Ashoka in Ancient India [Pilot project, eBook available to selected US libraries only] 9780674915237

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AshokA in Ancient India

AshokA

in Ancient India nayanjot lahiri

harvard university press Cambridge, Massachusetts

Copyright © Nayanjot Lahiri, 2015 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

First published in India by Permanent Black, 2015 First Harvard University Press edition, 2015 First Printing Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lahiri, Nayanjot. Ashoka in ancient India / Nayanjot Lahiri. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-05777-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ng of Magadha, active 259 b.c. 2.  India—Kings and rulers—Biography. .  India—History—Maurya dynasty, ca. 322 b.c.–ca. 185 b.c. I. Title. DS451.5.L35 2015 934¢.045092—dc23 [B]

for

rukun

orks of the imagination, the historian’s work and the novelist’s work do not differ. re they do differ is that the historian’s picture is meant to be true. R.G. Collingwood, The Historical Imagination (1935)

Contents

ions

xi xv

ledgements

xvii 1

cryphal Early Life

24

tra and the Prince

43

n Taxila

66

f the Heart and State

87

and the Beginning

104

peror’s Voice

118

ng the Arc of Communication to Afghanistan

161

nsive Imperial Articulation

176

contents

ely Woes and the Emperor’s Death

280

ue: The Emperor’s Afterlife

289

dix: The Inscriptions of Ashoka

308

graphy

318 354 373

Illustrations

Items in italics denote colour pictures

1 Erragudi rocks as they appear from the surrounding fields

2

Part of Ashoka’s message on the rocks of Erragudi

shoka and his queen on a second century ce anel of the Kanaganahalli stupa in Karnataka

he hills of Rajagriha with a stupa in the oreground

he Ganga river near Patna

48 50

i l lu s t r at i o n s

Ujjayini’s ancient mounds with the Sipra river in the background

88

The Malwa plateau’s hills and forests as they appear near Bhimbetka

96

Ujjayini’s Kanipura stupa which is associated with Devi

100

The Rajula Mandagiri edict is engraved on the flat rock in the foreground, in front of the tree dominating a waterbody, with a temple behind it

122

Worn-out section of the Rajula Mandagiri edict

123

Palkigundu canopy rock—the edict is on a ledge beneath the canopy

124

View of the surrounding area from the edict rock at Palkigundu

125

The Maski edict, relatively legible and easy to read by people standing near it

130

Siddapura edict, cramped by the ledge above it

131

Brahmagiri enclosure with Siddapura rocks in the fields and Jatinga Rameshwara hill in the background

150

Brahmagiri edict

151

Ashoka’s edict in a rock shelter at Panguraria

158

View of the countryside around the Panguraria rock shelter

159

i l lu s t r at i o n s

xiii

tone slab of the Sannathi edict

179

ock edicts arranged in columns at Girnar

190

art of the historic dam that has survived and can be seen in the foreground) at unagadh

204

horia stupa in the Girnar forest, the massive ut created by nineteenth-century excavations ill visible

210

opies of the copper, silver, and gold relic boxes ound inside the Bhoria stupa (now in the unagadh State Museum)

212

Hills around the Barabar caves, the Phalgu river n the background

228

nterior of the Sudama cave with a hut-like ructure carved into the rock

230

omasha Rishi cave architrave, with elephants moving towards a stupa

234

shokan pillar at Lumbini, with the modern Maya-devi temple by its side

240

Worshipping monks in front of Lumbini’s shokan pillar

otihawa pillar remnant, once known as huteshwar Mahadeva

Nigali Sagar pillar segments

he mud stupa of Vaishali is in the centre, urrounded by later brick constructions

244 245 248

i l lu s t r at i o n s

The circular temple at Bairat. The Ashokan inscription was found below the overhanging rock at the edge of the hill

252

Chunar monolithic railing at Sarnath

254

The broken Sarnath pillar with the edict inscribed on it

256

1

Ashokan pillar at Hissar fort (the lowest part) which was made part of a composite pillar

264

A close-up of the Ashokan segment of the Hissar pillar with some Brahmi letters still intact

264

Fatehabad segment of Ashokan pillar (the bottom part)

265

2 Tissarakshita, Queen of Ashoka (Abanindranath Tagore)

Sanghamitra with the Bodhi tree (Nandlal Bose)

e 1 Depiction of Ashoka supported by his wives on the upper segment of gateway pillar at Sanchi

ue 2 Depiction of wheel-bearing pillar at Sanchi

e 3 Sculpture of Ashoka at Kalinga by Meera Mukherjee

298

Maps

ribution of the epigraphs of Ashoka

3

gadha’s political capitals: Rajagriha and liputra

51

hanistan in relation to Iran and Pakistan

163

Acknowledgements

ook originated in the strangest of cirtances. An email arrived from Sharmila Sen of Harvard ersity Press, inviting me to consider doing a singleaphy of Ashoka which, as she put it, should be ‘geared , educated audience without sacrificing scholar­ship.’ he summer of 2009, during a phase in my life when d in administrative work at the University of Delhi. met Sharmila, nor corresponded with her, and she is even aware that her invitation became a lifeline of me out of the fatigue of executive duties and endless took a couple of years before I could immerse myself ork around the landscapes where this book took shape, t deal to Sharmila for writing to me and taking her r the years our conversations, and the unending supply antiquity sent by her, have proved invaluable. of friends and colleagues have supported this work ays. While he was vice chancellor of the University epak Pental gave me a powerful official position in

ac k n ow l e d g e m e n t s

n ancient India. Ramachandra Guha sent comments and the initial proposal and has supported it ever since with siasm. Ratna Raman’s companionship and formidable of all things culinary made fieldwork enormously pleas­ hra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. I am also Devika Ranga­chari, Dilip Chakrabarti, Jairam Ramesh, ari, Vivek Suneja, and Upinder Singh for reading and parts of the manuscript. Ella Datta’s advice on acquir­ was tremendously helpful. Kesavan Veluthat and h in Delhi and Parimal Rupani in Junagadh provided rtant references, and Suryanarayana Nanda guided me e inscriptions of Ashoka. I must also acknowledge the mous reviewers who read the manuscript for Permaand Harvard University Press with great care and in­ e of their suggestions have improved the narrative in

arious places where I pursued this research, I owe a debt to many institutions and people, especially the he Archaeological Survey of India: in Junagadh, Rasik Bhatt, M. Sutaria, and K.C. Nauriyal; in Nepal, Hari D. nataka and Andhra, S.V.P. Hallakati and Srinivas; in esh, Subhash Yadav; in Madhya Pradesh, S.B. Ota; in Prabhakar, the staff of the Archaeological Survey of y, especially Satpal Singh, and Dr Narendra Kumar at Library of the University of Delhi. of the disappearance of high editorial skills in book nowadays, Rukun Advani is already the subject of folk­ the discerning. The reason, in my experience, has to do eadth of knowledge and the surgical skill with which he scripts when he relates well to them and their authors. ation and precision have made doing books with him tensely enjoyable experience of my professional life, and

