The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.86

c23.86

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.