It was said that Asoka, like another famous priest-king, Akhenaton (see entry), was unattractive in appearance. Another story holds that Bindusara did not care for Asoka, yet he apparently trusted his son enough to give him the job of suppressing a revolt in the city of Taxila. After that, Asoka became prince over the city of Ujjain (oo-JINE) in west-central India. Until a few years before, Ujjain had been the capital of the ancient Avanti kingdom. Centuries later Ujjain would become capital of the Gupta Empire under Candra Gupta II [see sidebar].
Bindusara died in about 272 b. c. It appears that Asoka did not assume the throne until some time afterward. It is clear that there was a power struggle, though the story that Asoka murdered 99 of his brothers—presumably sons of Bindusara through various concubines—is probably a legend. A number
Asoka's time represented one golden age in Indian history; another was the Gupta Empire (c. a. d. 320-c. a. d. 540), whose greatest ruler was Candra Gupta II (ruled c. a. d. 380-c. a. d. 415). The latter encouraged learning and the arts, and, under his reign, a variety of disciplines from literature to medicine flourished.
Among the prominent figures of the Gupta golden age was the playwright Kalidasa (kah-lee-DAH-suh; c. a. d. 340-c. A. D. 400). Though his name is hardly as well known in the West as that of Sophocles, he is viewed as the "Shakespeare of India." Yet he apparently wrote only three plays and four long poems. The most famous of his works are the Meghaduta (meg-hah-DOOT-ah), a poem translated as The Cloud Messenger, and the play Sakuntala (sah-koon-TAH-lah), or The Lost Ring.
The Cloud Messenger was much admired by the German poet Goethe
(GUHR-tuh; 1749-1832), often considered the greatest of German writers. In the poem, a god separated from his wife sends a message to her on a rain cloud, which travels across India and settles for a time over Ujjain, the Gupta capital. The style of writing in the work reflects Kalidasa's rejection of traditional Indian poetic styles, which by that time had become stale.
As for The Lost Ring, it is taken from the Mahabharata and concerns two lovers who might be compared with Shakespeare's two main characters in Romeo and Juliet. However, Kalidasa's hero and heroine do not end their story tragically but are reunited after overcoming the curse that separates them. The play was originally translated in 1789 by Sir William Jones, a British judge in Calcutta who not only brought Kalidasa to the attention of the West but aided in the discovery of the link between European and Indian languages.
Of such stories exist, all intended to convey the quite believable idea that Asoka was a ruthless leader. There are so many such tales, in fact, that they are collectively identified under the tradition of “Black Asoka," referring to the idea that before he became a Buddhist, Asoka was an evil man.
It appears that Asoka maintained a prison with an extensive network of torture chambers for dealing with his enemies. Iit is clear that he fought a number of wars, and spilled plenty of blood, in the course of securing his empire. Then, in 262 B. C., the bloodshed became too much for him.
The occasion for this abrupt about-face was his victory over the Kalinga (kah-LING-ah) people of southeastern India. In the course of the campaign, his troops captured more than
150,000 people and killed many times more, either directly or as a result of the general havoc created by the war. “Just after the taking of Kalinga,” according to one of the many inscriptions he left behind, “His Sacred Majesty began to follow Righteousness, to love Righteousness, to give instruction in Righteousness.”
World History
