AÇOKA OF MAGADHA.
The Brahmans had reason to expect favourable effects from the changes
they had made in their doctrine and ethics. They had taken account of
the desire for the worship of more real and living deities, and in order
to satisfy this they had pushed Brahman into the background; they were
zealous in giving tangible shape to the benefits which their deities had
bestowed upon men; they ascribed the best results to pilgrimages, and if
on the one hand they intensified the merits and efficacy of penance,
they allowed on the other hand the merit of works to fall into the
background, and moderated asceticism. They sought to reconcile the
elements of Buddhist speculation with their ancient system, and
increased the circle of the men admitted to salvation. In the Yoga they
had as a fact found a deeper solution of the problem of the liberation
of the Individual than Buddha had pointed out in his doctrine. Then it
happened that so far from obtaining the assistance and support from the
state which the new law claimed, the power of the throne which ruled all
India ranged itself on the opposite side.
As we have seen, Chandragupta's great kingdom was maintained in its full
extent by his son Vindusara, and the relations to the West became more
extensive under his reign. When Vindusara was in his last sickness, his
son Açoka, the viceroy of Ujjayini, hastened to Palibothra, as the
Buddhists inform us, possessed himself of the throne, and caused his
brothers to be put to death, with the exception of one born from the
same mother as himself.[769] Like his father Vindusara, he daily fed
60,000 Brahmans, ruled with a severe and cruel hand, and himself carried
out the execution of those who had incurred his anger. After three years
of this savage conduct he was converted, according to the account of the
Singhalese, by Nigrodha the son of Sumana, one of the brothers murdered
by him, to whom the Sthaviras had granted the initiation of the novice
(p. 465). According to the account of the northern Buddhists, a Buddhist
Samudra, a merchant of Çravasti, who had come to Palibothra, was thrown
at Açoka's order into a vessel full of boiling fat and water. Samudra
felt no pain, and when the fire under the kettle could not be kindled by
any means, the king was summoned to see the marvel. This sight and
Samudra's exhortation converted the king to Buddhism. Açoka entreated
the holy man to forgive him his sinful acts, took his refuge in the law
of the Enlightened, and promised to fill the earth with Chaityas
(monuments) in honour of Buddha. He caused a large monastery, the
Açokarama-Vihara, to be built for the Bhikshus at Palibothra,[770] and
instructed his viceroys to erect viharas in all his cities. The relics
of Buddha, which had been divided after his death and placed in eight
monuments (p. 365), Açoka caused to be taken away; only the part which
the Koçalas had received from Ramagrama and concealed there, remained
untouched. The other relics of the Enlightened were divided into 84,000
parts, and placed in cases of gold, silver, crystal, and lapis-lazuli,
so that each of the great, middle-sized, and small cities in the kingdom
of Açoka might receive a relic of Buddha. In order to preserve these,
84,000 stupas, _i.e._ domes with coverings over them, together with as
many viharas, were built at Açoka's command.[771] Thus the king adorned
the surface of the earth with beautiful stupas, which were like the
summits of the mountains, and furnished them with precious stones,
parasols, and standards,[772] and travelled to every place where Buddha
had stayed and preached, and announced his determination to honour these
places also by monuments. In all the cities of the kingdom the law of
the Enlightened was proclaimed in the name of the king;[773] the son of
the king, Mahendra, and his daughter Sanghamitra, who was born to him
before his accession to the throne, renounced the world and received the
consecration of the mendicant, the son in the twentieth, the daughter in
the eighteenth year of her age; even Tishya, the brother of Açoka, who
alone had been spared, became a Bhikshu, and entered the Açokarama.[774]
As errors had crept in and the true law was not observed everywhere
in the viharas, the king took the advice of the Sthavira
Maudgaliputra,[775] sat on the same seat with him, and assembled in
council the orthodox and heterodox Bhikshus. When the purity of the
sacred law had again been established by the assembly, Maudgaliputra
perceived that the time had come to spread abroad the doctrine of the
Enlightened. He sent the Sthavira Mahadeva into the land of Mahisha (a
region on the Narmada);[776] Mahadharmarakshita into the land of
Maharashtra (the upper Godavari); Dharmarakshita into the land of
Aparantaka,[777] Çona and Uttara into the gold-district of Suvarnabhumi;
Madhyama and Kaçyapa into the Himavat; and Madhyantika into the land of
Cashmere and the Gandharas. Mahendra, the king's son, set out in person
to preach the good law in Lanka, when Açoka had explained to the envoys,
whom Devanampriya-Tishya, the king of Lanka, had sent to him at
Palibothra, that the king might enlighten his spirit and seek refuge
with the best means of salvation, even as he (Açoka) had sought refuge
with Buddha and the Dharma (law) and the Sangha (community). When
Mahendra arrived at Ceylon, Devanampriya-Tishya received him hospitably,
gave him the garden of Mahamegha near the metropolis Anuradhapura for a
habitation, and there built him a vihara.[778] He converted the
inhabitants of Lanka by thousands. At his request Açoka sent him the
alms-jar of Buddha, and his right shoulder bone, which the king of Lanka
deposited in a stupa, built on Mount Missaka, near Anuradhapura, and
Mahendra's sister Sanghamitra followed her brother to Lanka with eleven
other initiated women, in order to convey there a branch of the sacred
fig-tree of Gaya, under which enlightenment was vouchsafed to Buddha (p.
