu notions, and was consequently readily imitated in later times by rulers of various religions.

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The practical piety of Asoka was exhibited in many works of benevolence, on which he dwells with evident pleasure and satisfaction. His theory of true charity did not hinder him from bestowing liberal alms. The distribution of the charitable grants made by the sovereign and members of the royal family was carefully supervised both by the Censors and other officials, who seem to have been organized in a Royal Almoner's Department.³

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³ Rock Edicts V, XII; Pillar Edict VII; Queen's Edict.

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Special attention was devoted to the needs of travellers, who have at all times evoked the sympathy of pious Indians. The provision made for wayfarers, including the dumb animals, which were never forgotten by Asoka, is best described in the monarch's own words: 'On the roads,' he says, 'I have had banyan-trees planted to give shade to man and beast; I have had groves of mango-trees planted; and at every half *kōs* I have had wells dug; rest-houses have been erected; and numerous watering-places have been prepared here and there for the enjoyment of man and beast.'¹ Distances were carefully marked by pillars erected at convenient intervals, ever since Chandragupta's time.

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¹ Pillar Edict VII; Rock Edict II. Fleet translates *aḍhakosikya* as 'at distances of eight *kōs*' (*J. R. A. S.*, 1906, p. 417). See *ante*, p. 135.

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The lively sympathy of Asoka with his suffering fellow creatures, human and animal, also found expression in the extensive provision of relief for the sick. Arrangements for the healing of man and beast were provided not only throughout all provinces of the empire, but also in the friendly independent kingdoms of Southern India and Hellenistic Asia; medicinal herbs and drugs, wherever lacking, being planted, imported, and supplied as needed.²

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² Rock Edict II.

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The animal hospitals, which still exist at Ahmadābād, Sūrat, and many other towns in Western India, may be regarded as either survivals or copies of the institutions founded by the Maurya monarch. The following account of the Sūrat hospital, as it was maintained late in the eighteenth century, probably would have been applicable with little change to the prototype at Pātaliputra:—

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'The most remarkable institution in Sūrat is the Banyan Hospital, of which we have no description more recent than 1780. It then consisted of a large piece of ground enclosed by high walls, and subdivided into several courts or wards for the accommodation of animals. In sickness they were attended with the greatest care, and here found a peaceful asylum for the infirmities of old age.

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'When an animal broke a limb, or was otherwise disabled, his owner brought him to the hospital, where he was received without regard to the caste or nation of his master. In 1772, this hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds; also an aged tortoise, which was known to have been there seventy-five years. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated for rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin, for whom suitable food was provided.' ³

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³ Hamilton, *Description of Hindostan* (1820), vol. i, p. 718, 4to ed.; Crooke, *Things Indian*, art. 'Pinjrapole' (Murray (1906)). The 'Banyan', or mercantile castes, who supported the hospital, are divided between the Jain and Vaishṇava religions, both of which go beyond Buddhism in an exaggerated regard for the sanctity of animal life.

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These hospitals usually are so administered as to cause, perhaps, more suffering than they prevent.

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The active official propaganda carried on by various agencies throughout the empire and dependent states did not satisfy the zeal of Asoka; who burned with a desire to diffuse the blessings of both his ethical system and distinctive Buddhist teaching in all the independent kingdoms with which he was in touch; and with this purpose organized an efficient system of foreign missions worked under his personal supervision, the results of which are visible to this day. His conception of the idea of foreign missions on a grand scale was absolutely original, and produced a well-considered and successful scheme, carried out with method and thoroughness in conjunction and harmony with his measures of domestic propaganda.

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Before the year 256 B. C., when the Rock Edicts were published collectively, the royal missionaries had been dispatched to all the more or less dependent states and tribes on the frontiers of the empire, and in the wilder regions within its borders, to the independent kingdoms of Southern India, and to the Hellenistic monarchies of Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, and Epirus, then governed respectively by Antiochos Theos, Ptolemy Philadelphos, Magas, Antigonos Gonatas, and Alexander. The missionary organization thus embraced three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The mission to Ceylon in the reign of Tissa was later in date by a few years.

