Arthasastra The Arthasastra (Treatise on material gain), is attributed to kautilya, a minister to King candragupta MAURYA (325-297 B. C.E.). This king ruled the maurya EMPIRE from his capital of pataliputra in the lower Ganges (Ganga) Valley of India and was a contemporary of ALEXANDER THE GREAT (356-323 b. c.e). It may even have been the case that Alexander’s campaign of conquest in northwest India galvanized the first Mauryan king and his court to investigate the means of combining the many MAHAJANAPADAS, or states, that then existed in the Ganges (Ganga) Valley into one effective political unit. The Arthasastra is thus a unique treatise that documents the political philosophy advocated in India during the late fourth century b. c.e. It describes a philosophy more in harmony with Machiavelli’s than the pacifist tendency of buddhism and may reflect the influence of Western absolutism under a strong king manifested in the conquests of Alexander the Great. The Arthasastra is thus a manual of government written by a man whose objective was to secure the safe maintenance of the kingdom by establishing the proper principles. It exercised a long and important influence both in India and in other areas, such as southeast Asia, that exchanged goods and ideas with India.
ROYAL DUTIES
Kautilya’s prescriptions for successful rule center on the duties of the king, who had a long list of responsibilities. It is interesting to note the importance placed on the gathering of intelligence, as the king was urged to have regular daily meetings with his spies. The same motive is seen in Kautilya’s recommendation that the ruler allow his subjects access to his person; otherwise he would be too far removed from them and fall into the hands of a coterie of court advisers. Many other duties are also laid out: to read reports on the administration of law; to inspect army units, which are listed as the elephants, cavalry, infantry, and chariots; to plan conquests with his military leaders; and to consult the priests about the performance of rituals. Most of all, the king should display energy and resolve to all around him.
THE STATE
The treatise then turns to the seven basic components of the state. These are the king, his ministers, the territory, forts, treasury, the army, and allied states. Ministers should be well born and educated, imaginative, industrious, dignified, cultured, and determined. The boundaries of the state should be strongly defended with forts designed to make the best use of the local terrain. several types of fort are enumerated, including those in deserts, mountains, and forests and those alongside rivers. The treasury should contain gold, silver, and precious stones. The army should be well equipped and trained, loyal, experienced in battle, and prepared to suffer pain. Allies must be loyal and able to deploy their forces rapidly. Practically speaking, Kautilya inherited the fruits of many centuries of war between the rival states of the Ganges (Ganga) Valley His policy toward rivals was predicated on the means of destruction through the ruthless exercise of superior power. However, he also recognized that relations with other states involved shifting sands, requiring a cynical application of different policies depending on likely outcomes. If, for example, a rival state is more powerful, then the policy must be one of temporizing and duplicity until the moment is right to strike. If an alliance benefits the defeat of a joint enemy, then the ruler must forge one.
The ideal state in India of the fourth century b. c.e required 10 principal ministers to advise the king, including a chief priest, prime minister, army commander, judge, adviser on economic management, and ambassador. The chaplain had to be learned about the vedas and virtuous behavior but also, curiously, skilled in archery and military tactics. considerable thought was given to the role of the army commander, and his duties disclose the nature of warfare. He had, for example, to ensure that the elephants and horses were well maintained and trained but also that camels and oxen were available. The last two animals were probably used for transport. His duties included the training of those who played military music or carried the royal standards and had experience of coded signaling. He had to evaluate the quality of the missile throwers and report on the quality of the troops, how many were growing too old for combat and which men were new and inexperienced.
A formal legal system is widely regarded as an essential component of a state, and Kautilya insisted that the judges have a thorough grounding in local customs; when hearing cases, they should take account of witnesses, relevant documents, and logical conclusions. The survival of the state ultimately turned on the production of agricultural surpluses and their proper central deployment. For overseeing this vital area of activity, the king turned to his economy minister, whose responsibilities are set out in considerable detail: How much grass is available in store, for example, and how much will be needed? What are the sources of taxation, and how much wealth has been accumulated from the various sources, such as mines, forests, and agriculture? How much has been obtained from fines or recovered from robbers?
Arya In Sanskrit, the word arya means “noble.” It came to be used in Sanskrit to describe a race, with particular reference to those who allegedly invaded and conquered India. The name of the country of Iran is derived from the same root word. Arya appears in the rig-veda to distinguish between its authors and the dasa, or natives of the area conquered.