339). Mahendra received five hundred Kshatriyas of the island into the
sacred order; Sanghamitra initiated five hundred maidens and as many
women of the royal palace as mendicants; and when the branch was
planted in the soil of the garden of Mahamegha, it grew up into a great
tree. Açoka daily supported 60,000 Bhikshus by alms,[779] and during the
rainy season, 300,000 religious persons and novices; and gave all his
treasures, his ministers, his kingdom, his wives, and finally himself to
the assembly of the Aryas.[780]
Such is the account of Açoka given in the tradition of the Buddhists. We
can establish the fact that he succeeded his father on the throne of
Magadha in the year 263 B.C. and retained it till 226 B.C.[781] His
inscriptions, the oldest which have come down to us, enable us to test
more closely the narration of the Buddhists, who had every reason to
honour the memory of the great king, who became a convert to their
religion, and gave it a pre-eminent position throughout his vast empire.
Both in the neighbourhood of the modern Peshawur, at Kapur-i-Giri, to
the north of Cabul, and near Girnar (Girinagara) on the peninsula of
Guzerat, and on the rocks of Dhauli in the neighbourhood of
Bhuvaneçvara, the metropolis of Orissa, near Khalsi on the right bank of
the Yamuna, at Delhi (the ancient Indraprastha), at Allahabad, Bakhra,
and Bhabra in the neighbourhood of the ancient Palibothra, the modern
Patna, and finally at Mathiah and Radhya,[782] in the valley of the
upper Gandaki on the borders of Nepal, we find inscriptions of this
king. Some are hewn in the rocks, others engraved on separate monolithic
pillars, about forty feet in height; pillars of the law they are called
by him who erected them. Carefully rounded and smoothed they carry above
the capital of beautiful pendent lotus leaves, on a square slab, lions
of excellent execution, without doubt the symbol of the lion of the
tribe of the Çakyas, of Çakyasinha, Buddha. Two pillars of this kind,
the one entire the other broken, are at Delhi; the other four are at
Allahabad, Bakhra, Mathiah, and Radhya. If Açoka caused inscriptions to
be engraved at Peshawur, beyond the Indus, the regions which Seleucus
had given up to Chandragupta must have been retained by Vindusara and
Açoka. The inscriptions on the peninsula of Guzerat (they speak of
buildings at Çirinagara which Açoka had caused to be erected there by
his viceroy Tuhuspa),[783] and those at Bhuvaneçvara, on the mouths of
the Mahanadi, as well as those on the borders of Nepal, prove that
Açoka's dominion reached from the Himalayas to the mouths of the Narmada
and Mahanadi. According to the tradition of Cashmere Açoka reigned over
that land also, extended the metropolis, Çirinagara, built two palaces
there, caused a lofty Chaitya to be erected, and covered Mount Çushkala
near Çirinagara with stupas.[784] The inscriptions of Açoka himself
inform us that he carried on war against the land of Kalinga in the
south of Orissa, on the lower course of the Godavari (p. 410), and
subjugated the inhabitants to his power;[785] and that he ruled over
the Gandharas, Cambojas and Yamunas, the Rashtrikas and the Petenikas.
Under the name of Cambojas are comprised the Aryas on the right bank of
the Indus. To the south as far down as the Cabul, the Yavanas are
evidently the Greeks, with whom Alexander had peopled the three cities
called after him, which he founded in Arachosia (on the Arghandab and
the Turnuk, where the modern Kandahar and Ghazna stand), and on the
southern slope of the Hindu Kush at the entrance of the path leading to
the north into Bactria.[786] The Rashtrikas are the inhabitants of the
coast of Guzerat, the Petenikas are the inhabitants of the city and land
of Paithana on the upper Godavari.[787] Hence the dominion of Açoka
extended from Kandahar, Ghazna, and the Hindu Kush, as far as the mouth
of the Ganges, from Cashmere down to the upper and lower course of the
Godavari.
