In 326 bce Alexander the Great led his armies into northwestern India. Alexander was not pushing into unknown territory. He was consolidating his victory over the Persians who, for at least two centuries prior to the arrival of Alexander, had received tribute and support from the northwestern portions of India (Briant 2002; McCrindle [1926] 2000; Thapar 2002). Alexander’s campaign in India lasted only a few years. With his death, following shortly after his departure from India, the provinces he had established slowly collapsed. Alexander himself had little impact on India. Rather than a singular moment of contact, Alexander’s campaign in India was only part of a long-standing connection between India, Persia, and the Mediterranean. The movement of both goods and ideas between these distant regions did not begin with Alexander, nor did they end with his departure.
Alexander’s campaign in northwestern India did have one important consequence—it cleared away rivals, allowing Chandragupta Maurya to establish the Mauryan Empire in the area recently held by the Persians and Greeks (Thapar 2002). Over the next two centuries the Mauryan Empire expanded under several subsequent kings, consolidating power in the Gangetic Plain, with areas of significant influence in the peninsula. The southward expansion of the Mauryas is critical to the spread of northern religions and cultural practices into the peninsula beginning in the third century bce (Srinivas 1966).
By 321 bce Chandragupta Maurya had defeated his main rivals, the Nandas. He continued his conquest of the Gangetic Plain until 297 bce, when he abdicated the throne to his son, Bindusara, and became a Jain monk. Bindusara continued his father’s military campaigns, principally in South India. Between them, Chandragupta and Bindusara successfully established the first large empire in India. Despite this, the specific borders and forms of imperial control established by Chandragupta and Bindusara are not clear. For the most part, what is known of the Mauryan Empire must be inferred from the legacy of their successor, Ashoka.
Ashoka became king in c. 272 bce and ruled for roughly 40 years. His historical importance is derived from the large number of inscriptions he had incised on rock faces and pillars he had erected throughout India (see Figure 3.2) and detailed accounts of Ashoka’s life in Sri Lankan and other texts (e. g., Ashokavadana [Strong 1983]). Critically, while the epigraphic and textual accounts agree on some elements of Ashoka’s biography, they differ on many others (see Strong 1983:ch. 1). The textual accounts of Ashoka provide a great deal of specific biographical detail about Ashoka’s
Life but, like historical accounts of the Buddha, they were collated and redacted several centuries after Ashoka’s death. Overall, the textual sources are most useful for understanding how Ashoka was remembered in later times, while his inscriptions provide a record of his actions in the third century BCE (Strong 1983; Thapar 1997, 2002). This does not mean that Ashokan inscriptions should be read as a simple history of Ashoka’s life. With the exception of those inscriptions carved in South India, Ashokan inscriptions were written in the local languages of the area in which they are located. For this reason, it is likely that Ashoka intended them to communicate his proclamations to local audiences rather than simply to Mauryan officials (Sugandhi 2003). This suggests that Ashokan inscriptions are best viewed as legitimations (see Chapter 2)—statements intended to legitimize Ashoka’s authority in specific ways.
In 260 BCE Ashoka conquered the Kalinga, a kingdom in what is now coastal Orissa. In the 13th Major Rock Inscription, Ashoka states that “[o]n conquering the Kalinga the Beloved of the Gods felt remorse, for, when an independent country is conquered the slaughter, death, and deportation of the people is extremely grievous to the Beloved of the Gods, and weighs heavily on his mind” (Thapar 1997:255; see Box 3.1).6 Other inscriptions and textual sources document that the human suffering caused by this campaign led Ashoka to enter a period of religious contemplation and, at least according to the textual sources, convert to Buddhism. For the rest of his life, Ashoka is said to have engaged in numerous beneficial acts, including constructing hospitals, wells, and inns for the betterment of his subjects, redistributing relics of the Buddha from seven ancestral stupas to thousands of newly constructed stupas, and making large donations to the Buddhist sangha.