ac k n ow l e d g e m e n t s

xix

y personal level my greatest debt is to Kishore Lahiri e of encouragement and support. This book is dedi­hree children in our lives—our daughter-in-law Vrinda; n; and, of course, Soufflé—who are more precious to us ever imagine. Vrinda and Karan’s enormous affection have enriched me and my work in myriad wonderful e unconditional love of Soufflé, our dog, is a constant in my life. * * *

g illustrations are reproduced with thanks by permis­ following sources: Fig. 3.1 and Fig. 8.1, copyright Archaeoof India (ASI), is from Marshall (1951), reprinted by f the ASI. The sculptural motifs in chapter opening ction separations are from Poonacha (2013); Fig. 10.9 Museum (Patna); Fig. 10.5 from Hari D. Rai (Lumbini); m the Delhi Art Gallery (New Delhi); Fig. 12.2 from the ery of Modern Art (New Delhi); Fig. Epilogue 3 from (New Delhi). Maps 1, 2, and 3 are drawn by Rashid sity of Delhi).

Prelude

is nothing specially striking about the er of rocks which crowns the edge of a low hilly ridge the village of Erragudi in the Andhra region of India. nce the cluster appears unremarkable, while the ridge ts is somewhat bare, rising out of a patchwork of culti­ nd sparsely dotted with vegetation. The rocks on it are g, standing a mere thirty metres or so above the plains. e sees on the rocks at close quarters that makes them

down the rocks is a dramatic waterfall of words. hundred lines in characters of the ancient Brahmi mprinted across several of the boulders (Fig. Pre­­e portions of this ancient scrawl are even now exceed­ the characters boldly etched across the rock faces. nts have deteriorated, while a few of the lines have by modern graffiti. Yet not even the English and Telugu ontemporary visitors to this hillock can diminish the g impression of messages from antiquity created by n of these ancient words. This copious transcription

Fig. Prelude 1: Erragudi rocks as they appear from the surrounding fields

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Map 1:  Distribution of the Epigraphs of Ashoka

0 years ago this political figure made himself visible words that he caused to be inscribed at Erragudi as well f other places across India and beyond. nscriptions represent a kind of historical daybreak, g phase of faceless rulers. In approximately 600 bce, d out of the realms of tradition to set up and rule over oms stretching from the highlands of the north-west

ashoka in ancient india

ul confederate clans.1 Over a relatively short period of hly coinciding with the domination of Athens in the riod—a large part of this profusion of political entities ed into a single imperial realm. Centred in Magadha, based in the middle Gangetic plains of Bihar, a succession ed over this empire straddling large parts of India. The se imperial houses was that of the Nandas. They were the Mauryas. From the fourth century bce till the ad­ oka (c. 269/268 bce), there were said to have been eleven ial monarchs,2 nine in the Nanda dynasty, followed Maurya kings who preceded Ashoka: Chandragupta, the dynasty (Ashoka’s grandfather, who overthrew the llowed by Bindusara, Ashoka’s father. ugh king succeeded king and one century followed an­ nly evidence of those times are versions of them—some hers fanciful, and practically never contemporary—that ved. These remaining records of those times are the rtain Buddhist and Jaina texts, and histories of a sort who are referred to as ‘classical authors’—mainly lite­ nions in Alexander’s entourage—as also the famous es who visited the court of Chandragupta. These sources with nearly all the information that we now have of India’s states in that antique time. The rulers themselves failed their subjects, and therefore to us. Many of their names, principalities, are known: Janaka of Videha, Pasenadi of Magadha monarch Bimbisara, and Pradyota of Avanti But how such kings defined their domains and powers, ppeared to their subjects, what they and their queens d what kind of worship prevailed in their courts—these den because no royal epigraphs or labelled sculptures, no ng royal portraiture or the names of kings and queens, alaces or communications emanating from such places

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n king to rule over an empire embracing much of India n borderlands, from Afghanistan to Orissa and towards ar as Karnataka. In relation to the rulers who followed is example which influenced thought—philosophical, tural—in Asia more profoundly than that of any other re of antiquity. The appeal of Ashoka as a model of en in his own lifetime, is clear from the way in which ing Devanampiya Tissa (c. 247–207 bce) is said to have he Buddhist faith in Lanka. This happened after Ashoka s which were used for his second coronation, and a ouraging him to take refuge in the Buddha.3 Ashoka’s uch after his time, is unmistakable because he became ng Buddhist rulers, ‘the great precedent and model of emergent polities of South and Southeast Asia.’4 In stance, his shaping influence became discernible from s taken by several rulers. Emperor Wu of the Liang –49 ce) is an example of a ruler who tried to emulate recting stupas and forbidding the consumption of meat; the Chinese empress Wu Zetian (623/625– east initially, followed suit by projecting herself as a g monarch or ‘chakravartin’, an image of Buddhist ely associated with Ashoka.5 H.G. Wells had this in in his massive bestseller of the 1920s, The Outline of id that amidst

thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns heir majesties and graciousnesses, and serenities and royal and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines almost . From the Volga to Japan, his name is still honoured. China, ven India, though it has left his doctrine, preserve the tradi­ greatness. More living men cherish his memory today than he names of Constantine or Charlemagne.6

ashoka in ancient india

‘a man who though, an emperor, was greater than any mperor.’7 Nehru, like Ashoka, was for many years the ed ruler of an Indian territory roughly the same size; rtant, he followed Ashoka in being his own ‘sutradhar’

naturally also figures in many ancient chronicles, in those by his contemporaries. He appears in writings put together several centuries after his reign, ranging anskrit text Ashokavadana (c. second century ce) to kan Pali chronicles like the Dipavamsa (c. fourth cen­d the Mahavamsa (c. fifth century ce). These will figure at ints in this story of Ashoka because such writings shape tanding of his early years as prince and monarch, even in mind that their reliability as sources of biographical n is uncorroborated by anything written during or even own time. The reliability of historical detail in such h, can be assessed by juxtaposing them with what can be ed about those times through archaeological evidence. haps one of the defining differences between monarchs ient times on the one hand, and those of medieval and on the other. Of Akbar and some of the other major or instance, we arrive at a picture via works by their aries. And at least three of the close collaborators of din (1137/38–1193 ce)—the iconic Muslim ruler whose ociated with the Crusades (especially with the recapture m from European Crusaders in 1187 ce)—penned ac­ is life and reign, each providing direct testimony of the so Ashoka, whose persona can be seen in chronicles me four centuries after his death. These show us how a exts chose to understand Ashoka’s life and times; but the in such accounts have to be looked at with a sceptical because they may have been purposive, or shaped by