According to his inscriptions the influence of Açoka extended even
beyond these wide limits. At the boundaries of the earth, so we are
told, were to be found the two cures established by him, the cure for
men and the cure for animals. Wherever healing herbs, roots, and fruit
trees were not in existence, they were brought and planted by his order,
and wells were dug by the wayside. This was done among the Cholas and
Pidas, in the kingdom of Keralaputra, and on Tamraparni (Ceylon). Even
Antiyaka, the king of the Yavanas, and four other kings, Turamaya,
Antigona, Maga, and Alissanda, "had followed the precept of the king
beloved of heaven," _i.e._ of Açoka.[788] The Cholas and Pidas lay to
the south of the Deccan, the former on the upper Krishna, the latter on
the Palaru. Keralaputra, _i.e._ son of Kerala,[789] is the ruler of the
state founded by Brahmans on the southern half of the Malabar coast (p.
368). It is clear from this, no less than from the conquest of Kalinga
by Açoka, how successful in the times of the earliest rulers of the
house of the Mauryas, was the power of Arian India collected in that
kingdom in forcing its way to the south, both on the coasts and in the
interior of the Deccan; and at the same time these inscriptions confirm
the statements of Singhalese tradition about the connection in which
Açoka stood with this island. They also show us that Açoka not only
maintained but extended the relations into which his grandfather had
entered with the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, and his father with the
kingdom of the Ptolemies. Açoka is not only in connection with Antiyaka,
_i.e._ with his neighbour Antiochus, who sat on the throne from 262 to
247 B.C., and with Turamaya, _i.e._ with Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt
(285-246 B.C.), but also with Antigonus Gonnatas of Macedonia (278-258
B.C.), with Alissanda, _i.e._ Alexander of Epirus (272-258 B.C.), and
even with Magas, king of Cyrene. The Seleucidæ, it is true, had reason
to keep on a good footing with the powerful king of India; and the
Ptolemies took a lively interest in the trade of India and Egypt. But
the kings of Macedonia, Epirus, and Cyrene were unconcerned with such
matters. It is mere oriental extravagance that Açoka causes these
princes to obey his commands, though the fact that Açoka is acquainted
with Epirus and Cyrene shows how greatly the horizon of the Indians had
extended since the time that Alexander trod the Panjab. Not merely were
these lands of the distant west known, Açoka was in connection with
them. Ambassadors were sent to their princes and are said to have
received the assurance that no hindrance would be placed in the way of
the preaching of the doctrine of Buddha.[790]
The inscriptions of Açoka contradict the tradition which represents him
as becoming a convert to the doctrine of Buddha in the third year of his
reign. It is possible that he may have shown himself favourable to the
Buddhists a few years after his accession; but it is clear from the
inscriptions at Delhi that he did not openly profess their doctrine till
after long consideration, and the inscriptions at Girnar inform us that
he took this step in the tenth year after his consecration, _i.e._ no
doubt, after his accession, consequently in the year 254 B.C., and that
he did not take it without special regard to the ancient religion and
the Brahmans. The king, we are told in that inscription, was no longer
given up to the chase of animals, but to the chase of the law, to making
presents to Brahmans and Çramanas, to searching out and proclaiming the
law. This conversion is said to have been announced by sound of drum,
with trains of festal cars, elephants, and fires; many divine forms were
also displayed to the people.[791] In an edict published two years later
Açoka gives command that in the kingdom which he has conquered and the
territories in union with him assemblies shall be held in every fifth
year, at which the laws are to be read and explained: obedience to
father and mother, liberality to the nearest relations and friends, to
Brahmans and Çramanas, economy, avoidance of calumny and the slaying of
any living creature; after this confessions were to be made.[792] These
are, as we have seen, the fundamental ethical rules of the Enlightened.
In Buddha's doctrine good actions come from the feelings and heart; the
right feeling of the heart is to show sympathy and pity to all living
creatures, and to alleviate their lot. This precept also Açoka was at
pains to fulfil; in all his inscriptions he calls himself not Açoka but
Devanampraiya Priyadarçin, _i.e._ the man of loving spirit beloved by
the gods.
