The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t2.10

c11.s3.t2.10

The contention that Aśoka retained the position of the Head of the Church is absolutely baseless. A reference to the constitution of the Buddhist Saṅgha as described in the Vinayapiṭaka² will reveal the fact that the Buddha was the Satthā or Head of the Saṅgha. After the Buddha it was the Dharma that was the refuge of true disciples as is seen from the interesting discussion in the Gopaka-Moggallāna Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya. Here to a question put by Vassakāra to Ānanda whether the Buddha had elected any to succeed him as the Head, Ānanda answered in the negative; but to a supplementary question put to him how could unity exist among the monks without anybody as refuge, he answered 'the Dhamma'.³ Sukumar Dutt remarks: "Not only is the idea of the paramount authority of a person—a recognised head, a spiritual dictator or an abbot foreign to the constitution of a Buddhist Saṅgha, but it is definitely excluded in a number of passages.”¹ ‘No person however highly placed, could pretend to legislate for the Buddhist Saṅgha and set up as its ecclesiastical ruler.’² In the light of the above observations it is impossible for Aśoka to have been a king and a monk at the same time.