The Pali Canon of Sri Lanka also records that Ashoka convened a large council of Buddhist monks designed to cleanse the sangha of disreputable monks, to clarify and unify divergent interpretations of the Dharma, and to reduce the schisms that were developing between rival Buddhist monastic orders. An inscription found at several Buddhist sites supports this textual account. In the Schism inscription, Ashoka proclaimed that, “[w]hoever creates a schism in the Order, whether monk or nun, is to be dressed in white garments, and to be put in a place not inhabited by monks or nuns” (Thapar 1997:262; see Box 3.1). According to the Pali Canon, the council concluded by dispatching missionaries to preach the
Box 3.1
SELECT ASHOKAN INSCRIPTIONS (THAPAR 1997:APPENDIX 5)
12TH MAJOR ROCK EDICT
The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi [Ashoka], honors all sects and both ascetics and laymen, with gifts and various forms of recognition. But the Beloved of the Gods does not consider gifts or honor to be as important as the advancement of the essential doctrine of all sects. This progress of the essential doctrine takes many forms, but its basis is the control of one’s speech, so as not to extol one’s own sect or disparage another’s on unsuitable occasions, or at least to do so only mildly on certain occasions. On each occasion one should honor another man’s sect, for by doing so one increases the influence of one’s own sect and benefits that of the other man; while by doing otherwise one diminishes the influence of one’s own sect and harms the other man’s. Again, whosoever honors his own sect or disparages that of another man, wholly out of devotion to his own, with a view to showing it in a favorable light, harms his own sect even more seriously. Therefore, concord is to be commended, so that men may hear one another’s principles and obey them. This is the desire of the Beloved of the Gods, that all sects should be well-informed, and should teach that which is good, and that everywhere their adherents should be told, ‘The Beloved of the Gods does not consider gifts or honor to be as important as the progress of the essential doctrine of all sects.’ Many are concerned with this matter—the officers of Dhamma, the women’s officers, the managers of the state farms, and other classes of officers. The result of this is the increased influence of one’s own sect and glory to Dhamma.
13TH MAJOR ROCK EDICT
When he had been consecrated eight years the Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, conquered Kalinga. A hundred and fifty thousand people were deported, a hundred thousand were killed and many times that number perished. Afterwards, now that Kalinga was annexed, the Beloved of the Gods very earnestly practiced Dhamma, desired Dhamma, and taught Dhamma. On conquering Kalinga the Beloved of the Gods felt remorse, for, when an independent country is conquered the slaughter, death, and deportation of the people is extremely grievous to the Beloved of the Gods, and weighs heavily on his mind. What is even more deplorable to the Beloved of the Gods, is that those who dwell there, whether Brahmans, sravanas, or those of other sects, or householders who show obedience to their superiors, obedience to mother and father, obedience to their teachers and behave well and
Devotedly towards their friends, acquaintances, colleagues, relatives, slaves, and servants—all suffer violence, murder, and separation from their loved ones. Even those who are fortunate to have escaped, and whose love is undiminished [by the brutalizing effect of war], suffer from the misfortunes of their friends, acquaintances, colleagues and relatives. This participation of all men in suffering, weighs heavily on the mind of the Beloved of the Gods. Except among the Greeks, there is no land where the religious orders of Brahmans and sramanas are not to be found, and there is no land anywhere where men do not support one sect or another. Today if a hundredth or a thousandth part of those people who were killed or died or were deported when Kalinga was annexed were to suffer similarly, it would weigh heavily on the mind of the Beloved of the Gods.
The Beloved of the Gods believes that one who does wrong should be forgiven as far as it is possible to forgive him. And the Beloved of the Gods conciliates the forest tribes of his empire, but he warns them that he has power even in his remorse, and he asks them to repent, lest they be killed. For the Beloved of the Gods wishes that all beings should be unharmed, self-controlled, calm in mind, and gentle.
The Beloved of the Gods considers victory by Dhamma to be the foremost victory. And moreover the Beloved of the Gods has gained this victory on all his frontiers to a distance of six hundred yojanas [i. e., about 1,500 miles], where reigns the Greek king named Antiochus, and beyond the realm of that Antiochus in the lands of the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander; and in the south over the Cholas and Pandyas as far as Ceylon. Likewise here in the imperial territories among the Greeks and the Kambojas, Nabhakas and Nabhapanktis, Bhojas and Pitinikas, Andhras and Parindas, everywhere the people follow the Beloved of the Gods’ instructions in Dhamma. Even where the envoys of the Beloved of the Gods have not gone, people hear of his conduct according to Dhamma, his precepts and his instruction in Dhamma, and they follow Dhamma and will continue to follow it.
What is obtained by this is victory everywhere, and everywhere victory is pleasant. This pleasure has been obtained through victory by Dhamma—yet it is but a slight pleasure, for the Beloved of the Gods only looks upon that as important in its results which pertains to the next world. This inscription of Dhamma has been engraved so that any sons or great grandsons that I may have should not think of gaining new conquests, and in whatever victories they may gain should be satisfied with patience and light punishment. They should only consider conquest by Dhamma to be a true conquest, and delight in Dhamma should be their whole delight, for this is of value in both this world and the next.
(continued)
BHABRA INSCRIPTION
The king of Magadha, Piyadassi, greets the Order and wishes it prosperity and freedom from care. You know Sirs, how deep is my respect for and faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha [i. e., the Buddhist creed]. Sirs, whatever was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well spoken. And Sirs, allow me to tell you what I believe contributes to the long survival of the Buddhist Dhamma. These sermons on Dhamma, Sirs—the Excellence of the Discipline, the Lineage of the Noble One, the Future Fears, the Verses of the Sage, the Sutra of Silence, the Questions of Upatissa, and the Admonition spoken by the Lord Buddha to Rihula on the subject of false speech—these sermons on the Dhamma, Sirs, I desire that many monks and nuns should hear frequently and meditate upon, and likewise laymen and laywomen. I am having this engraved Sirs, so that you may know what I desire.