Though the doctrine of Buddha had received a firm basis immediately
after the death of the master by the collection of his sayings, and the
rules of ethics and discipline had been gathered together at greater
length and in an authentic form at the synod of Vaiçali in 433 B.C.,
different tendencies and views inevitably arose among the believers as
time went on. Some kept strictly to the sayings of the master, the
principles of the synod; others commented on the traditions, and deduced
consequences from the principles given. The speculative basis of the
doctrine gave sufficient occasion to further research and meditation,
and hence to the formation of different schools, which as they rose
became rivals. The school of the Sautrantikas acknowledged only the
authority of the sutras, the sayings of the master collected at the
first synod, and abandoned any independent speculation. The school of
the Vaibhashikas, _i.e._ the school of dilemma, drew speculative
consequences from tradition, and ascribed canonical value to
philosophical treatises (_abhidarma_), which were thought to come from
the immediate disciples of Buddha, more especially from his son Rahula
and from Çariputra. To these were added serious disputes on the
discipline. The Bhikshus of Vaiçali who had been excluded from the
community of the faithful by the second synod, are said to have adhered
to their explanation of the discipline, and to have supported it by
corresponding principles. This teaching of theirs, and the more lax
observance of duties, they naturally explained to be the true doctrine
of Buddha, and found adherents. At any rate we may easily see, that in
the first half of the third century two hostile parties stood opposed in
the Buddhist Church, the orthodox party, the party of the Sthaviras, and
their opponents, who were denoted by the name Maha-Sanghikas, _i.e._
adherents to the great assembly. The more lax discipline which they
preached, the more convenient mode of life which they permitted, are
said to have brought numerous followers to this party. Brahmans are said
to have taken the yellow robe without seeking for consecration, to have
settled themselves in the monasteries, and filled everything with
confusion and heresy.[793] It is, no doubt, credible that when Açoka
had openly gone over to the doctrine of Buddha, when he caused it to be
preached with the authority of the state, and gave valuable gifts to the
clergy, Brahmans would enter the viharas for other than spiritual
reasons. We may further concede to tradition that it was Maudgaliputra,
the head of the Açokarama, the monastery founded by Açoka at Palibothra,
who caused a new synod to be assembled in order to establish the
discipline and put an end to disputes. That such a synod did meet in the
year 247 B.C. is proved by a letter which Açoka sent to this meeting in
the seventeenth year of his reign at Palibothra; it has been preserved
for us in the inscription of Bhabra (p. 525). "King Priyadarçin"--so the
letter runs--"greets the assembly of Magadha, and wishes it light labour
and prosperity. It is well known how great is my faith and reverence for
Buddha, for the law and the community (_sangha_). All that the blessed
Buddha has said, and this alone, is well said. It is for you, my
masters, to say what authority there is for this; then will the good law
be more lasting. The objects which the law comprises are the limits
prescribed by the discipline, the supernatural qualities of the Aryas,
the dangers of the future (_i.e._ of regenerations in their various
stages), the sayings of Buddha, and the sutras of Buddha, the
investigation of Çariputra and the instructions of Rahula with
refutation of false doctrine: this is what the blessed Buddha taught.
These subjects comprised by the law it is my wish that the initiated men
and women hear, and ponder continually, and also the faithful of both
sexes. This is the fame on which I lay the greatest weight. Hence I
have caused this letter to be written to you which is my will and my
declaration."[794]
Tradition tells us that at this synod the question was put to every
Bhikshu: "What is the doctrine of Buddha?" and all who did not answer it
satisfactorily or answered it in a sectarian sense, to the number of
60,000, were expelled from the community of the faithful. Then
Maudgaliputra selected a thousand out of the number of the orthodox
Bhikshus, men distinguished by virtue and true knowledge of the holy
scriptures, that he might with them re-establish the purity of the
sutras and the Vinaya, _i.e._ the rules of discipline. We cannot doubt
that the synod at the Açokarama had revised the collection of sayings
and rules of discipline established by the first two councils in order
to excise interpolations and cut off false requirements; but this
revision did not exclude extensions and additions which had been made in
order to fill up in something more than a negative manner the ground
occupied by the errors and heresies that had crept in. By this council,
no doubt, the speculative part of the doctrine of Buddha received its
first canonical basis. This may be inferred both from the mention of the
investigation of Çariputra and the instructions of Rahula in the letter
of Açoka to the assembly, and from the statement that the president of
this council, Maudgaliputra, had founded a new school in order to unite
the doctrines of the Sthaviras and the Mahasanghikas.[795] What we
possess of the canonical writings of the Buddhists does not go back in
form or condition beyond this synod; yet it has been already remarked
that in the sutras we can distinguish the older nucleus from the
additions made to it, and retained or first added in the redaction of
the third council. The assembly is said by the Singhalese to have
occupied nine months in this new settlement of the canonical writings of
the 'triple basket' (_sutras_, _vinaya_, _abhidarma_).
Açoka was in earnest with the doctrine of Buddha. "The man of loving
spirit, beloved of the gods," we are told in the inscriptions at Girnar,
"causes the observance of the law to increase, and the king's grandson,
great-grandson, and great-great-grandson will cause the law to increase,
and continuing stedfast down to the end of the Kalpa in law and virtue
will observe the law."[796] "In past days the transaction of business
and the announcement of it did not take place at all times. Therefore I
did as follows. At any hour, even when recreating myself with my wives
in their chamber, or with my children, when conversing, riding, or in
the garden, Pratidevakas (men who announce) were appointed with orders
to announce to me the affairs of the people, and at all times I pay
attention to their affairs."[797] "I find no satisfaction in the effort
to accomplish business; the salvation of the world is the thing most
worth doing. The cause of this is the effort to accomplish business.
