The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t5.1

c11.s3.t5.1

(11) Literary and inscriptional evidence has led us to the conclusion that Aśoka’s faith was not Buddhism as is the current view. This is further supported by the testimony of archæology. As this has been examined fully elsewhere,¹ it is enough to point out here the main lines of argument adduced in support of our theory. Tradition records that Aśoka was a great builder of cities, stūpas and pillars. This is corroborated by the records of the Chinese travellers Fa-hien and Yuan Chwang. While Fa-hien noticed six pillars² of Aśoka, Yuan Chwang saw as many as fifteen.³ But of these only five can be identified with the existing monuments. But pillars which find no mention in these records are now discovered, as for example, the Lauṛiyā-Ararāj pillar with no capital and the Lauṛiyā-Nandangaṛh pillar, its capital being bell shaped “with a circular abacus supporting the statue of a lion facing the north.”⁴ Even among the few identified with those mentioned by the Chinese travellers, there is some discrepancy. For instance, the pillar at Sārnāth measures in height just half of what has been attributed to it by Yuan Chwang.⁵