Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c32: Chapter 26. Asoka Promotes Arboriculture and Horticulture

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c32

Language
English

Contents

Chapter 26. Asoka Promotes Arboriculture and Horticulture

v1.c32.1

274 B.C. — 237 B.C.

v1.c32.2

ASOKA succeeded Bindusara on the Mauryan throne in about 274 B.C. During the early part of his reign, he conquered Kalinga (Orissa) and Ganjam. In this war the Kalingas suffered heavy casualties and 150,000 were taken prisoners. Asoka had a feeling of remorse when he saw the horrors of war, and the slaughter of men in thousands. After the Kalinga war, he became a Buddhist and abjured violence.

v1.c32.3

The extent of Asoka's empire can be judged from his rock and pillar edicts. The Kandahar rock edict has an inscription in Greek and Aramaic which shows that among his subjects were Greeks as well as Iranians. There are rock edicts at Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi in the North-West Frontier Province (Pakistan). Along the west coast are edicts at Girnar, Junagadh and Sopara. There is a replica of rock edict of Girnar placed in front of the building of the National Museum, New Delhi (Fig. 177). In the south are rock edicts at Siddapura and Maski. In the east are the rock edicts at Dhauli and Jaugada (Fig. 178).

v1.c32.4

In his sixth major rock edict, Asoka says: ‘I have now arranged it thus. At all times—whether I am eating, or am in the women's apartments, or in my inner apartments, or at the cattle-shed, or in my carriage, or in my gardens—wherever I may be, my informants should keep me in touch with public business’.¹ This edict indicates his interest in animal husbandry and gardens. Asoka also prohibited the burning of forests for driving out game.

v1.c32.5

¹ Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta and Srinivasachari, G., Advanced History of India, p. 102

v1.c32.6

Asoka actively promoted arboriculture and horticulture. This was partly due to reasons of religion. The worship of the bodhi-tree was specially enjoined by Sakya Muni himself, who directed Ananda to obtain a branch of the tree under which he had obtained Buddhahood, and to plant it in the court of the Vihara at Sravasti, adding, ‘He who worships it will receive the same reward as if he worshipped me in person.’ Such being the recorded origin of the reverence paid to the pipal-tree of the last Buddha Sakya Sinha, it is not surprising that tree worship was generally popular. In the Divya Avadana it is related that the Bodhi-tree was the favourite object of Asoka's worship.

v1.c32.7

For the first time in Indian history we hear of a monarch who encouraged arboriculture and adopted it as a State policy. Asoka encouraged the planting of trees in gardens and along roads in the form of avenues. Rest-houses were made; many watering-stations also were made for the comfort of cattle and men. One of the Asoka pillars bears the following inscription: 'On the roads I have had banyan trees planted, which will give shade to beasts and men. I have had mango groves planted and have had wells dug and rest houses built every nine miles.... And I have had many watering places made everywhere for the use of beasts and men. But this benefit is important, and indeed the world has enjoyed attention in many ways from former kings as well from me. But I have done these things in order that my people might conform to Dhamma.”²

v1.c32.8

² Thapar, R. *A History of India*, p. 88

v1.c32.9

INDIA ASOKA'S EMPIRE (250 BC)

v1.c32.10

Fig. 178. A map showing Asoka's Empire, 250 B.C.

v1.c32.11

In Chapter XXXIV of the *Arthashastra* mention is made of a Superintendent of Pasture Lands. He supervised the construction of tanks, wells, buildings for shelter and flower gardens and fruit gardens. There is every likelihood that this type of administrative arrangement for planting gardens continued under Asoka.

v1.c32.12

Sanchi provides us with a glimpse of arboriculture in the reign of Asoka. Sanchi is about eight kilometres from Bhilsa, the modern successor of the ancient town of Vidisa. Vidisa was the junction of two great trade routes, one of which ran west to east from the busy sea-ports of the western coast of India through Ujjain, Kausambi and Benares to Pataliputra and the other south to north-west from Pratisthana, the Andhra capital, to Sravasti. Vidisa was the home of Devi, the wife of Asoka. Sanchi became an important Buddhist centre in the third century B.C. The famous stupa in which the remains of the Buddha were enshrined was built by Asoka in 225 B.C.

v1.c32.13

As Sir John Marshall remarks: “Asoka himself founded the Sangharama and built this stupa where not only because Vidisa was one of the greatest cities of his empire, but because he wished to honour it as the birth-place of the beautiful Devi and a spot invested with specially happy memories for himself.”³ The stupa was made of bricks, and about the middle of the second century B.C., during the reign of Sunga king Agnimitra, it was encased in stone and the procession path was paved with stones. The stupa was surrounded by a balustrade which reminds one of the wooden palisades and enclosures. The balustrade was pierced by four gate-ways or *toranas*, which are richly carved. The *toranas* of *stupa* numbers 1 and 3, which are covered with sculpture reliefs, showing the Buddha’s life and previous incarnations, were added in the Andhra period from 72 to 25 B.C. The stones of the procession path, balustrade, and the gateways are gifts from devotees whose names are written in Brahmi characters. Each gateway is composed of two square pillars surmounted by capitals supported by a structure of three architraves with volute ends.