Ashrama An ashrama (ashram) is a retreat or hermitage where Hindu wise men and ascetic devotees retire and practice contemplation. A fine example of life in such a hermitage appears on a carved panel at Mamallapuram in India. Dating to the seventh to eighth centuries C. E., it shows an old holy man contemplating an image of the god Vishnu. King yashovarman (889-910) of angkor in Cambodia claimed to have founded about 100 such institutions, and his surviving foundation stelae include an account of the king’s ancestry and the rules for the occupants. The distribution of the inscriptions provides evidence for the extent of his kingdom. All are identical and prescribe, for example, that the ascetics had to wear white garments. Punishments were graded for those who failed to follow the regulations. No buildings have survived, presumably because they were constructed of wood, but it is known that a row of ashramas was constructed along the southern margin of the yashod-HARATATAKA (EASTERN BARAy) at Angkor.
Asoka (268-235 b. c.e.) Asoka, the third king of the Mau-rya Empire in India, is widely regarded as the greatest of Indian kings.
The son of Bundusara, Asoka succeeded in about 268 b. c.e. His conversion to buddhism (c. 261 b. c.e.) was felt well beyond the boundaries of his empire. During the first eight years of his reign, Asoka continued on his predecessors’ path by expanding his empire through force. His conquest of Kalinga, the area of modern Orissa, involved considerable loss of life, and his inscriptions record his feeling of remorse and his desire to embrace the pacifist tenets of Buddhism. The text of the 13th rock edict, a text inscribed in six places in India and Pakistan, makes his position clear. It refers to Asoka as the king beloved of the gods, who in the eighth year of his reign was responsible for the deaths of 100,000 people and the forced deportation of 150,000 others. After this holocaust, he took up the teachings of the dharma, the course of righteousness, and proclaimed his wish that all members of his empire live in security and peace of mind. The final lines of this edict make its principal message clear: He wished his sons and grandsons to follow his precept not to seek new territorial gains through force and consequent miseries, but only through pacifist enlightenment.
ASOKA’S INSCRIPTIONS
Asoka is renowned for the erection of a series of pillars across his empire, linked with major Buddhist foundations. His life and philosophy are recorded in a series of inscriptions he inspired, some engraved on rocks, others on enormous stone columns erected strategically across his empire. About 10 of Asoka’s columns have survived, but only two remain in their original location, at Laurya Nan-dangarh and Kolhua in Bihar state. Most inscriptions are in the brahmi script, but another script, kharoshthi, was used in the northwest. Two further inscriptions from Kandahar in Afghanistan were written in Greek and Aramaic.
The columns were embellished on the capitals with Buddhist symbols, such as the lion, and inscribed texts. The first pillar text extolled the virtues of a righteous rule for all his subjects and expressed his concern for animals.
His first rock inscription declared a ban on sacrificing animals. Having outlined the daily slaughter of stock for the palace kitchens, he stated that only deer and peacocks were currently killed and that this practice would also cease. In his second rock inscription, he recorded his concern for the health and welfare of his people and described practical measures to ensure a supply of medicinal plants and of fresh water through the digging of wells by the roads, for animals as well as people. He ordered that banyan trees be planted along roads to provide shade. Every 25 kilometers (15 mi.), the traveler along the main routes would find a rest house and water basin provided by the king.
The inscriptions of Asoka impart much information on the bureaucracy with which he administered his empire. Obviously unhappy with his officials at Tosali, the capital of the newly won province of Kalinga, he wrote warning them against improper or hasty imprisonment or torture and informed them that he would send an impartial official on a tour of inspection every fifth year to ensure fair local government. He evidently maintained viceroys, because he recorded that the princes of UJJAIN and TAXILA would also send out inspectors every three years.
The 12th rock edict outlined Asoka’s attitude toward different religious persuasions. He showed tolerance for all and described how, on his various provincial tours, he gave money and support to Hindu Brahmans (priests) and Buddhist foundations alike. In the seventh of his column inscriptions, he laid out his philosophy of government, putting particular stress on the search for righteousness and the welfare of all his people. He wished to ensure that this policy would endure.
ASOKA’S BUDDHIST FOUNDATIONS
The inscriptions of Asoka represent a major innovation in the advertisement of royal policy. The custom of engraving important information on stone was fortunately copied in both India and Southeast Asia, and the texts provide vital historic information. The king, however, was also a vigorous founder of religious establishments, and his monasteries are widely distributed across his realm. When the Chinese monk and pilgrim xuanzang (602-64) visited India, he traveled to the holiest places of Buddhism. At KUSINAGARA, where the Buddha died, he saw an enormous stupa standing 60 meters (198 ft.) high, built, he said, by Asoka. Three stupas he visited at mathura, he said, were also built by King Asoka, and he named the monks whose remains lay beneath them. At vaisali, Xuanxang noted that King Asoka had opened the relic chamber and removed eight of the nine fragments of bone before erecting one of his columns at the site, with a lion at the top.
