War in Ancient India c5.s5.3

c5.s5.3

In interpreting this term, the whole Edict must be taken into account. In the latter part we read according to Hultzsch’s translation: “And they (foresters) are told of the power to (punish them) which Devānāmpriya (possesses) in spite of (his) repentance, in order that they may be ashamed (of their crimes) and may not be killed”.¹³² What is this power to punish and kill them except by the employment of weapons of war? What is that repentance except that he waged in Kalinga an unrighteous war involving the slaughter of innocents and that he took a vow from that day to resort to only righteous methods of war? Dharmavijaya is a term of much political significance and Aśoka born and bred in the Kauṭalīyan school of politics, (there is a story that Kauṭalya continued to be the minister of Aśoka’s father also), must have followed his political injunctions. It is wrong to take all his Edicts as religious Edicts. They are all political in character and deserve to be re-edited and interpreted from the political standpoint of Kauṭalya to do justice to a very great emperor of India, who had equal regard for all orthodox and heretic sects of his time.¹³³