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hoka from the idealized literary portrait of a Buddhist element of discrimination can be introduced by using to assess the reliability of parts of the legends and rounding the Mauryan emperor. But, on the whole, itations, it is clearly not possible to write up Ashoka’s that meets modern biographical criteria. Fortunate­ oes not have to be written about only in this way. We nd his kingship and his personality, his empire and rs, because he himself, fairly early in his kingly career, k. municator par excellence of ancient India, Ashoka spent f time thinking through and having messages about his f morality engraved on stone for public consumption. rulers also communicated through inscriptions, Achaemenid kings of Iran (550–330 bce). However, a’s, their public inscriptions devote much space and o how foes were killed off and conquered.9 of course, great communicative diversity in different time periods, and kingly epigraphs carved on stone e method. Naturally, however, much of the com­ n the first millennium bce was really not through hrough talk and speech. Rhetoric in ancient Greece, asis on logical argument, reasoned debate, and emotive as in this mode. Such communication between rulers d was far more direct and audience-centred than in na and early India, where the aim was to explicate lieved to be self-evident truths.10 The contrast can be earer in other ways: in literary representations before ings, nobles, and leaders in the Graeco-Roman world pe actions through words. So, for instance, in the Iliad, ument sweeter than honey’ is what convinces Patroclus or, and later histories support this and other similar 11

ashoka in ancient india

rs, written material—which by its very nature is a closed ay discourse—was the antithesis of ‘the give-and-take’ d the basis of public discourse and dialogue.12 nt China speech was the primary medium for the f ideas, and effective speech was thought a valid and ment of government.13 In fact, an early work called the tory (which took proper form in the sixth century bce) ily concerned with speech and speech-making. Unlike wever, the focus in China was not on individual excellence authority of a venerated past.14 The kind of person who ur with the Chinese was not one who spoke to attract himself by being different but who manifested through lity the sagacity to conform to the social norm. Even osophy of Confucius (c. 530–479 bce), with its focus -purification of individuals, the aim was to create a which harmony would prevail ‘because propriety and ld be practised by the rulers and the people.’15 hina, the oral tradition in India is massive and long, both these old cultures showing much greater faith in n written communication.16 The cultural ethos within ate and discussion took place was rarely individualebates were usually communal and group oriented, a regulated and restricted along caste lines. Within the ous traditions, as for example among Vedic priests and monks, writing was not used for preserving knowledge centuries after their respective religious texts had osed. In the Vedic tradition, the power of the word, semination of knowledge to restricted groups through nd repetition, depended entirely upon oral transmis­­tama Buddha (c. 540–480 bce), who consciously chose ross caste lines, also did so through conversations and ot via writing.18 Even after the texts associated with him

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nds mention in the texts that describe those times— zed orality. Meetings in assemblies were constantly y the Buddha in his description of the clans that made n confederacy of North India (c. sixth century bce). us debates were oral interactions that never came to Listening rather than reading was also the hallmark of ning among princes, as we learn from the Arthashastra, e core was almost certainly composed around the ka’s grandfather, Chandragupta. The prince, the text hould engage in ‘listening to Itihasa’, and he should edly to things not learnt’.20 The king was meant, too, ut all matters connected with the people, the emphasis ruler engaging with them in the assembly hall of his not in and around the places where the populace al communiqués on matters concerning morality or mes or patterns of kingly conduct are absent from uled interactions. From whichever angle we examine of public communication in India before the time of nd it was largely through some form of oral discourse. ’s edicts, thus, were a milestone inasmuch as this type mmunication in written form began with him. of the new communication was also highly individual­ tone messages we encounter Ashoka speaking about atersheds of his royal life, and through his words we he re-created his own path while trying to remould the le in his empire (as also of those beyond its borders). d emotion, death and decimation, honest admissions us orders are all to be found in the Ashokan edicts. Since were not inscribed all at once but over many years, it sible to examine Ashoka’s persona not as that of a static as an evolving emperor of uncommon ambition. hrough these missives on stone Ashoka chose to reach

ashoka in ancient india

formed part of his empire, right across India, Nepal, nd Afghanistan. This is because the emperor chose to his messages by ensuring that his administration sent e copies of them. That he wanted to be heard in the same hanistan and in Andhra, in Karnataka and in Kalinga, that Ashoka’s version of his life and deeds is the one kely to have been the best known, certainly during his e. There is no example, in fact, of an ancient ruler whose e course of his own life, resonated in such a unique way h Asia and beyond, articulating the shifting contours of l vision and aspirations. As I said, this is not the only is life available to scholars, nor does it permit a complete ion of his life. However, it has the great merit of being omposed during his rulership, and on his orders. comes down to us preserved in objects and words. The es in trying to tease out Ashoka’s story by listening to r’s own voice even while paying attention to the many emerge in archaeology about the lives and times of rdinary contemporaries. By Ashoka’s own account, his nions had a large and diverse population, from city resi­ members of religious sects to ordinary rural folk, forest d fisher people. Archaeology allows us to peep into the e such ordinary folk lived, to find out what food they gine their ideas about rulers and religion, to travel with ey journeyed forth, and to appreciate the remarkable hat they sometimes made on the very waysides where the voice could be heard.21 Such sights and subjects will be we try to understand the India of Ashoka’s time, above such archaeological glimpses offer a reality check on wn prescriptions and proscriptions. India—as indeed modern Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, and —continues to be interested in Ashoka as the Buddhist

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and the many validations and valorizations of later nding him. This difficulty is not specific to Ashoka; y the package of problems that scholars grappling ancient lives have faced. Biographers of Alexander 356–323 bce) have, for example, drawn attention to ctory and non-contemporary character of narrative his life and career, all of which were composed many rs after his death. While such writings relied on a f earlier works, none of those originals have actually pt in highly fragmentary form, which has resulted in ement among modern scholars about their reliability. uler whose public image was so important to him, it is he bulk of the surviving images of Alexander are later r Roman ‘copies’. Even the two coins on which he is sented were issued not by him but by his successors of deploying his power and charisma to elevate their standing.22 These are among the reasons, as the archa­ Cherry put it, ‘why there can really be no such thing ical Alexander”’.23 it with the story of Cleopatra (or Cleopatra VII), the y queen who ruled over Egypt (51–30 bce) and who, r, has continued to fascinate the contemporary public 24 Notwithstanding the spate of ‘biographies’ written sion of the events of her life and reign was penned in e, nor is there a detailed family background available have helped explain many aspects of her life. The name s mother, for instance, is not known, and Cleopatra’s unrecorded. That she was probably born in 70/69 bce d on the basis of her death in 30 bce, and the fact that rently 39 years old when she died. Even this calculation he description of her life in Plutarch’s Life of Antony, mplete account of her career from the ancient world.