The impact of Asoka’s enthusiastic conversion to Buddhism was felt well beyond the boundaries of his empire. The text known as the Sasanvamsappadika records his decision to send three missionaries, Gavampti, Sona, and uttara, to Southeast Asia as early as the third century B. C.E. The 13th rock edict also indicates Asoka’s wide knowledge of the outside world. He mentioned the Greek rulers of bactria and gandhara and even claimed to have converted to his path of righteousness the rulers of remote kingdoms to the west. These rulers have been identified as Antiochus II Theos of Syria (r. 261-246 B. C.E.), Ptolemy II of Egypt (r. 285-247 b. c.e.), Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia (r. 278-239 b. c.e.), Magas of Cyrene in North Africa (r. 300-258 b. c.e.) and Alexander of Spirus in Greece (r. 272-258 b. c.e.).
Further reading: Nikam, N. A., and McKeon, R., eds. The Edicts of Asoka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959; Seneviratna, A., ed. King Asoka and Buddhism. Seattle: Pariyatti Press, 1995; Strong, J. S. Legend of King Asoka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002.
Aston, W. G. (1841-1911) William George Aston was one of the greatest Western scholars of Japan and Japanese history and an important translator of early Japanese.
Born in Northern Ireland, he became an official translator to the British legation in Japan. His most important contribution to understanding of early Japanese culture was his translation of the NlHONGl, the classic document that recorded the history of the archipelago until 697 C. E. This was a major undertaking because the text was then available only in early Chinese characters and early Japanese characters adapted from Chinese.
Asuka-dera The Asuka-dera, also known as the Hokoji, is the oldest recorded monumental religious structure in Japan. The Buddhist temple and monastery constructed at Asuka, the capital of the yamato state of Japan from 593 C. E., was built by order of Soga-na-Umako, the power behind the throne of Empress Suiko (r. 592-628).
In 593 C. E., the capital of Yamato had moved to Asuka in the southern Nara Basin on western Honshu Island. After the establishment of the Sui dynasty in China (581 C. E.), the states of Korea and Japan paid tribute to the Chinese court, and Japan in particular underwent a cultural metamorphosis known as the Asuka enlightenment. This saw the acceptance from mainland Asia of buddhism and the introduction of Korean specialists in the construction of Buddhist structures based on Chinese models. During the period of civil strife that led up to Suiko’s enthronement, Soga-na-Umako had called on the Buddha for support and protection at a time when Buddhist priests were valued for their powers of divination and miracle working. He promised at that time that, if politically successful, he would have a Buddhist temple constructed. Thus the Asuka-dera was conceived.
The NlHONGl, a Japanese historical text dating to 720 C. E., recorded the details of its construction. The first step was to choose an auspicious location, which was the house of a shaman, or magician. After his residence was removed in 588, construction commenced in 592 and was completed four months later. The historic records recount the temple’s fine wall hangings and the bronze image of the Buddha, both of which were put in place before the temple was dedicated in 606. The shrine was lavishly patronized by the court until the palace moved farther north in the Nara Basin; the temple was badly damaged by fire in 1196.
Excavations in 1956-57 provided the plan of the principal buildings. The central court, or garan, within a surrounding wall, incorporated cloisters and the pagoda for housing a relic of the Buddha, as well as three symmetrically placed kondo, or halls, which had been gilded. The placement of these three halls to house statues and paintings of deities is unique in Japan. The central kondo and the pagoda were raised on square-cut stones; the other two stood on two levels of small stone foundations. A lecture hall lay beyond the northern cloister, together with a library for storing sacred texts and a bell tower.
Asura In Indian mythology, an asura was a demon. Such creatures became an important part of the imagery of ANGKOR in Cambodia. An asura with a broken spear, indicating his defeat, can be seen on an early relief at the BAKONG temple. A multiple-headed asura also appears on the famous relief of angkor wat showing the churning OF THE OCEAN OF MILK to obtain the elixir of immortality, or AMRITA. The same site also contains the relief of an asura locked in battle with a monkey in a scene of the Battle of Lanka, a story derived from the Indian epic the Ramayana. Perhaps the best known of all such images, however, are those at the entrance gates to angkor thom, where 54 statues are seen holding a multiple-headed divine snake known as a naga.