There is no higher duty than the salvation of the whole world. My whole
care is directed to the discharge of my debt to all creatures, that I
may make them happy on earth, and that hereafter they may gain heaven.
For this object I have caused this inscription of the law to be written.
May they continue long, and may my grandson and great-grandson also
strive after the salvation of the whole world. This it is difficult to
do without the most resolute effort."[798] In other inscriptions Açoka
declares it to be his glory that he has administered justice properly,
and inflicted punishment with gentleness; as we have seen, the book of
the law required that it should be administered with severity. The
growth of the law, king Açoka says, is brought about by submission to
it, and the removal of burdens. "My Rajakas (overseers) are placed over
many hundreds of thousands of my people, and their corrections and
punishments are inflicted without pain. More especially I would have the
Rajakas transact business in the neighbourhood of the Açvatthas
(fig-trees), and bring happiness and prosperity to the people. I would
have them be friendly, ascertain misfortune and prosperity, and speak to
the people, as the law directs, saying: Receive with favour the law that
has been given and established. In such a way are my Rajakas established
for the good of the people, that they may transact their business in the
neighbourhood of the Açvatthas quietly and without disinclination; for
this reason painless corrections and punishments are prescribed for
them."[799] Açoka further informs us that in the war against the
Kalingas he neither carried away the prisoners nor put them to death.
For many offences he had abolished capital punishment. In the
thirty-first year of his reign he appears to have abolished it
altogether. The criminals condemned to death, he tells us in an
inscription, must to the day of their death give the gifts that relate
to a future life, and fast.[800] According to the teaching of Buddha no
animal is to be put to death. In earlier times, we are told in Buddha's
inscriptions, for many centuries the killing of living things and the
injuring of creatures had increased, as well as contempt for relations,
and disregard for Brahmans and Çramanas; at one time even in his,
Priyadarçin's, kitchen a hundred thousand animals were daily slaughtered
for food. Now this was abolished. He absolutely forbade the slaying of
certain animals, and everywhere introduced the two cures for sick men
and animals, caused shelters to be erected for men and animals,
fig-trees and groves of mangoes to be planted, wells to be dug on the
highways, and resting-places for the night to be built.[801] Himself
anxious to follow the law of Buddha, he wished it also to be spread
abroad and practised in his kingdom among his subjects. We have already
mentioned the assemblies held at his command every fifth year, at which
the chief rules of morals were taught to the people. In addition he
nominated Dharmamahamatras, _i.e._ masters of the law, for the cities of
his kingdom, the lands of the Vratyas (p. 388), and the territories
dependent on him, whose duty it was to forward the reception and
observance of the law. According to the inscriptions there were
magistrates of this kind even at the court, to "divide gifts to the sons
and other princes for the purpose of the observance of the law," and
these magistrates had to perform the same duties in the chambers of the
queens.[802]
What the tradition of the Buddhists tells us of the inexhaustible
liberality of Açoka is exaggerated beyond all measure. The strangest
statement of all, that he presented his kingdom to the Bhikshus, seems
to find some sort of confirmation in the assertion of the Chinese
pilgrim Fa-Hian, who was on the Ganges towards the year 400 A.D. He
tells us that he had seen a pillar at Palibothra on which the
inscription related that Açoka had presented all India, his wives and
his servants, thrice to the Bhikshus, and had only retained his
treasures, in order to purchase again these gifts. If this was really
stated in the inscription, the matter can only have had a symbolical
meaning; the king in this expressed figuratively his submission to the
law of Buddha, and recognised it as his duty to allow the initiated, the
representatives and preachers of this law, to suffer no want. Açoka's
extant inscriptions prove that he not only exhorted his subjects to give
(p. 530), but made presents to the Sthaviras, and commanded his masters
of the law to divide gifts.[803] How eagerly he strove to realise
Buddha's precept to be helpful to every one, is proved by a sentence in
the inscriptions of Dhauli in which the king says: "Every good man is my
descendant."[804]
However foolish may be the tradition that Açoka built 84,000 stupas and
as many viharas, it is true that he did erect numerous buildings which
were mainly intended to glorify the Enlightened. Mention has already
been made of the Açokarama at Palibothra, and tradition is not wrong in
saying that the king honoured the places at which Buddha stayed by the
erection of monuments. Of his buildings at Gaya we have, it is true,
only the remains of pillars and other ruins.[805] Some miles to the
north of Gaya, on the bank of the Phalgu, in the rocks of the heights
now called Barabar and Nagarjuni, are artificial grottoes. They are hewn
in the granite, simple in plan and moderate in dimensions, but of very
careful execution. The inscription on one tells us that it was
consecrated by Açoka in the twelfth year of his reign, and on the other
that Açoka caused it to be excavated in the nineteenth year of his
reign.[806] At Kuçinagara, on the place where the Enlightened slept
never to wake again, the Chinese traveller Hiuan-Thsang found a pillar
of Açoka's with inscriptions.[807] The number of the monasteries or
viharas in the territory of Magadha was so great that the old name of
the country was changed for a name derived from them; it was called the
land of monasteries: Vihara (Behar). The inscriptions already mentioned
at Bhuvaneçvara refer to a stupa which Açoka built at Tosali in Orissa.