ashoka in ancient india

lready coloured by other people’s propaganda, prejudi­ umptions.’26 ore biographies of the kind that are written about nd modern figures cannot be written of comparable ueens of antiquity, however ‘great’ they may have been, it ase of a Mauryan emperor less peculiar and much more other ancient lives. Recovering Ashoka’s life and times has morphed into legend is an exercise in providing him xtual flesh, and teasing out his individual psychology ality to the extent possible from what was composed on s well as from what is archaeologically knowable about s of the more ordinary people of his time. By peering isades of a Mauryan city, by journeying along the roads sed by travellers in those times, by studying the art and ade and used by his people, we can imagine the world and understand the character and the challenges of the ich the life of this emperor unfolded. ok, thus, is more in the nature of a chronicle around a t deals with how Ashoka lived and how he ruled, and, what he thought and how he disseminated his ideas. I persona as much as credibility permits. And my salvage s based as much on what he himself articulated as on to be preserved in the form of archaeological relics that he environment which shaped his life and times. ther Ashoka?27 ecause Ashoka has fascinated generations of writers rs. The fascination stems in some ways from the fact drawn to leaders and public figures whose ideas and ve influenced the lives of large populations. Ancient s several powerful rulers, but they have not captivated of modern writers in the way that Ashoka has. A con­ ng like Samudragupta (c. 350–370 ce), for instance,

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he overshadowed every male ruler of that region. Yet udragupta nor Didda has lured modern historians aphical bent.28 This may well be because the sources nadequate, a view borne out by a contrasting example, havardhana of Thaneshwar and Kanauj (606–648 ce), phy, the Harshacarita, was composed in his own life­ avardhana is known to have authored dramas and d his court was visited and described in all its richness se pilgrim Xuanzang. The sources for writing about efore, relatively speaking, richer, resulting in a variety cal and regnal studies.29 On balance, though, there is n Ramachandra Guha’s view that ‘the art of biogra­ underdeveloped in South Asia.’30 Perhaps the only cient India whose books represent an exception to this the historian-politician Radhakumud Mookerji, who inously and valuably on ancient kings, most notably andragupta Maurya, Ashoka, and Harshavardhana. ng the general dearth of biographical interest in an­ royal dramatis personae, how may one explain the f Ashoka? In large part this is because of his own ppear to posterity as neither recondite nor imperious s a flesh-and-blood emperor guided less by power than on. Among rulers Ashoka is so exceptional in being t sharing his grief that it is difficult not to empathize ancient sovereign who took responsibility for a poli­ ensible action, he seems at times less a political figure ngly self-reflective individual. The contrast with the y self-serving politician is so stark and rare that Ashoka istorians a knee-jerk admiration virtually unseen in ntil the appearance of Mahatma Gandhi.31 also relevant for another reason. Indian nationalist thinkers who fought the Raj under him and forged

ashoka in ancient india

he mantle of Ashoka as a model of humane rulership Tagore made this connection when he noted that great kingdoms of countless great monarchs have suf­ tation and have been razed to dust, but the glorious of the power of benevolence in Asoka has become our t, and is breathing strength into us.’33 Gandhi’s belief ence, whether consciously or not, derived in part from n worldview, and consequently breathed new life into a otten political value system that Ashoka had inaugurated. y that Nehru felt for Ashoka, movingly articulated in ery of India, bears this out. On the verge of building a te in the shadow of Gandhi, it was natural for Nehru to h Ashoka.34 Later, he invoked Ashoka on crucial public —most notably when a resolution about India’s flag was 947. This made explicit the association of modern Indian with an Ashokan emblem, the Sarnath pillar capitol. ing the resolution in the Constituent Assembly, Nehru esence of the wheel, the Ashoka chakra, made him feel y happy that in this sense indirectly we have associated g of ours not only this emblem but in a sense the name ne of the most magnificent names not only in India’s in world history.’35 With such rhetorical appropriations y are modern national identities forged and communi­ ed, and it could be argued that Ashoka was the ace in k. o the charm and excitement of Ashoka was the dramatic ch he had emerged out of unexpected discoveries and ents. Military men, antiquarians, and archaeologists d upon epigraphs in an unknown writing on rocks and arious parts of India in the early decades of the nine­ ury, a discovery saga which has been well told in vari­ on the evolution of Indian archaeology, most recently

32

36

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ded an unusually fertile environment for innovative with scholars constantly exchanging notes on, for w they had deciphered the Brahmi letters of various m Samudragupta’s Allahabad pillar inscription, to the scriptions. The Eureka moment came in 1837 when p, a brilliant secretary of the Asiatic Society, building ols of epigraphic knowledge, very quickly uncovered he extinct Mauryan Brahmi script. Prinsep unlocked deciphering of the script made it possible to read the All this and more has been superbly told by Charles

us on the British discovery of Ashoka does run a small ely the possible inference that this ruler of ancient etty much a forgotten entity until Raj antiquarians ogists exhumed him. While Allen is right in showing atenation of chance archaeological discoveries that Ashoka we see today, it is worth stressing that there nuous textual tradition, from Kashmir down to Sri ich Ashoka featured.37 Historical memory in relation ll rulers and dynasties was far more the preserve of ions than of folk knowledge and popular belief. So, graphs were deciphered, Ashoka was known mainly to cted group of traditional scholars and pundits in India t communities across Asia. The fact that Ashoka was knowledge is not to say that he was largely unknown, ualifies this with the truism that but for Orientalist irtually all of ancient India, as we have it today, would d unknown. The extent to which the British and other d scholars fleshed Ashoka out moved the emperor from ace in sometimes esoteric Brahmanical knowledge and al Buddhist texts, making him a far more generally e.

ashoka in ancient india

the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. This epigraphic d to make accessible all the inscriptions of ancient India. m did a great service to historical knowledge in seeing e volume ought to be devoted to the Ashokan inscrip­a few others) that had, till then, been discovered. d strength to Cunningham’s compilation was that the cal dimensions of Ashokan sites—which, in many ins­ nd his assistants had themselves explored—brought alive pes over which Ashoka had inscribed his words. What urprising from our perspective today—when we know of the edicts were inscribed on large rocks in Karnataka a—is that none of the emperor’s southern epigraphs fea­ t volume: those would be discovered a little later.39 he nineteenth-century discoverers and decipherers, it is o remember, were Europeans. One figure who was dis­ hokan edicts in Maharashtra and Rajasthan around the that Cunningham and his assistants were scouring the e was the Indian archaeologist Bhagwanlal Indraji. His ch less recognized than Cunningham’s because the bulk writings was in Gujarati.40 In a letter of 1872 he reported y of an Ashokan edict at Bairat: ‘On the southern side of llock with ancient Buddhist ruins. Near the ruins once ngraved stone inscription of Ashoka, which at present Asiatic Society Museum in Calcutta. While I was on the de of Virat, I discovered a new inscription at the foothill. tion is broken, yet much of its portion is in a readable 1 Copies were made of this epigraph, but since his letter the details of his discovery was published in Gujarati in Darpan, he got no credit for it. Instead, A.C.L. Carlleyle, of Cunningham who arrived there soon after, came to ed its discoverer. The conditions of power at the time of eries, the inequality in equations between well-placed