Atranjikhera Atranjikhera is a prehistoric and historic settlement with a long period of occupation, on the bank of the Kali Nadi River, a tributary of the Ganges (Ganga), in northern India. The site was first identified by SIR ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM in 1862, while he was tracing the route of the seventh-century Chinese pilgrim XUAN-ZANG. Its importance lies in the results of excavations that began in 1962, which revealed that the site was occupied from about 1200 b. c.e. to at least the third century C. E.
Spanning the prehistoric into the period of the early MAHAJANAPADAS, or states, in this region, the extensive remains of material culture reveal how iron smelting and the local forging of artifacts contributed to increasing settlement size and social complexity. The early use of iron belonged to Period III (1200-600 b. c.e.), and the output included spears, knives, and tongs, which, in addition to the presence of slag, also indicate local iron working. Iron tools would have facilitated the clearance of dense vegetation and the establishment of fields for the cultivation of rice, wheat, and barley. Domestic cattle were also kept.
Between 600 and 350 b. c.e., the period that saw the rise of the mahajanapadas, further advances were made in the manufacture of iron plowshares, hoes, and sickles. The recovery of unlined wells also indicates the possibility of IRRIGATION. The growth of city life up to the first century C. E. encompassed the construction of defensive walls within which lay substantial houses of fired bricks, granaries, a drainage system, and seals and coins of the KUSHAN empire. Few sites illustrate so clearly the increasing forces of social complexity during this period in the Ganges (Ganga) Valley.
Avalokitesvara Avalokitesvara is one of the most important of the Buddhist bodhisattvas, beings who seek bodhi, or enlightenment. They form a vital component in the Mahayana school of buddhism. Avalokitesvara is a metaphysical creation originating in the Buddha’s expression of compassion. The precise meaning of the name is hard to express in English, but it involves the notion of the Lord of Compassion. Avalok in SANSKRIT means “to look out on,” while isvara means “lord.” Avalokitesvara came to command a preeminent position in Mahayana Buddhist worship as a being with all the qualities of a world savior, given the name samanatamukha, meaning “omnipresent.” Some texts even make it clear that he was regarded as being supreme over the Buddhas. His worship spread widely through the Buddhist world, including China, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
See also mahayana buddhism.
Avanti Avanti is described in Buddhist texts as one of the 16 MAHAJANAPADAS, or great states, that struggled for supremacy before the establishment of the Indian maurya EMPIRE (325 B. C.E.), with its capital at ujjain.
Ayaz-kala Ayaz-kala is a major settlement in Khwarizm (Chorasmia), the land dominated by the Amu Dar’ya River south of the Aral Sea. Little is known of the internal history of this agriculturally rich area, with widespread IRRIGATION works. It was intermittently taken by the Sassanians and, on other occasions, strongly under the influence first of the kushans, then of the heph-THALITE HUNS. During the fifth to seventh centuries, Ayaz-kala included a palace of the ruler of Khwarizm, a strongly walled fort, and a residential area.
Ay Khanum Ay Khanum is an ancient Greek city occupying a naturally defended site at the junction of the Amu Dar’ya and Kokcha Rivers in northern Afghanistan. It was possibly founded in about 330 b. c.e. by Alexander THE GREAT or a ruler of the early Seleucid empire and grew to be a major center under the Seleucids. Ay Khanum in Turkish means “Lady Moon” and is the name of the local village. Its original name is not known for certain, but it was probably the city known as Alexandria Oxiana, which is described in the Geography of Ptolemy (second century C. E.). An alternative name is Eucratidia, after King Eucratides, who is known to have ruled there in the second century b. c.e. The city was ideally placed to offer defense against any group attempting to enter BAC-TRIA from the northeast.
The names of bactrian Greeks who once lived in this city have survived in graffiti and inscriptions. Some family names suggest an origin in Asia Minor, but others are typical of Greece itself and of Macedonia. The settlers clearly planned for a long stay: The stone for some of the columns was quarried 50 kilometers (30 mi.) to the southwest. The major buildings were constructed of blocks of stone joined with metal dowel pins sealed with lead. Ay Khanum was a capital city, and some of the Greeks living there would have served in the administration, while others would have been provided with agricultural land. Other occupants of the city, again as indicated by family names surviving as graffiti, were native Bactri-ans. Greek, however, was the official language, and there is compelling evidence for regular contact with the Greek homeland. Thus Clearchus of Soli visited Ay Khanum when traveling to India about 275 b. c.e. and commissioned an inscription repeating the maxims for leading a good and worthy life, which were to be found at Delphi in Greece.
World History