According to the account of Hiuan-Thsang stupas of Açoka existed at his
time in the Deccan among the Andhras and Cholas, the Kanchis and
Konkanas; in Nagara he saw a stupa, and in Udyana a vihara of
Açoka.[808] The inscriptions of Açoka at Girinagara show that he erected
a large bridge there and other buildings. Hence there is no reason to
doubt the construction of considerable buildings in Cashmere, ascribed
to him by the tradition of the land. On the northern slope of the
Vindhyas, to the east of Ujjayini, at Sanchi, in the neighbourhood of
the ancient Bidiça (now Bhilsa), there are nearly thirty stupas of very
various sizes, standing in five groups. The longest of them rises on a
substructure of more than one hundred feet in diameter to an elevation
of sixty feet. The simplicity and unadorned dignity of the building mark
this, the largest of the stupas, as also the oldest, and we may the more
certainly regard it as a work of Açoka because relics are found in the
neighbouring stupas which the inscriptions state to be those of
Çariputra and Maudgalyayana, the eminent disciples of Buddha; others
again which are said to be the relics of Gotriputra the teacher of
Maudgaliputra, who presided over the third synod.[809] The wall
surrounding the great stupa presents an entrance through four noble
portals of slender pilasters, united by cross-beams of singular
workmanship. On the eastern gate there is found an inscription from the
second century A.D. It is therefore possible that the outer wall dates
from that time, though the inscription merely speaks of the presentation
of a vihara situated there.[810]
However great Açoka's zeal for Buddha's doctrine might be, however
numerous and splendid the buildings erected in honour of the
Enlightened, he allowed complete toleration to prevail, partly from
obedience to the gentleness which pervades Buddha's doctrine, but not
less from motives of political sagacity. There was no oppression, no
persecution of the Brahmans or their religion. It can hardly be called a
proof of this feeling and attitude, that a ruined temple of Indra was
restored at his command, for we have seen that Buddhism adopted the
ancient gods of the Brahmans as subordinate spirits, yet as beings of a
higher order, into its system. But in a part of his edicts Açoka
mentions the Brahmans even before the Çramanas (in others the Çramanas
have the first place); like the Çramanas the Brahmans are to be honoured
and to receive presents. The inscription of Delhi declares that even
those who are of another religion than the Brahmans and Buddhists are to
live undisturbed; that all possessed sacred books and saving
revelations. In one of the inscriptions at Girnar we are told:
"Priyadarçin, the king beloved by the gods, honours all religions, as
well as the mendicants and householders, by alms and other tokens of
respect. Every one should honour his own religion, without reviling that
religion of others. Only reverence makes pious. May the professors of
every religion be rich in wisdom and happy through virtue."[811]
With all this toleration and gentleness there is no doubt that the reign
of Açoka did the greatest service in promoting the spread of Buddhism
through his wide kingdom. Whether and to what extent political motives
could and did operate on his conversion we cannot even guess. In any
case Buddha's doctrine released the ruler of the mighty kingdom from a
very burdensome ceremonial; it put an end to the contrast in which the
free life of the Indus stood to the restricted life of the Ganges; it
counteracted the pride with which the Brahmans looked down on the not
unimportant tribes on the Indus, placed the Arians on the Indus with
equal rights at the side of the twice-born of Aryavarta, allowed the
king to deal equally with all Aryas, all castes, and even with the
non-Arian tribes of his kingdom; and not only permitted but commanded
him to interest himself specially in the oppressed classes. The care,
which his grandfather had already bestowed on husbandmen, Açoka could
exercise over a wider territory and with greater earnestness; and that
he did this, as well as how he did it, has been shown by his
inscriptions (p. 535).