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The Border states and tribes brought in this way within the circle of Buddhist influence included the Kām̃bōjas,¹ who lived among the mountains either of Tibet or of the Hindū Kush; various Himalayan nations; the Gandhāras and Yavanas of the Kābul valley and regions still farther west; the Bhojas, Pulindas, and Pitēnikas dwelling among the hills of the Vindhya range and Western Ghāts;² and the Āndhra kingdom between the Krishnā and Godāvarī rivers.

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¹ Nepalese tradition applies the name *Kambōja-deśa* to Tibet (Foucher, *Iconographie bouddhique*, p. 134). But modern research indicates that the Kām̃bōjas spoke an Iranian tongue, and probably should be located in the Hindū Kush mountains (Grierson, *J. R. A. S.*, 1911, p. 802).

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² Bhojas, probably in Berār (Ilichpur, see Collins on *Daśakumāracharita*, and *Bomb. Gaz.* (1896), vol. i, pt. ii, p. 27); Pulindas, among the Vindhya hills near the Narmadā (ibid., p. 138). But the term Pulinda was used vaguely, and sometimes meant Himalayan tribes (*J. R. A. S.*, 1908, p. 315). D. R. Bhandarkar, 'Dekkan of the Sātavāhana Period' (*Ind. Ant.*, xlviii, June, 1919), suggests that *pitēnikas* or *pitinikas*, which is associated with *Rāshtrikas* in Rock Edict V and with *Bhojas* in Rock Edict XIII, is really an adjective signifying 'one who enjoys property given by (his) father', and therefore that the Rashtrikas or Rathis and the Bhojas were feudatory chieftains who had obtained independence and become hereditary rulers. The word may, however, signify merely 'residents of Paithan' (on the Godāvarī).

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The Dravidian peoples of the extreme south, below the fourteenth degree of latitude, being protected by their remoteness, had mostly escaped annexation to the northern empire. In Asoka's time their territories formed four independent kingdoms, the Chola, Pāndya, Keralaputra, and Satiyaputra. The capital of the Chola kingdom was Uraiyūr, or Old Trichinopoly, and that of the Pāndya realm was Korkai in the Tinnevelly District. The Keralaputra or Madura state comprised the Malabar coast south of the Tuluva country, and probably also the inland districts usually assigned to the Chera kingdom. The name Chera is a variant form of Kerala. The Satiyaputra country may be identified with the Satyamangalam subdivision of the Coimbatore District and some adjoining territory.¹ With all these kingdoms Asoka was on such friendly terms that he was at liberty to send his missionaries to preach to the people, and even to found monasteries in several places. One such institution was established by his younger brother Mahendra in the Tanjore District, probably then included in the Chola kingdom, where its ruins were still visible nine hundred years later.¹

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¹ I cannot agree with Prof. Bhandarkar that the Satiyaputra kingdom should be placed in the Ghāts near Poona. S. V. Venkatesvara suggests (*J. R. A. S.*, 1918, p. 54 and *Ind. Ant.*, xlviii, p. 24) that Kānchi may be meant, because (1) Patanjali enumerates Pāndya, Chola, Chera, and Kānchipura; (2) Kānchi is known to Brahmans as Satyavrata-kshetra; and (3) Satyavrata, the Manu, was considered lord of Dravida. This evidence is far from conclusive. In the seventeenth century there was a province called Satyamangalam in the Nāyak kingdom of Madura (*Ind. Ant.*, xlv, p. 200). It is possible that that may have been meant by Asoka. For the present I prefer my identification. A fortified pass of importance, leading from Mysore to Coimbatore, was known by the name of Satyamangalam [Satti mungalum] (Swartz, *Memoirs*, i, 367). See V. A. Smith, *Asoka*, 3rd ed., p. 161.

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¹ Beal, *Records*, ii, 231; Watters, ii, 228.