RUMMINDEI PILLAR INSCRIPTION
The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, when he had been consecrated twenty years, came in person and reverenced the place where Buddha Sakyamuni was born. He caused a stone enclosure to be made and a stone pillar to be erected. As the Lord was born here in the village of Lumbini, he has exempted it from tax, and fixed its contribution [i. e., of grain] at one-eighth.
NIGALISAGAR PILLAR INSCRIPTION (PARTIALLY DAMAGED)
The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, when he had been consecrated fourteen years, increased the stupa of Buddha Konakamana to double [its former size] . . . And when he had been consecrated. . . years he came in person, worshipped. . . brought. . .
SCHISM EDICT
The Beloved of the Gods orders the officers of Kausambi/Pata[liputra] thus:
No one is to cause dissention in the Order. The Order of monks and nuns has been united, and this unity should last for as long as my sons and great grandsons, and the moon and the sun. Whoever creates a schism in the Order, whether monk or nun, is to be dressed in white garments, and to be put in a place not inhabited by monks or nuns. For it is my wish that the Order should remain united and endure for long. This is to be made known to the Order of monks and the Order of nuns. Thus says the Beloved of the Gods: You must keep one copy of this document and place it in your meeting hall, and give one copy to the laity. The laymen must come on every uposatha day [day of confession and penance] to endorse this order. The same applies to special officers who must also regularly attend the uposatha, and endorse this order, and make it known. Throughout your district you must circulate it exactly according to this text. You must also have this precise text circulated in all the fortress districts [under military control].
Dharma throughout the world. It is through this final act that Buddhism reached Sri Lanka.
Whatever the specific content of the varying textual accounts of his life, Ashoka is remembered as a prototypical divine king (chakravartin). Several scholars, however, have challenged the veracity of the textual accounts of Ashoka and the traditional histories based on them (Strong 1983; Thapar 1997). As argued by Strong, the textual accounts of Ashoka were not intended to be historical in the common sense of the word, but rather are best understood as legends. The authors of these legends intended them to illustrate the principles of Buddhism more than they intended them to accurately portray Ashoka’s biography. This insight leads to an alternative way to read Ashokan inscriptions. Rather than assume that Ashoka was a Buddhist, and that all his proclamations were intended to promote Buddhism, it is better to step back and let the content of the inscriptions speak for themselves (Thapar 1997). In this light, it appears that Ashoka was not solely a proponent of Buddhism. While a small body of his inscriptions (e. g., the Schism Inscription, the Bhabra Inscription, the Rummindei Pillar Inscription, and the Nigalisagar Pillar Inscription; see Box 3.1) may have been intended to promote Buddhism, the greater number are directed toward the creation of an imperial ideology that fostered a more inclusive empire (Strong 1983, 1994; Thapar 1997).
In the 12th Major Rock Inscription, Ashoka makes clear his view that a ruler should support all of the religions within his domain, stating “The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, honors all sects and both ascetics and laymen, with gifts and various forms of recognition” (Thapar 1997:255; see Box 3.1). While a preference for Buddhism may be present in a few inscriptions, Ashoka advanced a more generalized conception of Dharma in the majority of his edicts. Specifically, he advocated pacifism, vegetarianism, and respect for family and authority (e. g., 13th Major Rock Inscription; see Box 3.1). Ashoka’s use of the term Dharma, while greatly influenced by Buddhist thought, had resonance throughout most of the religions of India (Strong 1983, 1994; Thapar 1997, 2002). In this sense, most Ashokan inscriptions were nonsectarian. It should also be noted that these broad concepts would have served imperial interests well. In essence, they promoted activities such as pacifism and respect for authority, which eased the process of governance. In this sense, Ashokan inscriptions can be productively viewed as legitimations. They were not, however, Ashoka’s only legitimations. Rather than discuss this further here, I will hold off until the full range of Ashoka’s legitimations has been introduced.
Ashokan inscriptions also provide some information on the political structure and history of the Mauryan Empire. Several inscriptions record embassies and trade missions to Greece, Syria, and Egypt. The inscriptions also record the names of territories not under Mauryan control, principally several in the extreme south. They record the existence of Mauryan provinces, tax collectors, and courts. Together all of these references suggest that the Mauryan Empire aspired to be a strong, centralized state, though it is likely that these aspirations were met only in North India, with Mauryan control of the South far more ephemeral. After the death of Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire gradually diminished in power, with the final Mauryan king assassinated in 185 bce.
World History