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ve informant’ such as Bhagwanlal Indraji. This may e raising the old query much beloved of Indian labour did British supervising engineers build the Indian were they built by Indian labour? The consensus pre­ hat all such achievement was both unequal and colla­ only sensible answer to such a question now is that the moving beyond it greatly exceeds its worth. hokan epigraphs were not discovered in the nineteenth ravings of the emperor have newly appeared through century, from Afghanistan to Andhra.42 The discover­ n a diverse lot, from a gold prospector who chanced ’s Maski inscription in Karnataka in 1915 to the guru n Gavimath (also in Karnataka) who, in 1931, com­ e existence of what is today called the Gavimath edict. y of an Ashokan edict was made at Ratanpurwa in ntly as 2009. The road to Ashoka is so paved with good ich keep popping out of the earth at irregular intervals no reason to think of Ratanpurwa as the last step in ky path.43 Various texts and Buddhist works in which ers figure became widely available from the middle of h century: the testimony of the Sri Lankan Pali chro­ pavamsa and the Mahavamsa, were central to the iden­ Devanampiya Piyadassi as Ashoka. But it is perhaps the e of sporadically appearing epigraphic messages that he continuing scholarly interest in Ashoka. this was the assessment of the colonial scholar-civil nt Smith when he wrote Asoka—The Buddhist Emperor the first modern biography of the emperor, this book a historical story strongly on the basis of the emperor’s e was devoted to the history and chronology of Ashoka, his empire, the way in which it was administered, nts that Ashoka built, and the epigraphs. Smith also

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ace even in Smith’s book, though the author made his them clear at the outset. They were, he said, ‘of no alue, and should be treated simply as edifying roman­ as of the firm conviction that no king East or West could oka, the only ruler to combine in himself the duties of a a monarch. Coming from Vincent Smith, an adminis­mperial inclinations and views, such unambiguous ap­ a refreshing surprise: most of Smith’s writings were their sweeping generalization that the stimulus of all dian high culture lay in the West.46 Realizing that the mparison would be with the Roman emperor Cons­ ith quickly dismissed it for the reason that Constantine’s of Christianity was ‘an act of tardy and politic submis­ rce already irresistible, than the willing devotion of an c believer.’ Ashoka, on the other hand, transformed the ocal sect which had ‘captured his heart and intellect’ into gion.47 book set the tone for many subsequent works on he sense that epigraphic sources became the inevitable le guide when depicting him. The emphasis tended to on the scholar, the various aspects of his life and times with variations. The Ashoka of Devadatta Ramakrishna r, Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Calcutta University, appeared two decades after Smith’s lied on Ashoka’s epigraphs and monuments for a history r, who was described as ‘the royal missionary’.48 Much was devoted to the nature of Ashoka’s engagement with and the morality that he advocated over his paternalistic of kingship.49 ‘Ashoka’s place in history’—a phrase by historians in the first half of the twentieth century— ject of a whole chapter, with Bhandarkar believing that s second only to the Buddha in the history of the sect.

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me mould, with chapters on history, administration, ents.50 The bulk of his volume was devoted to the nslation and annotation of the inscriptions. ly works on Ashoka there are good reasons for seeing Barua’s Asoka and his Inscriptions (1946) as diverging s from the books by Smith and Barua’s older Bengali ies. Barua used a wider panorama of sources and cture a different kind of account around Ashoka. His phs was extensive, though he invariably attempted to xtual references into them. Importantly, and perhaps time, the Arthashastra now came to be carefully nderstanding the Mauryan state. Different facets of enomenon were juxtaposed in the narrative: imperial al administration, Ashoka’s personal and public life, and upasaka dharma in relation to its more universal m. Barua’s assessment of Ashoka’s ‘place in history’ this, have been written by either Smith or Bhandarkar: or the religion of Buddha what Darius the Great or one for that of the Avesta and St Paul did for that of deed raised Buddhism from the position of a local faith of a world religion.’51 ears after Barua, Romila Thapar’s assessment of d on her PhD thesis, was published as Asoka and the Mauryas.52 This study, which has since enjoyed wide as both similar to and different from the many books d it. Though the sections dealing with Ashoka’s early n, chronology, internal administration, and sociotivity were written broadly in the spirit of her Indian what gave her work a different flavour was that it ore carefully contextualize Ashoka in his time. So, for nvolvement in Buddhism was seen in the background ually lively interest’ that his father and grandfather

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usly highlighted as being the king’s novel solution to what ed as the problems of binding a multicultural society: lligent statesman of the period it must have been evident kind of binding factor was necessary in order to keep intact   .  .  .  The policy of Dhamma with its emphasis on nsibility was intended to provide this binding factor.’54 work showed his policy of dhamma as evolving over his which, towards the end, was seen as being marred by an nce in his own achievement.55 Examined closely, the book ka as anchored in the circumstances and responding to ges of his time, but the persona that emerges from this zation is all the same exceptional. A king who ‘stressed us application of humanitarianism in social behaviour, ing not to the narrower religious instincts, but to a far immediate feeling of social responsibility’ is certainly d different from every other ruler of ancient India.56 The s that the exception grows out of the norm and takes emplary form. dern scholarly fascination with Ashoka and the changing research on him are evident in many other writings ention is not to explore them in all their nuances. An uide to the range and richness of Ashokan studies can n Harry Falk’s bibliography, Asokan Sites and Artefacts, ains nearly 1800 entries.57 All the big names of ancient dies figure there—James Prinsep, Georg Buhler, Emile dhakumud Mookerji, Romila Thapar, Dines Chandra L. Eggermont, Kenneth Roy Norman, Awadh Kishore rick Olivelle, and Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, to name a bliography lists hundreds of books and articles about igraphs, several of which contain their texts and trans­ ers are expositions on various elements of the scripts ges used, as well as on similarities and variations in the

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sites; the emperor’s ideas on public ethics, spiritual ights of living beings, human and animal; the image the literature of Asia; comparisons between the edicts the Bhagavadgita and the Indica of Megasthenes; the f Ashoka; the fascinating story of the discovery of the d of the emperor in them; and so much else. ad a fair range of these writings, I am inclined to put shoes of my readers to ask once again: Why another oka? What makes this one different from the others? Ancient India is a historical study of the life and times ror through his epigraphs, through the archaeology ns in and around the places where these were put up, an imaginative construction of how people in ancient ly to have understood these messages. The historical his book is not organized around the themes that many hoka are: the emperor’s early life and later history, his dministration, the social and economic conditions of dia, Ashoka’s policy of dhamma and his proclivity for monuments, the emperor’s place in the larger scheme dia. Instead, mine is a narrative account of Ashoka in path that follows the trajectory of his life cuts through legends and traditions, the epigraphs and monuments, aeological facts and detail that surround him. Its nar­ ill, I hope, also make it attractive to readers who enjoy past.58 writing this book I found myself facing two dilemmas. hstanding the many accounts of Ashoka’s life, I realiz­ rafting of such a history is limited by the restrictions or crucial phases in the individual life which forms the narrative do not figure in accounts contemporary e historical life of Ashoka only began when he started ough his epigraphs, a little after c. 260 bce, this being