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An ancient Chinese writer assures us that 'according to the laws of India, when a king dies, he is succeeded by his eldest son (*Kumārarāja*); the other sons leave the family and enter a religious life, and they are no longer allowed to reside in their native kingdom'.² This compulsory withdrawal from secular affairs did not necessarily imply the disappearance of the younger brother into obscurity. The church in India, especially Buddhist India, as in Roman Catholic Europe, offered a career to younger sons, and the able ecclesiastic sometimes attained higher fame than his royal relative. Mahendra's assumption of the yellow robe, in accordance with the rule above stated, was, in the first instance, probably due to political necessity rather than to free choice; but, whatever motive may have led him to adopt the monastic life, he became a devout and zealous monk and a most successful missionary.

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² Ma-twan-lin, cited in *Ind. Ant.*, ix, 22.

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When Asoka determined some years later to extend his propaganda to Ceylon, he selected as head of the mission his monk brother, who presumably was already settled at his monastery in Southern India, and thence crossed over to Ceylon with his four colleagues. The teaching of the preachers, backed as it was by the influence of a monarch so powerful as Asoka, was speedily accepted by King Tissa (Devānampiya Tissa) of Ceylon with the members of his court, and the new religion soon gained a hold on the affections of the people at large.³ Mahendra spent the rest of his life in Ceylon, and devoted himself to the establishment and organization of the Buddhist church in the island, where he is revered as a saint. His ashes are said to rest under a great cupola or *stūpa*, called Ambustāla, at Mihintalē, one of the most remarkable among the many notable Buddhist monuments which are the glory of Ceylon.¹

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³ Don M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe assigns the reign of Devānampiya Tissa to the period 253–213 B. C., and dates his successor Uttiya 213–203 B. C. (*Ep. Zeyl.*, vol. i, p. 81). Dates in the early history of Ceylon are only approximate. The dates indicate that the Ceylon mission took place late in Asoka's reign.

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¹ Mahendra is said to have died in the eighth year of king Uttiya, younger brother and successor of Tissa. Half of his relics were enshrined near the Thūpārāma, where the funeral took place, and half at Mihintalē, where he died.

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The Mahāvamsa chronicle, dating from the beginning of the sixth century after Christ, which gives a list of Asoka's missionaries and the countries to which they were deputed, makes no mention of the missions to the Tamil kingdoms of Southern India. This reticence may be plausibly explained by the fierce hostility between the Sinhalese and the Tamils of the mainland, which had begun long before the Christian era and lasted for many centuries. If Mahendra had migrated from his monastery near Tanjore to the island, the fact would have been most distasteful to the monks of the Great Vihāra, who would have been unwilling to feel indebted to a resident among the hated Tamils for instruction in the rudiments of the faith, and would have preferred that people should believe their religion to have come direct from the Holy Land of Buddhism. Some such motive seems to have originated the Sinhalese form of the legend of Mahendra, who is represented as an illegitimate son of Asoka, and is said to have been followed by a sister named Sanghamitrā ('Friend of the Order'), who did for the nuns of Ceylon all that her brother did for the monks. This legend, which is overlaid by many marvellous inventions, must be to a large extent fictitious.² The presumably true version, representing Mahendra as the younger brother of Asoka, was well remembered at the imperial capital Pātaliputra, where Fa-hien, at the beginning of the fifth century, was shown the hermitage of Asoka's saintly brother; and it was still the only version known to Hiuen Tsang in the seventh century. Even when the latter pilgrim took down the Sinhalese legends from the lips of the island monks whom he met at Kānchī, he applied the stories to the brother, not to the son, of Asoka.¹

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² I used to reject absolutely the story of Sanghamitrā, but am now disposed to admit her real existence. If Mahendra was the brother of Asoka, she probably was the sister, not the daughter, of the latter. According to the *Mahāvaṁśa* her death occurred in the ninth year of the reign of king Uttiya. A ruined *stūpa* ENE. of the Thūpārāma is believed to have once contained her ashes (*Mahāvaṁśa*, ch. 20, transl. Geiger and Wijesinha; Smither, *Archit. Remains, Anurādhapura*, p. 9, Pl. III).

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¹ Beal, *Records*, ii, 246; Watters, ii, 230.

