The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t4: Abdication of Aśoka
The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t4
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Abdication of Aśoka
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There is a similar tradition with regard to the abdication of Aśoka in the evening of his life. Of the three Edicts in the Mysore territory—Brahmagiri, Siddhāpura and Jaṭinga Rāmeśvara Hill¹—Fleet would attach special interest to the version of the Brahmagiri text which discloses the fact that it was framed on the anniversary of Aśoka's abdication, while he was living in religious retirement on the hill Suvarṇagiri.²
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¹ Corpus, pp. 175-79.
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² J.R.A.S., 1905, p. 304. Here Fleet identifies Suvarṇagiri with Songir, one of the hills round the city of Girivraja in Magadha. I think the identification with Kanakagiri Hill is more probable.
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subject is Otto Stein, who in an article entitled the Coronation of Candragupta Maurya in the Journal of Czecho-slovakia Oriental Institute, Prague, Vol. I, 3, argues on the strength of the classical sources that the accession could not be earlier than B.C. 318. Hultzsch agrees with Fleet in fixing B.C. 320. (C.I.I., Vol. I, Intro., p. xxxv.) V. A. Smith is inclined to B.C. 322 (Early History of India, p. 45). The writer in the Cambridge History of India makes out a case for B.C. 321, while J. Carpentier brings it down to B.C. 313 (Ibid., pp. 156-64). Prof. Kern pleads for B.C. 322 (Ind. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79), while J. Sen for 325 B.C. (Ind. His. Quar., Vol. V, pp. 6-14). K. G. Sankara assigns 321 B.C. (Ind. Ant., 1920, 49f). L. D. Barnett also suggests this date (Antiquities of India, p. 39). I am rather inclined to take the date furnished by Jayaswal cir. 326|25 B.C. (J.B. O. R. S., Vol. I, Pt. 1, p. 116). The same difficulty is met with in the case of Bindusāra and Aśoka. The date of Bindusāra's coronation ranges from 296 to 298 B.C. That the reign of Candragupta extended for 24 years seems to be generally adopted. But Bindusāra's rule was 25 years according to the Purāṇas and 28 years according to the Ceylon chronicles. The same confusion awaits us when we come to Aśoka. Professor Kern is inclined towards 270 B.C. when Aśoka became emperor (Int. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79). According to Barnett Aśoka succeeded his father about 268 B.C. and his coronation was in 264 B.C. (Antiquities of India, p. 39). H. C. Ray Chaudry in his Political History of Ancient India pleads for 273 B.C. It is said that Aśoka died in 232 B.C. after a reign of about forty years. Barnett assigns 226 B.C. as the year of Aśoka's death (Antiquities, p. 40). Aśoka's reign was for 36 years according to the Vāyu Purāṇa and 37 according to the Mahāvaṃśa. Kern places his death in 234 or 233 B.C. (Ind. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79).
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But what we can gather from this is that Aśoka also abdicated his throne and led a life of penance and prayer. This may perhaps explain the tradition contained in the *Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā* of Kumāralāta¹:
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¹ H. Lüders, *Bruchstücke Der Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā Des Kumāralāta*, p. 150 (Leipzig, 1926).
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tyāgaśūro narendro sāvaśoko maurya-kuñjaraḥ|
jambūdvīpeśvaro bhūtvā jāto ardhāmalakeśvaraḥ||
bhṛtyaiḥ sa bhūmipatiḥ adya hṛtādhikāro
dānam prayacchati kilāmalakārdham etat|
śribhoga vistaramadair atigarvitānām
pratyādiśann iva manāṃsi pṛthagjanānām||
c7.s1.t4.8
"Aśoka, the great Maurya, noted for his liberality, became the lord of half of the *āmalaka* fruit after ruling over Jampūdvīpa.
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"Having now been deprived of his kingdom by his servants (entrusted his kingdom to his servants?) he gives away in charity half of the *āmalaka* he has on hand as if to direct the minds of ordinary men elated with extensive riches (to do charitable deeds)."