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After expanding the Mauryan Empire in third-century- BCE India, Asoka spread Buddhism and his principles of dhamma (dharma)—a philosophy that encouraged social responsibility, tolerance, and respect for all living things— throughout his empire. Through his rule, Asoka encouraged the proliferation of nonviolent practices, which also strengthened and unified the empire.
Asoka ruled the Mauryan Empire in ancient India from approximately 269 to 232 BCE. The empire was established around 321 BCE by Asoka’s grandfather, Candragupta Maurya (d. c. 297 BCE), soon after the withdrawal of Alexander III of Macedon (Alexander the Great, 356–323 BCE) from northwestern India. With its capital at Pataliputra (modern Patna), it was an exceptionally vast, centralized, and long-lived empire. After Asoka’s death, the Mauryan Empire went into decline, succumbing to the Sunga dynasty in 185 BCE.
Asoka is a towering figure in India’s national historical narrative and in the annals of Indian and Sri Lankan Buddhism. He is remembered primarily for his renunciation of war and violence, his conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism, his patronage of Buddhism, and his conception of a novel philosophy of moral and righteous behavior (Pali: dhamma; Sanskrit: dharma).
After a struggle for the throne, Asoka succeeded his father, Bindusara (d. 272 BCE), in 269 BCE following a four-year interregnum. He had gained administrative experience governing the provinces of Taxila and Ujjain during Bindusara’s reign. The art of administration was finely developed in the Mauryan empire, as is clear from the Arthasastra, a treatise on statecraft by Kautilya, Candragupta Maurya’s principal adviser and minister.
As king, Asoka extended the empire territorially. Around 260 BCE he conquered Kalinga (modern Orissa). The conquest had unusual consequences. In Asoka’s words: “[T]he Beloved of the Gods [Asoka] 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). Following the Kalinga campaign, Asoka converted to Buddhism, advocated nonviolence, and came to believe in conquest through moral suasion rather than war. It is important to note, however, that he only renounced violence once empire building was complete and almost the entire Indian subcontinent, excluding friendly kingdoms in the south, was under Mauryan sway.
Under Asoka’s auspices, Buddhism developed into a major religion. At the Third Buddhist Council (250 BCE), held at Pataliputra during Asoka’s reign, it was decided that Buddhism would actively seek converts. Asoka built stupas (reliquary mounds) and monasteries and sent missions to neighboring countries like Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
A paternalistic ruler who addressed his subjects as “my children,” Asoka sought to instill in them his concept of dhamma. This was a humanistic philosophy based on social responsibility, tolerance, and respect for all living beings. It is possible that dhamma served the pragmatic function of providing a unifying ideology for an exceptionally diverse and multicultural empire. Special officers were appointed to ensure the practice of dhamma throughout the realm. Asoka himself traveled extensively to keep abreast of happenings in his empire.
Edicts inscribed on pillars and rocks carried Asoka’s word to the far reaches of his empire while he lived and left it to posterity after he died. The Asokan pillars that survive are stone monoliths, capped by animals like lions or bulls. (The capital of lions surmounting one such pillar, at Sarnath, is the national symbol of contemporary India.) It is through his edicts that Asoka has emerged as a significant historical figure from the mists of time. In 1837 James Prinsep, a British epigraphist, deciphered a pillar inscription from Delhi that referred to a king “Devanampiya [beloved of the gods] Piyadassi [of gracious mien].” This was connected to pillar and rock inscriptions found over a large expanse of territory, from modern Afghanistan in the northwest to Bengal in the east and Mysore in the south. A single provenance was established for the inscriptions and Asoka, renowned in Ceylonese Buddhist chronicles, was identified as their author.
The edicts were written in the vernacular (mostly Prakrit but also Greek and Aramaic in the northwest). A few inscriptions were declarations of Asoka, as a lay Buddhist, to the Buddhist religious community. Most were public proclamations instructing people in the way of dhamma or detailing Asoka’s good works, such as the construction of hospitals and roads and the planting of shade trees.
Asoka, in the tradition of his father and grandfather, had diplomatic contacts with foreign kingdoms such as Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Epirus, and Macedonia to the west of India and Ceylon and southern Indian kingdoms to the south. He sent missions abroad to popularize his concept of dhamma.
Historians have shown that accounts of Asoka’s idealism need to be tempered with recognition of his pragmatism. His abjuring of violence was opportune, and his concept of dhamma, as mentioned earlier, may well have been designed to unify the diverse peoples of his empire. Nonetheless, Asoka’s name is remembered in world history for his promulgation of Buddhism and his endorsement of nonviolence.
Bibliography:
- Gokhale, B. G. (1966). Asoka Maurya. New York: Twayne Publishers.
- Keay, J. (2000). A history of India. London: HarperCollins.
- Thapar, R. (2005). Asoka and the decline of the Mauryas (Rev. ed.). Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
- Thapar, R. (2002). Early India: From the origins to ad 1300. London: Allen Lane.
- Wolpert, S. (1982). A new history of India. New York: Oxford University Press.
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