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The Mahāvamsa may be mistaken in attributing to Asoka the dispatch of missionaries to Pegu (*Sovanabhūmi*).² No such mission is mentioned in the inscriptions, and if it really occurred, it seems to have had little result. The Ceylon form of Buddhism appears to have been introduced effectively into Burma and Pegu at a very much later date; and there is reason to believe that the earliest Burmese Buddhism was of the Tantric Mahāyāna type, imported direct from Northern India many centuries after Asoka's time.³

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² Suvarnabhūmi = Golden Coast of the Chinese. Schoff connects the name with the Gangetic port of Sunārgāon (*J. A. O. S.*, 37, 244).

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³ Temple, ‘Notes on Antiquities in Rāmaññadesa’ (*Ind. Ant.*, vol. xxii (1893), p. 359): and my article (ibid., 1905, p. 180).

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Unfortunately no definite record has been preserved of the fortunes of the Buddhist missions in the Hellenistic kingdoms of Asia, Africa, and Europe; nor are the names of the missionaries known. The influence of Buddhist doctrine on the heretical Gnostic sects appears to be undoubted; and many writers have suspected that more orthodox forms of Christian teaching owe some debt to the lessons of Gautama; but the subject is too obscure for discussion in these pages.⁴

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⁴ See Edmunds, *Buddhist and Christian Gospels*, 4th ed., Philadelphia; Richard Garbe, *Indien und das Christentum*, Tübingen (Mohr), 1914.

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It is, however, certain that Asoka, by his comprehensive and well-planned measures of evangelization, succeeded in transforming the doctrine of a local Indian sect into one of the great religions of the world. The personal ministry of Gautama Buddha was confined to a comparatively small area, comprising about four degrees of latitude and as many of longitude, between Gayā, Allāhābād, and the Himalaya. Within these limits he was born, lived, and died. When he died, about 543 B.C., Buddhism was merely a sect of Hinduism, unknown beyond very restricted limits, and with no better apparent chance of survival than that enjoyed by many other contemporary sects now long-forgotten.

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The effective organization of the monastic system by the Buddhists probably was the means of keeping their system alive and in possession of considerable influence in the Gangetic valley for the centuries which elapsed between the death of Gautama and the conversion of Asoka. His imperial patronage, gradually increasing as his faith grew in intensity, made the fortune of Buddhism, and raised it to the position which enables it still to dispute with Christianity the first place among the religions of the world, so far as the number of believers is concerned.

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Asoka did not attempt to destroy either Brahmanical Hinduism or Jainism ; but his prohibition of bloody sacrifices, the preference which he openly avowed for Buddhism, and his active propaganda, undoubtedly brought his favourite doctrine to the front, and established it as the dominant religion in both India and Ceylon. It still retains that position in the southern island, although it has vanished almost completely from the land of its birth, and has failed to retain its grasp upon many of its distant conquests.

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Still, notwithstanding many failures, fluctuations, developments, and corruptions, Buddhism now commands, and will command for countless centuries to come, the devotion of hundreds of millions of men. This great result is the work of Asoka alone, and entitles him to rank for all time with that small body of men who may be said to have changed the faith of the world.

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The obvious comparison of Asoka with Constantine, which has become a commonplace, is, like most historical parallels, far from exact. Christianity, when the emperor adopted it as the state creed, was already a power throughout the Roman Empire, and Constantine's adherence was an act of submission to an irresistible force rather than one of patronage to an obscure sect. Buddhism, on the contrary, when Asoka accorded to it his invaluable support, was but one of many sects struggling for existence and survival, and without any pretension to dictate imperial policy. His personal action, seemingly prompted and directed by his teacher Upagupta, was the direct cause of the spread of the doctrine beyond the limits of India; and, if a Christian parallel must be sought, his work is comparable with that of Saint Paul, rather than with that of Constantine.