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capes in India associated with Ashoka’s princely years. of the biggest problems with his early life: context and have to serve as compensatory mechanisms. To put way, in order to compensate the lack of textual detail d archaeology extensively to evoke the times in which d. —and this perhaps seems clearer in retrospect than when rching the book—the narrative treatment of Ashoka’s to be extended to his ideas as they developed over the of his reign. Despite the fact that Ashoka has been an rily rich subject of study, his shifting mental horizons, as n the public arena of his epigraphs, remain insufficiently e Ashoka of the relatively short First Rock Edict, as I saw mpatient confessor of his metamorphosis as a Buddhist. s later, as he spoke at greater length in messages engraved cks and pillars, he appeared an altogether different kind So, seeing his ideas unfold over time is crucial to this hoka, especially since much of it concerns his trajectory unicator. His changing ideas as expressed in his edicts, d, make him appear as a real human being changing attempt to delineate his intellectual evolution through gical teasing out of his thoughts and emotions from the ch he chooses to speak of his life and calling. he Ashoka that I write of is very much a product of the hich he engraved his messages. This explains why this ed Ashoka in Ancient India. The title points to the fact haeological and locational dimensions of specific places to my understanding of the messages and their author. y of discovery took me to many of Ashoka’s edicts and s: outside India to the terai region of Nepal, within y to Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Odisha.

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y of the places where the words of the emperor can still hese gave me a first-hand feel of what generations of s had found. Such landscapes figure in monographs ut usually in separate sections or chapters dedicated to al sites and monuments. Here, I have woven the places es into a narrative of the contexts in which Ashoka’s . Juxtaposing his royal messages with the contextual ounding landscapes has enabled me to highlight the h the messages themselves were shaped, influenced, d modified. —the epigraphs, the archaeology, the life—are part mous outpouring of writings on an unforgettable I think my weave is different. The carpet I will lay out ndmarks of life and landscapes to give another picture d times of Ashoka in ancient India.

1

An Apocryphal Early Life

e don’t know exactly when ashoka was born. That he was born sometime in the cusp of the fourth and third century bce (c. 304 bce) is certain, but the day, month, and year is not known. Very few ancient re our modern obsession with recording such events drical exactness, and certainly Ashoka’s scribes cannot in this category. Date precision in relation to an indi­ came into existence much after Ashoka’s time, usually urt chronicler penned the biography of a ruler-patron. hana, who ruled from Kanauj in North India near­ s after Ashoka, was one such king whose court poet, e him the central character in a historical story woven actual events of his reign. There, the month of Harsha’s along with his date of birth, were recorded, as also the was born just after ‘the twilight time’.1 Such precision moner in medieval India, when accounts authorized by mperors come frequently to be composed during their

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uding a strange light perceptible on the brows of his n she was pregnant with him.2 ndia’s royal biographical tradition begins several cen­ shoka, which is why we merely know that his father led from roughly 297 till 273 bce, and that his grand­ ragupta’s regnal dates are probably 321–297 bce. The f Ashoka’s birth is surmised by working backwards e when he was anointed emperor, for which we have a curate date. This accuracy for his ascension is because emperor have been synchronized with the reigns of y rulers in Asia and beyond: their dates are fairly cer­ eral of them are mentioned by name in Ashoka’s ins­ luding Antiochus II Theos of the Seleucid kingdom, hiladelphus of Egypt, Antigonus II Gonatas of Mace­ of Cyrene, and Alexander of Epirus (or Corinth).3 nd the context in which they are alluded to in Ashoka’s ll be elaborated later; for the present it suffices that accurate chronology for Ashoka has involved looking the chronology of these kings and the inscriptions in gure. ror’s consecration is likely to have taken place around 4 As with several other kings in ancient India whose scribed in regnal years, Ashoka anchored the various n his reign in relation to the year of his consecration.5 the earliest known monarch of ancient India to have nts from the time when he was anointed. Many rulers, afterwards, such as the Satavahanas of western India, the east, and the Cholas in peninsular India, would h this practice of recording events in relation to the since the consecration of the king in question.6 But her monarchs who, by the first century bce, had begun vents in terms of a more continuous era, where the

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e Gupta year 154 (‘a century of years increased by fiftybeing the time of Kumaragupta II, with the year possibly that the era originated with the first ‘Maharajadhiraja’ asty, Chandragupta I.8 Many rulers in their epigraphs es wholly in relation to the starting year of their reign, ditional provision of a second date which measures time ively longer duration, often calculated according to a political era. So, had Ashoka used a system of reckoning , both regnal and dynastic, the time that elapsed between on of his grandfather Chandragupta and Ashoka’s own n may well have been precisely known. ‘dates’ figure in the astonishing number of his imperial ere inscribed on stone, rock faces, and pillars. On them r offered all kinds of information, ranging from what d in the royal kitchen to his distaste for inane social . The epigraphs are frequently long, and the insights rovide about his later life, his aspirations, and those of tration and his subjects, are often communications in son: the emperor is addressing us. This in part is what xpectations among historians of this stoneware yielding about Ashoka’s early life. These expectations have been ere is not even passing mention of any milestones relating princely years; he does not speak of his ancestors, nor own parents.9 Epigraphs in later centuries are known to sively described the lineages of rulers who had had royal corded. Even the lineages of previous and present queenmetimes appear, alongside details of victories in battle, often attributed by the kings to the gods and goddesses orshipped. Such inscriptions occasionally mention the oyal protagonist before he became king. This is so in the y bce Hathigumpha epigraph of Kharavela, the ruler of o led successful campaigns against Magadha, Anga, and

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s (and) who had become well-versed in all (branches) or nine years (the office of) Yuvaraja (heir apparent) ered.’10 eticence over his personal affairs is stark. This, as we y well be on account of events specific to his early life, se by the time the epigraphs were composed he had eloped an aversion for social ceremonies performed —he specifies these—such as the birth of a son, or the n offspring.11 There is also the fact that at the time he ctice of inscribing edicts on stone surfaces, Ashoka had al template before him. He does not appear to follow s of the manual of statecraft, the Arthashastra, which be that when the commands of the king are set down be ‘a courteous mention of the country, the sovereignty, d the name’ of the king.12 Or else, perhaps deliberately, to follow the prescribed format. Instead of mention­ y and genealogy—of immense interest to us but not im—he records only what was of central importance official consecration ceremony (or ‘abhisheka’) seems important to him, suggesting that the wielding of e consequent ability to mould a population were what ents in the life of a monarch, and not those prior to his uler, were significant. Where he was taking himself and attered; where he came from did not. did not care to create his own version of the events y life, there is no independent contemporary account We hear of his early life only in legends so separat­ime—by hundreds of years—that it seems a primary any biographical account to discount their historical are all texts that create stories about Ashoka’s birth and nd in doing so show something of how he came to be fter his death. What makes these stories useful despite

