Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s9: Asoka's Political Philosophy

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s9

Language
English

Asoka's Political Philosophy

c10.s9.1

In a survey of Hindu political literature Asoka's Edicts cannot but have an important place. As a rule, they are ransacked by indologists for references to political history. Recently these have been attacked also for the study of administrative institutions. Nay, the problems of Kauṭalyalogy have compelled scholarship to attempt discovering the points of terminological contact between the *Arthaśāstra* and the Edicts.¹⁸

c10.s9.2

¹⁸ R. K. Mookerji: "*Parallelism* between *Aśoka's Edicts* and Kauṭalya Arthaśāstra" in the *Proceedings of the Fifth Oriental Conference*, Lahore, 1928, pp. 329-347.

c10.s9.3

But it is necessary to remember that Asoka like Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher also. It is not necessary to be positive about the exact nature of the relations of Asoka's *Dhamma* to the *Dharma* or Hindu *Dharmaśāstras*, on the one hand, and the *sila* taught by Śākya and his apostles on the other.¹⁹ The edicts do not betray any reference to *Nirvāṇa* or *Sunyatā*, *Anātma* or *Dukkha*. But there cannot be any doubt about the fact that as promulgator of the Edicts Asoka was holding forth as a “remaker” of man in the same manner as Socrates and Śākya, bent upon generating a new “social metabolism” such as might give rise to a new *Gestalt* (form-complex) in human relationships.

c10.s9.4

¹⁹ N. Dutt: *Aspects of Hinayana Buddhism in its Relation to Mahayana* (London 1930) pp. 19-21.

c10.s9.5

Like the copperplate inscriptions these Edicts are, first and foremost, specimens of literature. And although mainly institutional in origin or nature, this literature can be made to yield theories. Much of ordinary ethical propaganda it undoubtedly contains. But as an Empirebuilder Asoka tried to impress upon his people the conception of administrative uniformity. He was, besides, an exponent of the conception of the “welfare-state”, something like *lo stato educatore* of Redanò. It is through the Edicts that such political categories of the Hindus have found fair expression.

Linked texts (1)