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Upagupta, to whom the conversion of Asoka is ascribed, is said to have been the son of Gupta, a perfumer, and to have been born at either Benares or Mathurā. Probably he was a native of the latter city, where the monastery built by him still existed in the seventh century. Tradition also associated his name with Sind, in which country he is said to have made frequent missionary journeys.¹

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¹ Beal, *Records*, i, 182; ii, 88, 273; Watters, Index, s.v., Upagupta; Growse, *Mathurā*, 3rd ed., p. 142; Cunningham, *Reports*, xx, 32. The tradition may be true. 76 *stūpas* and 2 monasteries of about the sixth century a. d. have been found at Mīrpur Khās (*Ann. Rep. A. S. Western Circle*, 1916–17, p. 47) and 1 *stūpa* has been found at Tāndo Muhammad Khān (ibid., 1914–15, p. 66). The identity of Tissa, son of Moggali, the hero of the Ceylon tales, with the real personage Upagupta has been demonstrated by Waddell (*J. A. S. B.*, 1897, part i, p. 76; *Proc. A. S. B.*, 1899, p. 70). There is no sufficient reason to identify Tissa with the Mogaliputa of the Sāñchī relic caskets (*Bhīlsa Topes*, pp. 115, 120).

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The vigorous and effective action taken by Asoka to propagate his creed and system of morals is conclusive proof of his absolute honesty of purpose, and justifies the modern reader in giving full credence to the devout professions made by him in the edicts. ‘Work I must,’ he observed, ‘for the public benefit’; and work he did. The world still enjoys the fruit of his labours; and his words, long lost, but now restored to utterance, ring with the sound of sincerity and truth.

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Asoka was a hard-working king, as unwearied in business as Philip II of Spain, ready to receive reports ‘at any hour and any place’, and yet dissatisfied with the outcome of his industry. ‘I am never,’ he laments, ‘fully satisfied with my exertions and dispatch of business.’ Probably he worked too hard, and would have effected still more if he had done less. His ideal of duty was high, and, like the Stoic philosopher, he was bound to obey the law of his nature, and to toil on, be the result success or failure.

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The character of Asoka must be deduced from his words. The style is of the man, and I firmly believe that the edicts express his thoughts in his own words. They are written in a style far too peculiar and distinctive to be the work of a Secretary of State, and are alive with personal feeling. No secretary would have dared to put in his master's mouth the passionate expressions of remorse for the misery caused by the Kalinga war, leading up to the resolve to eschew aggressive warfare for the rest of his life, and the declaration that 'although a man do him an injury, His Majesty holds that it must be patiently borne, as far as it possibly can be borne'.¹

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¹ ^1 Rock Edict XIII.

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The edicts reveal Asoka as a man who sought to combine the piety of the monk with the wisdom of the king, and to make India the kingdom of righteousness as he conceived it, a theocracy without a God; in which the government should act the part of Providence, and guide the people in the right way. Every man, he maintained, must work out his own salvation, and eat the fruit of his deeds. 'The fruit of exertion is not to be obtained by the great man only; because even the small man by exertion can win for himself much heavenly bliss; and for this purpose was given the precept—"Let small and great exert themselves"'.² The government could only point out the road, which each man must travel for himself.

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² ^2 Minor Rock Edict I (Rūpnāth).

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Reverence, compassion, truthfulness, and sympathy were the virtues which he inculcated; irreverence, cruelty, falsehood, and intolerance were the vices which he condemned. The preacher was no mere sermon-writer. He was a man of affairs, versed in the arts of peace and war, the capable ruler of an immense empire, a great man, and a great king.

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Asoka, like all Oriental monarchs, was a polygamist, and had at least two consorts, who ranked as queens. The name of the second of these ladies, Kāruvākī, is preserved in a brief edict signifying the royal pleasure that her charitable donations should be regarded by all officials concerned as her act and deed, redounding to her accumulation of merit.

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She is described as the mother of Tīvara, who may be considered as a favourite child of the aged emperor at the time the edict was issued, late in his reign.

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Tradition avers that his faithful chief queen for many years was named Asandhimitrā, and that when she died, and Asoka was old, he married a dissolute young woman named Tishyarakshitā; concerning whom and her step-son Kunāla, the old folk-lore tale, known to the Greeks as that of Phaedra and Hippolytus, is related with much imaginative embellishment. But folk-lore is not history, and the pathetic story of the blinded Kunāla must not be read or criticized as matter-of-fact narrative. The legend appears in diverse forms with various names.

