Ashoka, the Mauryan Emperor, looked at the bodies strewn around the
smashed city, and at the Daya River that ran red with blood. He was
surveying the damage that his army had inflicted on the recalcitrant
Kalinga region. About 100,000 civilians were dead, as well as 10,000 of
Ashoka's soldiers.
Far from feeling the glorious rush of victory,
Ashoka felt sick and saddened. He vowed that never again would he rain
down death and destruction on other people. He would devote himself to
his Buddhist faith and practice ahimsa, or nonviolence.
This story and many others about a great emperor called Ashoka appear in ancient Vedic literature, the Asokavadana, Divyavandana and Mahvamsa. For many years, westerners considered them to be mere legend. They did not connect the Vedic ruler Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, to the stone pillars inscribed with edicts that are sprinkled all around the edges of India.
In
1915, however, archaeologists found a pillar inscription that
identified the author of those edicts, the well-known Mauryan emperor
Piyadasi or Priyadarsi ("Beloved of the Gods"), by his given name. That
name was Ashoka. The virtuous emperor from the Vedas and the law-giver
who ordered the installation of pillars inscribed with merciful laws
all over the subcontinent were the same man.
Ashoka's Early Life
In
304 BCE, the second emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, Bindusara, welcomed a
son into the world. The boy's mother Dharma was only a commoner, and
he had several older half-brothers. This baby was named Ashoka
Bindusara Maurya.
Ashoka grew up to be a bold, troublesome and
cruel young man. He was extremely fond of hunting; according to Vedic
legend, he even killed a lion using only a wooden stick. His older
half-brothers feared Ashoka, and convinced his father to post him as a
general to distant frontiers of the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka proved a
competent general, likely much to his brothers' dismay, putting down a
rebellion in the Punjabi city of Taxshila.
Aware that his brothers
viewed him as a rival for the throne, Ashoka went into exile for two
years in the neighboring country of Kalinga. While there, he fell in
love with a commoner, a fisher-woman named Kaurwaki. The two later
married.
Bindusara recalled his son to Maurya after two years to
help quell an uprising in Ujjain, the former capital of the Avanti
Kingdom. Ashoka succeeded, but was injured in the fighting. Buddhist
monks tended to the wounded prince in secret, so that his eldest
brother, the heir-apparent Susima, would not learn of Ashoka's injuries.
Their patient learned the basic tenets of Buddhism from them. A woman
from Vidisha called Devi also attended Ashoka during this period - he
fell in love with her and married her.
When Bindusara died in 275
BCE, a two-year-long war for the succession erupted between Ashoka and
his half-brothers. The Vedic sources vary on how many of Ashoka's
brothers died; one says that he killed them all, while another states
that he killed several of them. In either case, Ashoka prevailed and
became the third ruler of the Mauryan Empire.
Chandashok - Ashoka the Terrible
For
the first eight years of his reign, Ashoka waged near-constant war. He
had inherited a sizable empire, but he expanded it to include most of
the Indian subcontinent, as well as the area from the current-day
borders of Iran and Afghanistan in the west to Bangladesh and the
Burmese border in the east. Only the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka remained out of his reach, plus the kingdom of Kalinga on the northeast coast of India.
In
265, Ashoka attacked Kalinga. Although it was the homeland of his
second wife, Kaurwaki, and the king of Kalinga had sheltered Ashoka
before his accent to the throne, the Mauryan emperor gathered the
largest invasion force in Indian history to that point and launched his
assault. Kalinga fought back bravely, but in the end it was defeated
and all of its cities sacked.
Ashoka had led the invasion in
person, and he went out into the capital city of the Kalingas the
morning after his victory to survey the damage. The ruined houses and
bloodied corpses sickened the emperor, and he underwent a religious
epiphany. Although he had considered himself more or less Buddhist
prior to that day, the carnage at Kalinga led Ashoka to devote himself
to Buddhism. He vowed to practice ahimsa from that day forward.
Ashoka the Great
Had
Ashoka simply vowed to himself that he would live according to Buddhist
principles, later ages would not remember his name. However, he
published his intentions across his empire. Ashoka wrote out a series
of edicts, explaining his policies and aspirations for the empire, and
urging others to follow his enlightened example. The Edicts of King Ashoka
were carved onto pillars of stone 40 to 50 feet high, and set up all
around the edges of the Mauryan Empire as well as in the heart of
Ashoka's realm. Dozens of these pillars dot the landscapes of India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In
his edicts, Ashoka vows to care for his people like a father. He
promises neighboring people that they need not fear him; he will use
only persuasion, not violence, to win people over. Ashoka notes that he
has made available shade and fruit trees for the people, as well as
medical care for all people and animals.
His concern for living
things also appears in a ban on live sacrifices and sport hunting.
Ashoka urges his people to follow a vegetarian diet, and bans the
practice of burning forests or agricultural wastes that might harbor
wild animals. A long list of animals appears on his protected species
list, including bulls, wild ducks, squirrels, deer, porcupines and
pigeons.
Ashoka also ruled with incredible accessibility. He
notes that "I consider it best to meet with people personally." To that
end, he went on frequent tours around his empire. He also advertised
that he would stop whatever he was doing if a matter of imperial
business needed attention - even if he was having dinner or sleeping, he
urged his officials to interrupt him.
In addition, Ashoka was
very concerned with judicial matters. His attitude toward convicted
criminals was quite merciful. He banned punishments such as torture,
the putting out of people's eyes, and the death penalty. He urged
pardons for the elderly, those with families to support, etc.
Another
principle that Ashoka stressed in his edicts was respect for others.
He recommends treating not just parents, teachers and priests with
respect, but also friends and even servants.
Finally, although
Ashoka urged his people to practice Buddhist values, he fostered an
atmosphere of respect for all religions. Within his empire people
followed not only the relatively new Buddhist faith, but also Jainism, Zoroastrianism,
Greek polytheism and many other belief systems. Ashoka served as an
example of tolerance for his subjects, and his religious affairs
officers encouraged the practice of any religion.
Ashoka's Legacy
Ashoka
the Great ruled as a just and merciful king from his epiphany in 265
until his death in 232 BCE, at the age of 72. We no longer know the
names of most of his wives and children, but his twin children by his
first wife, Devi, a boy called Mahindra and a girl named Sanghamitra,
were instrumental in converting Sri Lanka to Buddhism.
After
Ashoka's death, the Mauryan Empire continued to exist for 50 years, but
it went into a gradual decline. The last Mauryan emperor was
Brhadrata, who was assassinated in 185 BCE by one of his generals,
Pusyamitra Sunga.
Although his family did not rule for long after
he was gone, Ashoka's principles and his examples lived on through the
Vedas. He is now known the world over as one of the best rulers ever to
have reigned.
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