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ngest thread to emerge from the lore is that Ashoka’s emperor of India was predicted. It was first predicted of Ashoka’s own earlier lives. The ‘prophet’ who fore­as an ascetic. This is unsurprising: ancient India, much n India, was awash in holy men claiming clairvoyance. ecific sage was not your average run-of-the-mill sooth­ as the greatest of all ancient ascetics, Gautama Buddha While the Buddha lived much of his life in the sixth cen­whereas Ashoka, as the third emperor of the Maurya longed to the third, within sacred biographies of the radition chronological fluidity appears to have been mon.14 Within this textual mode biographies, especially ting the Buddha, characteristically recount a past life ing into a later rebirth or rebirths, or moving from the the past. In the instance at hand, a Buddhist emperor ated into this tradition, making Ashoka a prediction to the Buddha. His coming, by being foretold by the mself, conjoins the two, making them seem inseparable other. Such insertion via legend of an earlier life of the the introduction of a standard motif used in the an­ —predisposing an audience to feel awed at the arrival aviour long awaited. Jesus was foretold, the Buddha was oses was foretold. In those times it almost seems that ’t been foretold you were not likely to be a sufficiently religious figure or kingly personage. The telling of the Buddha’s prophecy about Ashoka’s future arrival is an adroit religious narration. y is first told in the Ashokavadana, which is a Sanskrit he life of Ashoka (in the form of a legend) written in century ce.15 ‘Avadana’ means a noteworthy deed that ways in which the actions of one’s existence are linked of former or future lives.16 In this class of literature, as

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pens again and again under changed circumstances conditions,17 the repetition serving as the narrative duces the religious feeling of an approaching marvel— he Chronicle of a Birth Foretold. n of the Buddha is, in this tradition, instrumental y where glimmerings of future greatness are first re­ e, the Buddha is shown as having encountered an earl­ f Ashoka in the city of Rajagriha. Ashoka was, when tered, a young boy, Jaya by name, who lived in this a, which the sage had entered seeking alms. Walking iha’s main thoroughfare, the Buddha saw two young in the dirt. One of them, Jaya, on seeing the Buddha, ace a handful of dirt in his begging bowl. Typically, in the act of offering is accompanied by the formulation tatement of intent about the merit to be gained by the tement is straightforward enough. By the good merit n, he said, ‘I would become king and, after placing the single umbrella of sovereignty, I would pay homage to uddha.’ Children usually have more modest aspira­tions no ordinary child. The Buddha certainly believed so, aya had the character and the resolve to achieve what As he predicted, ‘the desired fruit would be obtained is field of merit.’ He therefore received the ‘proffered us ‘the seed of merit that was to ripen into Ashoka’s planted.’ Soon thereafter the Buddha predicted to his nda that a hundred years after his death ‘that boy will g named Ashoka in the city of Pataliputra. He will be harmaraja, a chakravartin who rules over one of the nts, and he will distribute my relics far and wide and hty-four thousand dharmarajikas.’19 n order to sound plausible, create credible contexts for hey recount. This legend certainly got the historical

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chapter, what we know of the precincts of Pataliputra ble remains will be elucidated. Here, it is enough to e veracity of such historical details surely endows an y to the text’s description of those centuries. This cannot ut all aspects of the text, as, for instance, its sense of y. The statement that Ashoka lived about a hundred he death of the Buddha is incorrect even in terms of the pronouncement that eleven generations of kings separa­ara, who was the king of Magadha in the time of the om Ashoka. Apparently, ‘one hundred years’ was only a esting that the era of Ashoka was much after the time of .20 t about the story itself? For those readers who are in­ he telling of a good story, the Avadana account may leave g shortchanged. This is because the future of Ashoka is ry early in the tale. Generally speaking, in the crafting phy, even while it is assumed that the reader is aware d contours of the life of the personage who forms its story is told in a way that ensures there is anticipation, nd drama. In this ancient saga around a historical life lements which are in danger of being compromised— the prophecy. Very early on, this prophecy is made and nt intention in the narrative that follows is to show how lfilled. the ancients see the pronouncing of a prophecy in the e do? Prophecy, as a narrative technique, was employed poets in Greece. There, such prophecies, by anticipating d befall the protagonist, apparently ensured that those he narration did so with heightened interest. The epi­ ected with the return and vengeance of the Greek eus in the Odyssey are an example of this, for through readers see in advance ‘the doom that awaits the suitors

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important than ‘story’, if by story we mean asking the at happens next?’ and if by ‘plot’ we want to know ‘in this happen?’ So, it may well be that in some ancient res, rather than taking away the suspense, prophecy as having aroused and maintained it. Possibly, this ains the ancient legend around Ashoka where the the Buddha gave the story a sense of unity. It ensured ntion of readers and listeners was never diverted from g of the main plot even as the trials and tribulations of those whose lives he touched, were fleshed out. s about Ashoka’s ‘coming’ recur on two occasions in , though the predictors are different. The text has me distance by then, into the arena of action involving mperor’s real life (in contradistinction to his previous he prophecy is first repeated when a beautiful young in the near future will become his mother, enters the will call the woman simply his ‘mother’ because her udes us. She is known by various names elsewhere, s Subhadrangi, also as Dharma, at times Durdhara.22 ts do not think it necessary to give her a stable name. omes from, her native place, is not usually mentioned t texts, though in this respect the Ashokavadana is an cause it does specify her birthplace: it describes her ful daughter of a Brahman from Champa.23 If so, the gins of Ashoka lie in an ancient city of some fame, an ment not at too great a distance from Pataliputra. Like n capital, Champa was in its day an imposingly forti­ ounded by a moat, not far from the Ganga.24 Its ruins igh square plateau that can be seen on the outskirts of galpur in Bihar.25 g back to the reiteration of the original prediction: as s, Champa’s citizen, this daughter of a Brahman, came

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common in Indian religious and hagiographical texts in Middle Eastern and European, the classic example ’s dream in which the Angel Gabriel tells her she will the future Jesus. An instance of a trope where ambitious a prince’s mother find special mention exists also in the a. Possibly for this reason they are seen as posing a threat by being in league with the princes.26 he prophecy by the Buddha, where the persona of the ndows his words with a religious aura, the diviners in e happen to be anonymous. Neither their names nor station are mentioned. They are merely people who Brahman that his daughter will be betrothed to a king. usly, they prophesy the destiny of the sons she will bear, m, according to the soothsayers, will become the emperor. ge puts it: ‘The fortune tellers predicted she would marry bear two jewel-like sons: one would become a cakravartin one of the four conti­nents, the other would wander forth s religious vows.’27 y goes that the Brahman, excited by what he had been is daughter to Pataliputra and offered her in marriage to r Bindusara. Here again, the political circumstances of ntury bce are accurately invoked in that the Brahman is aking his daughter to the pre-eminent city of India, the pital from where the Maurya king ruled. Unlike in earlier tiple kingdoms and republics competing with each other, which Ashoka was born, as we have noted, large parts of inent had been brought within the political ambit of a mpire whose monarch resided in Pataliputra. Certainly, with ambitions of greatness, it was logical, as in the case mpa Brahman, to be heading to that royal capital. ile, the emperor was not ‘waiting’ for this girl from arrive in his court. By this time Bindusara had a sub-

