The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s9.3

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.