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Another son of Asoka, named Jalauka, who plays a large part in Kashmīr tradition, although rather a shadowy personage, has more appearance of reality than Kunāla. He was reputed to have been an active and vigorous king of Kashmīr, who expelled certain intrusive foreigners, and conquered the plains as far as Kanauj. He was hostile to Buddhism and devoted to the worship of Siva and the Divine Mothers, in whose honour he and his queen, Isānadēvī, erected many temples at places which can be identified. The story of Jalauka, notwithstanding the topographical details, is essentially legendary, and no independent corroboration of the Kashmīr tradition has been discovered.¹

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¹ Stein, transl. *Rājataraṅgiṇī*, Bk. i, vv. 108–52. One of the confused Tibetan traditions assigns eleven sons to Asoka (Schiefner, *Tāranāth*, p. 48).

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Tīvara, the son mentioned in the Queen's Edict, is not heard of again, and may have predeceased his father. Dasaratha, a grandson of Asoka, certainly was a reality, being known from brief dedicatory inscriptions on the walls of cave-dwellings at the Nāgārjuni Hills, which he bestowed upon the Ājīvikas, as his grandfather had done in the neighbouring Barābar Hills. The script, language, and style of Dasaratha's records prove that his date was very close to that of Asoka, whom probably he directly succeeded, at least in the eastern provinces. Assuming this to be the fact, the accession of Dasaratha may be dated in 232 B. C. His reign appears to have been short, and is allotted (under other names) eight years in two of the Purāṇas.

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The existence and succession of Samprati, another grandson of Asoka, although not verified by epigraphic record, are vouched for by a considerable body of tradition. The Buddhist prose romance, named *Asokāvadāna* (being part of the *Divyāvadāna*), tells a long story of Asoka’s senile devotion to the church and consequent waste of the resources of the empire, which went so far that the ministers were compelled to remove him from power, and place Samprati, son of the blinded Kunāla, on the throne. We are not told what became of Asoka. According to this tale, the successors of Samprati were Vrihaspati, Vrishasena, Pushyadharman, and Pushyamitra, the last being described as of Maurya descent.¹

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¹ Burnouf, *Introd.*, 2nd ed., p. 384; Schiefner, *Tāranāth*, p. 287. ‘The name of Samprati is well known from Ajmēr to Saurāshtra, and his era is given in a valuable chronogrammatic catalogue in an ancient Jain manuscript from the temple of Nadol, at 202 of the Virat Samvat. He is mentioned both traditionally and by books as the great supporter of the Jain faith, and the remains of temples dedicated to Māhāvīra, erected by this prince, yet exist at Ajmēr, Kumbhalmēr, and Girnār’ (Tod, *Annals, &c.*, Oxford Univ. Press, 1920, vol. i, p. 290). The fortress of Jahāgpur, situated about 96 miles NE. of Udaipur and the same distance SSE. from Ajmēr, which guarded an important pass between Bundi and Mewār, is believed to have been founded by him. It was rebuilt by Rānā Kumbher in the fifteenth century. The tradition is supported by the existence of ancient Jain temples (*Rājputāna Gazetteer*, Simla, 1880, iii, 52). See also Forbes, *Rāsmālā*, 1856, i, p. 7. An inscription, dated 1686 v.E. = A.D. 1622, on a Jain temple at Nāḍlai in the Jodhpur State, Rājputāna, records the traditional belief that the original edifice had been built by Samprati (*Prog. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1909–10, p. 41).

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The Jain literary tradition of Western India, which also recognizes Samprati as the immediate successor of Asoka, eulogizes him as an eminent patron of Jainism, who founded Jain monasteries even in non-Aryan countries. Almost all ancient Jain temples or monuments of unknown origin are ascribed by the popular voice to Samprati, who is, in fact, regarded as a Jain Asoka. One author describes him as being the sovereign of all India (‘lord of Bharata with its three continents’), holding court at Pātaliputra; but other traditions place the seat of his government at Ujjain. It is obviously impossible to reconcile all these discrepant traditions, or to feel assured that a kernel of fact can be extracted from the husk of legend. The concurrence of Buddhist with Jain tradition may be accepted as good evidence that Samprati had a real existence in the flesh, although nothing certain is known about him. Perhaps the empire was divided immediately after Asoka's death, between his grandsons, Dasaratha taking the eastern, and Samprati the western provinces, but there is no clear evidence to support this hypothesis.¹

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¹ The Jain traditions (*Pariśishtaparvan*, ed. Jacobi; &c.) are summarized conveniently by Bhagwān Lāl Indraji and Mr. Jackson in *Bomb. Gaz.*, vol. i, part i (1896), p. 15. The lists of the successors of Asoka, as given in the Purāṇas, are hopelessly confused and discrepant.