Tradition tells us that after the council of Palibothra, the Sthavira
Madhyantika was sent into Cashmere and the land of the Gandharas to
convert them, and the Buddhists could boast that the inhabitants of
these districts received the law which Madhyantika preached to them;
"that the Gandharas and Kaçmiras henceforth shone in yellow garments
(the colour of the Bhikshus), and remained true to the three branches of
the law."[812] As a fact Cashmere became and remained a prominent seat
of Buddhism. At the same time, according to tradition, Madhyama and
Kaçyapa were sent to convert the Himalayas. In one of the smaller stupas
at Sanchi chests of relics were found, the inscriptions on which
describe one as containing the remains "of the excellent man of the race
of Kaçyapa, the teacher of the whole of Haimavata;" the other as
containing the remains of Madhyama.[813] The conversion of the island of
Ceylon at the time of Açoka, which was supported and advanced by Açoka's
power and his relation to the king of the island, Devanampriya-Tishya,
the successor of Vijaya, Panduvançadeva, and Pandukabhaya--who reigned
from 245 B.C.[814] to 205 B.C.--is a fact. Like Cashmere in the north,
Ceylon became in the south a centre of the Buddhist faith, the
mother-church of lower India and the lands of the East. It has been
shown in detail above how the worship of relics arose among the
Buddhists. Açoka's stupas exhibit it in the fullest bloom, and this form
of worship is prominent in the tradition of the conversion of Ceylon.
Beside the branch of the sacred tree of Buddha, which took root in the
Mahamegha-garden at Anuradhapura, Ceylon boasts since that time the
possession of the alms-jar of Buddha and his right shoulder-bone, to
which his water-jug was added, and five hundred years later his left
eye-tooth. This had previously been among the Kalingas, then in
Palibothra, whence it was taken back to the Kalingas, from whence it
was carried to Ceylon, after escaping the attempts made by the Brahman
king of Magadha to destroy it. Saved at a later time from the arms of
the Portuguese, it is preserved at the present day as the most sacred
relic of the Buddhist church, and carried yearly in solemn
procession.[815]
Buddhism had removed the privilege of birth. As it summoned the men of
all castes equally to liberation, so it did not confine its gospel to
the nation of the Aryas. When it had broken through the limits of caste
it broke for the first time in history through the limits of
nationality. All men, of whatever order, language, and nation, are in
equal distress and misery; they are brothers, and intended to assist
each other as such. To all, therefore, must be preached the message of
renunciation and pity, of liberation from pain and regeneration. The
tradition of the Buddhists has already told us that after the third
synod messengers of the new religion were sent into the western land to
the Yavanas, and into the gold land; and Açoka's inscriptions showed us
that he had entered into connections not only with his neighbour,
Antiochus Theos, but also with the kings of Macedonia and Epirus, of
Egypt and Cyrene, concerning the good law. It is not likely that
Buddhism was preached in the West beyond the eastern half of Iran and
Bactria; but it found adherents there. Tradition tells us that a century
after the council in the Açokarama at Palibothra belief in the
Enlightened flourished in "Alassadda,"[816] by which is obviously meant
one of the three Alexandrias founded by Alexander in the East,
apparently the Alexandria on the southern slope of the Hindu Kush
nearest to Cashmere. When in the seventh century of our era the Chinese
Hiuan-Thsang climbed the heights of the Hindu Kush on his pilgrimage to
Cabul and India, he found the inhabitants of the city of Bamyan high up
in the mountains zealously devoted to the religion of the Enlightened;
he found ten viharas and a large stone image of Buddha in the city,
covered with gold and other ornaments.[817] On an isolated mountain wall
in the midst of the mountain valley of Bamyan we find in a deep niche
excavated in the wall a statue, now mutilated, 120 feet in height, and
at a distance of two hundred paces, a second somewhat smaller statue of
the same kind. In the broad lips and drooping ears of these statues our
travellers seem to find portraits of Buddha. If this religion penetrated
west of Cabul, in the Hindu Kush and to Bactria, it also extended from
Cashmere to Nepal and Tibet, and from Ceylon struck root in lower
India.
FOOTNOTES:
[769] "Mahavança," p. 21. Burnouf, _loc. cit._ 1, 364.
[770] "Mahavança," p. 34.
[771] "Mahavança," p. 26. Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 370, 515.
[772] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 381, 382.
[773] "Mahavança," p. 26, 34.
[774] "Mahavança," p. 22, 23, 35, 39.
[775] Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 2^2, 241, _n._4, 245.
[776] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 246.
[777] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 1^2,649 and 2^2, 248 regards Aparantaka as the
western border land of India.
[778] "Mahavança," p. 78 ff.
[779] "Mahavança," p. 26.
[780] "Açoka-avadana," in Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 415, 426; for these
Aryas see above, p. 471.
