The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t3.44

c11.s3.t3.44

(7) Aśoka makes a significant statement which furnishes a clue as to the profession of his faith. He says that his predecessors engaged themselves in the spreading and propagating of the *dharma* to which he wedded himself.⁴ But their efforts did not prove very much of a success in that direction. His predecessors were Candragupta and Bindusāra. There is not even a lengendary record to testify to their attachment to the Buddhism. This more than anything else goes to prove Aśoka’s faith in the *sanātana dharma* of the Hindus. At least there is no implication here of any reference to the Buddhist *dharma*. According to Fleet it is the ordinary *dharma* of the Hindu kings and he bases his conclusion on the authority of the *Mānavadharmaśāstra*.¹