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The legends of Khotan assert a connexion between that kingdom and Asoka in more ways than one. According to one version of the story he banished certain nobles of Taxila to the north of the Himalaya as a punishment for their complicity in the wrongful blinding of his son Kunāla. These exiles elected one of their number to be king, who reigned in Khotan until he was defeated by a rival prince exiled from China. Another version of the tale asserts that the earliest ancestor of the royal family of Khotan was the prince Kunāla, Asoka's son, who was himself exiled from Taxila. These stories seem to be merely mythological explanations of the fact that the ancient civilization of Khotan was derived from both India and China. It is not likely, although it is not impossible, that Asoka's political jurisdiction should have extended into the basin of the Tārīm.²

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² The stories, which will be found in the *Life and Travels of Hiuen Tsang*, in Rockhill's *Life of Buddha* and Sarat Chandra Das's articles on Tibetan history, are summarized and examined by Stein, in *Ancient Khotan*, pp. 156–66.

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The whole duration of the Maurya dynasty, according to Purānic authority, was 137 years, and if this period be accepted and reckoned from the accession of Chandragupta in 322 B. C., the dynasty must have come to an end in 185 B. C., which date certainly is approximately correct. Four princes who, according to the Purānic lists, succeeded Asoka's grandsons, and each reigned for a few years, are mere names¹; and, if the real existence of Samprati and his successors be assumed, they are equally shadowy personages. The only certainty is that the great empire founded by Chandragupta, and gloriously maintained by his son and grandson, did not long survive the latter. The fall of the Maurya authority probably was due in large measure to a reaction promoted by the Brahmans, whose privileged position must have been seriously affected by the extreme favour which Asoka showed to the Buddhist monks. The prohibition of bloody sacrifices and the irritating proceedings of the Censors must have produced much unrecorded discontent, and we may fairly assume that when the strong hand of the old emperor dropped the sceptre, Brahman influence reasserted itself and produced a revolt against the inquisitorial tyranny of Asoka's system.² The descendants of Asoka whose names are recorded in the Purānas probably retained possession of only Magadha and the neighbouring home provinces. In or about 185 B. C. the last prince of the Maurya dynasty, named Brihadratha, was slain by his com-mander-in-chief, Pushyamitra (or Pushpamitra), who estab-lished a new dynasty known as that of the Sungas. The Āndhra state, between the Krishnā and Godāvarī rivers, was among the earliest defections, and rapidly grew into a powerful kingdom, stretching right across India, as will be narrated in the next chapter.

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¹ The names vary, probably because each king was known by more than one name. The existence of one of them, namely Sāliśūka, is confirmed by the astronomical work, the *Gārgī Samhitā*, which alludes to him in the well-known historical passage, quoted in App. I, *post*.

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² See remarks of Maha. H. P. Sāstri in *J. & Proc. A. S. B.*, 1910, p. 259. He compares the case of king Pālaka of Ujjain in the ancient drama, the 'Toy-cart'. The Sunga, Kānwa, and Sātavāhana dynasties all were Brahman. So also was the Cheta dynasty of Orissa.

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Descendants of the great Asoka continued as unrecorded local subordinate Rājas in Magadha for many centuries; the last of them, and the only one whose name has been preserved, being Pūrna-varman, who was nearly contem-porary with the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, in the seventh century.³

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³ Beal, *Records*, ii, 118, 174; Watters, ii, 115.

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Petty Maurya dynasties, apparently connected in some unknown way with the imperial line, ruled in the Konkan, between the Western Ghāts and the sea, and some other parts of Western India, during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, and are frequently mentioned in inscriptions.¹

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¹ Fleet, 'Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts', 2nd ed., in *Bombay Gazetteer*, vol. i, part ii (1896), pp. 282–4.

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