[781] In opposition to Westergaard, who thinks it necessary to put
Açoka's accession back to the year 272 B.C., I can only agree with Von
Gutschmid that the statements of the Buddhists on the subject require at
the most the year 265 B.C. "Zeitschrift D. M. G." 18, 373. On the other
hand, from the reasons given above (p. 443), I cannot put Chandragupta's
accession at Magadha before 315 B.C. If, therefore, the 52 years which
the Buddhists give to Chandragupta and Vindusara are to be maintained,
Açoka ascended the throne in 263 B.C. On the other hand, the Brahmans
only allow 25 years to Varisara, as they call Vindusara; and according
to this the accession of Açoka must have taken place in the year 266
B.C.
[782] Cunningham, "Survey," 1, 68 ff; 244 ff.
[783] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 281.
[784] "Raja Tarang." ed. Troyer, 1, 101 ff.
[785] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 272.
[786] Droysen, "Hellenismus," 2, 611.
[787] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 251.
[788] Inscriptions of Girnar, and Kapur-i-Giri, in Lassen, _loc. cit._
2^2, 253.
[789] In Ptolemy [Greek: Kêrobothrês], Lassen, _loc. cit._ 1^1, 188.
[790] The inscriptions of Açoka date from various years, or at any rate
mention regulations from various years; they speak of the tenth,
twelfth, thirteenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, twenty-sixth, and
thirty-first years after the coronation. According to the Singhalese the
coronation did not take place till the fourth year after Vindusara's
death. The inscriptions in which the Greek kings are mentioned date from
the thirteenth year after the coronation, _i.e._ from the sixteenth or
seventeenth year of the reign. The festival of the complete adoption of
the law of Buddha by Açoka would thus have taken place in the thirteenth
year of the reign, _i.e._ 251 B.C. If the statement of the Singhalese
("Mahavança," p. 22) were correct, that Açoka's consecration did not
take place till the fourth year of his reign, which is quite contrary to
Indian custom, and seems to have arisen from the desire to make the
coronation synchronise with the conversion to Buddhism (according to the
"Açoka-avadana," Açoka put on the royal head-dress at the moment when
Vindusara died, Burnouf, _loc. cit._ 364), there would be a
chronological difficulty. Alexander of Epirus died about the year 258
B.C.; Magas of Cyrene in that year; consequently both were dead in the
thirteenth year after the coronation, the seventeenth year of Açoka, if
he ascended the throne in the year 263. The Buddhists have already told
us that Açoka showed himself favourable to their religion in the third
year after his accession, though it was not till the year 254 or 251
that he formally went over. Hence, arrangements may have been made even
earlier with the kings of the West in favour of the spread of Buddhism,
and they may have been first mentioned in 251 or 247 B.C. Von Gutschmid,
"Z. D. M. G." 18, 373. He might also mention kings of the distant West
with whom he had had dealings, though they were dead, especially if he
was without intelligence of their death.
[791] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 238.
[792] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 239.
[793] "Mahavança," p. 38. Köppen, "Rel. des Buddha," s. 154 ff.
[794] Burnouf, "Lotus de la bonne loi," p. 725, 727. Cf. "Mahavança,"
ed. Turnour, p. 251. A. Weber, "Ind. Studien," 3, 172.
[795] Köppen, _loc. cit._ s. 182.
[796] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 238.
[797] Girnar, 6: in Lassen, 2^2, 267, _n._1.
[798] Girnar, 6: in Lassen, 2^2, 267, _n._1.
[799] Delhi, 2: in Lassen, 2^2, 268, _n._2.
[800] Delhi, 2: in Lassen, 2^2, 272, _n._5.
[801] Inscription at Delhi, Lassen, 2^2, 272.
[802] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 250.
[803] Inscriptions at Girnar, 6 and 8.
[804] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 270.
[805] Now Buddhagaya to the north-east of the modern Gaya; Cunningham,
"Survey," 1, 6, 10 ff.
[806] Cunningham, _loc. cit._ 1, 40 ff.
[807] On the elephant pillars at Sankisa, Cunningham, _loc. cit._ 1,
271.
[808] Hiuan-Thsang, in Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 280.
[809] Cunningham, "J. R. As. Soc." 13, 108 ff.
[810] Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 965.
[811] Burnouf, "Lotus de la bonne loi," p. 762. Lassen, _loc. cit._ 2^2,
276, 277.
[812] "Mahavança," ed. Turnour, p. 72.^1
[813] Cunningham, "J. R. As. Soc." 13, 112 ff.
[814] _Supra_, p. 370, 371. In consequence of the difference explained
above (p. 320, _n._) the Singhalese place his reign 62 years too early,
from 307 to 267 B.C.
[815] Mutu Coomara Dathavança. Köppen, "Rel. des Buddha," s. 517 ff.
[816] "Mahavança," p. 171.
[817] Stan. Julien, "Hiuen-Thsang," p. 373.