v1.c32.14

³ Marshall, *The Monuments of Sanchi*

Fruit-Plants

v1.c32.s1.1

A number of fruit-plants are shown in sculptures from Bharhut. They include plantain (*Musa paradisiaca*), mango (*Mangifera indica*), jack-fruit (*Artocarpus heterophyllus*) and grapevines (Fig. 179). Mango seems to be the favourite fruit and, apart from trees, the fruit-bearing branches are Fig. 179. Fruit-plants shown in sculptures from Bharhut, second century B.C. and Sanchi, first century B.C. 1, Plantain (*Musa paradisiaca*), Sanchi; 2, Mango (*Mangifera indica*), Sanchi; 3, Mango bunch with leaves, Sanchi; 4, Mango fruits and leaves, Bharhut; 5, A parrot carrying a bunch of grapes (*Vitis vinifera*), Sanchi; 6, A grapevine bearing bunches, Bharhut; 7, Jackfruit (*Artocarpus heterophyllus*), Bharhut (After R.V. Sitholey)

v1.c32.s1.3

also depicted both at Bharhut and Sanchi. The Yakshi standing under a fruiting mango-tree which decorates a gateway to Stupa I at Sanchi is a masterpiece of Indian sculpture (Fig. 181). ‘Swaying gracefully from a branch of a mango-tree, the *vrikshaka* is singularly beautiful’, says Marshall. ‘Holding with both hands to the arching bough of a mango-tree, the *salabhanjika* “curves the woodbine of her body” in an attitude which brings out her breasts “like urns of gold”’. Her locks spread out over her back and are brought up on the crown of her head into a curious top-knot, which may be compared to the coiffure of the female servants and jungle-dwellers. Her transparent *dhoti* is only betrayed by the pleated folds falling at the sides and drawn up at the back between the legs. Her big earrings are broken, but the bangles, which load her forearms almost up to the elbow and her legs almost to the knees and her bead necklace and her girdle of trinkets lend themselves to detailed study. The type presents a pleasing compromise between the court lady and the woman of the woods.’⁴

v1.c32.s1.4

⁴ Marshall and Foucher, *The Monuments of Sanchi*, p. 44

v1.c32.s1.5

The mango (*Mangifera indica*) frequently occurs among the sculptures of Bharhut. In the relief showing presentation of the Jetavana monastery, a mango-tree is shown. According to the Buddhist legend, the Buddha, when he was living in Magadha, received a visit from Anathapindaka, a rich merchant, who offered the Park of Jetavana to him. It had limpid pools, luxuriant verdure and countless flowers. In this park, the Buddha gave discourses to the people.

v1.c32.s1.6

Grapes (*Vitis vinifera*) are also depicted both in Sanchi and Bharhut. In a sculpture from Sanchi, a parrot is shown carrying a bunch of grapes in its beak (Fig. 179). On a fragment of a railing post from Bharhut, now in the Allahabad Museum, a grapevine is carved, and both the leaves and bunches of grapes are shown (Fig.182). The grapevine was growing wild in Kashmir, North-West Frontier Province and northern Punjab (Vavilov, 1949-50).

Palms

v1.c32.s2.1

Different types of palms are depicted in Bharhut and Sanchi. Palmyra palm (*Borassus flabellifer*) is shown on a medallion from Bharhut. It is a common tree in southern and eastern India, and the accuracy with which it is carved shows that the sculptors were acquainted with it. Wild date-palm (*Phoenix sylvestris*) is shown in a Sanchi sculpture. A palm, with a man standing below, is depicted at Besnagar (Fig. 180).

v1.c32.s2.2

Buddhism spread rapidly in India under the patronage of Asoka. In due course, it reached Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, Java, Viet Nam, China, Korea, Japan, Central Asia, Mongolia and Afghanistan. It had a humanizing influence on the barbarous tribes in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Mongolia. It gave them a new philosophy of life and developed their moral character. It inspired the great art of Ajanta, whose influence reached Khotan in Central Asia, and Tun Huang in China. It inspired the world's greatest monument at Borobudur in Java, which is still admired for its noble sculpture. Above all, it propagated agriculture and love for trees and gardens.

v1.c32.s2.3

Fig. 180. Palms depicted in Buddhist sculptures. 1, Palmyra-palm (Borassus flabellifer), Bharhut, second century B.C.; 2, A palm, with a man standing below, Besnagar; 3, Wild date-palm (Phoenix sylvestris), Sanchi (After R.V. Sitholey)

v1.c32.s2.4

Marshall, J.H. and Foucher, A. *The Monuments of Sanchi*, 2 Vols, London, 1939 Rapson, E.J. (Ed.) *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, Cambridge, 1922 Sastri, K.A.N. and Srinivasachari, G. *Advanced History of India*, New Delhi, 1970 Sitholey, R.V. Plants represented in Ancient Indian Sculpture, *Geophytology*, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1972 Thapar, R. *History of India*, Vol. I, Penguins, 1974

v1.c32.s2.5

Fig. 181. A Yakshi under a mango-tree. Stupa I, Sanchi, first century B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survery of India)

v1.c32.s2.6

Fig. 182. A grapevine carved on a fragment of a railing post, Bharhut, Satna District, Madhya Pradesh, second century B.C. (Courtesy: Allahabad Museum)

Linked texts (7)