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a son, in her case, seems to have required patience and e of her beauty, the concubines in Bindusara’s court r from getting physically close to the emperor for they he made love to her he would no longer pay them . She was, instead, taught by them to be an excellent did they know that she, being determined to fulfil would wield her razor in a way that would ensure she ruler-husband. Apparently, as she began to groom the nd hair, she did it with such skill that he began to relax nd fall asleep. Since her grooming gave him so much dusara decided to grant her a wish. It was then that she she wanted him to pleasure her, make love to her. No n, Bindusara hesitated over her propositioning because . He belonged to the Kshatriya (warrior) caste and he t she, from the evidence of her skills, had been born arber’s family. When he learnt that she was the daughter n, and moreover of a Brahman who had given her to e, he promptly made her his chief wife and fulfilled her ara must have had many wives and some of them, this s, were forgotten as soon as he married them. But in ng discovered that his barber was intended as his wife, nstalled her in that capacity, Bindusara made up for ere was much dalliance and mutual enjoyment which er becoming pregnant and giving birth to Ashoka. legend which describes how the Brahman girl from filled what had been prophesied also recounts that, n was born, it was she who named him. Apparently, ant’s birth was being celebrated she was asked what uld be, and since she replied that she had no sorrow, given the name Ashoka (a-shoka: ‘without sorrow’).28 have continued to remain fascinated with this name equently, when a second son was born to her, this

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ich time he was a young prince. Again, it is his mother minent as a protagonist in this story, now along with a Ajivika ascetic. The Ajivika link with Ashoka’s mother, ter evident, also appears in a different form in another und his birth. Among the cast of characters who knew ka’s ‘coming’, the mother and an Ajivika are common to ories. he anonymous soothsayers of Champa, this Ajivika was not a faceless entity. He is introduced to us as ajiva, a religious man who was requested by none other sara to examine his sons. This was because the ascetic t of scrutiny, in this case the power to recognize who best after Bindusara’s death. Initially, Ashoka was un­ e examined, for his father is said to have disliked him. for this, in the text, has to do with Ashoka’s unattractive —his skin was rough and unpleasant to the touch. is mother advised Ashoka not to resist being examined. when he, along with various other princes, was subject­ge’s gaze, it became evident to the Ajivika that Ashoka ed Bindusara. Yet although Pingalavatsajiva realized this, it prudent not to pronounce his choice immediately, w the ruler-father did not like Ashoka. So, without men­ name to Bindusara, he made the prediction that the ad the best mount, seat, drink, vessel and food’ would e emperor. Ashoka later told his mother: ‘The back of t was my mount, the earth was my seat, my vessel was ay, boiled rice with curds was my food, and water was herefore, I know I shall be king.’30 In much the same a’s persona had earlier passed the Buddha’s scrutiny and nized as destined for future greatness, the suitability of ult prince as Bindusara’s heir is linked in the story with l qualities. Pingalavatsajiva is said to have met Ashoka’s

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rmal for a queen who had been made aware of her but whose progeny did not include the eldest male husband, to have kept the knowledge to herself. In mous royal households there were other queens who milar ‘kingly’ ambitions for their sons: everyone fami­ Valmiki Ramayana will recall the several wives of king of Ayodhya, one of whom, Kekayi, machinates ons against those of her co-wives and thereby sets the n motion. In terms of the present narrative, the queen ers secret was also necessary because Bindusara’s eld­ma, who was expected to succeed his father, was very d, as perhaps was Susima’s watchful mother. And there ll, the emperor himself who actively disliked Ashoka ot have taken kindly to such a prediction. ugh, for a moment, stay with the sage who—following himself in the footsteps of the Buddha—reconfirmed iny. Why does a sage of the Ajivika order figure as the kes this prediction? And who were these ascetics? d Indian religion’ is how the doctrine of the Ajivikas d by A.L. Basham, the pre-eminent authority on this ays ‘vanished’ because the religion, unlike other faiths roots, has no modern adherents.31 This extinct sect’s a religious leader called Makkhali Goshala who lived century bce. It was a time when unorthodox doc­ hed within a wider climate of religious ferment across Like his contemporaries, Mahavira and the Buddha, shala has been described as a charismatic preacher and known to have created a sect around his beliefs, whose was an all-embracing doctrine of predestination, one man effort had no place.32 Such rigid determinism was ndian thinkers and preachers in the milieu in which his followers flourished. The Ajivikas must certainly

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t from one Ajivika no others had been reborn in heaven.33 monks are also shown as having greatly disliked being r Ajivikas. This happened, for instance, when they were heir robes and, on entering the city of Sravasti naked, izens wondering who these ‘handsome naked Ajvikas’ he same time, relations between them were frequently cordial, as for example when an Ajivika became the he news to a group of Buddhist monks that their teacher d ‘parinirvana’ (upon his death) in Kushinara. In this e Ajivika was shown holding a flower, the flower of the r ‘mandarava’, which he knew to be one that only grew d of gods or paradise, and which fell to earth only when d auspicious event had taken place.35 As for relations ivikas and Jainas, there is a similar play of cordiality . The Jaina tradition alludes to the early friendship and of Makkhali Goshala and Vardhamana Mahavira, the rth Jaina ‘tirthankara’ (teacher of the path of liberation). ween the two sects, though, became much less cordial couple of conversions of Ajivikas to the Jaina faith.36 these sects were looking to expand their following and ompeting for converts and adherents will have been an reason for the rivalries among them. Another reason ave been the competition for royal patronage. Like the d his followers, Makkhali Goshala was a name known circles of Magadha. During the Buddha’s lifetime, we ministers in the court of Ajatashatru, the king of Magadha, he names of six teachers, one of whom was Goshala, he capacity to resolve the king’s doubts. So, along with er sects, the kings of Magadha were patrons of the Ajivi­ back as the sixth century bce. Later, such ascetics are cising considerable influence in the court of the Maurya is is obvious from the ease with which they move in and

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diction back to the time when Ashoka was a young r version presents the prince’s future as having been edicted, again before he was born, by a religious per­ happened to be an Ajivika. When his mother was preg­ m, her cravings for all kinds of unusual and odd things ly become a matter of concern for Bindusara. In this ing first sought the assistance of the Brahmans in his many Brahmans he sought out is unknown, but they ed to comprehend the queen’s cravings. Eventually, na, an Ajivika known to frequent the queen’s family, ood them and pronounced the political destiny of the as the future ruler of Jambudvipa. As a geographical dvipa is sometimes used for an island, and at other territory extending from the Himalayas in the north the south.38 We shall later see, by the time of Ashoka, pigraphs underline, Jambudvipa meant the vast land eror ruled. What is striking is that in this tale too the Ajivika ascetic is deployed to drive home the point that destined to be emperor of India. vika acted as the augur and not, for instance, a Buddhist even a Brahman sage, needs to be unravelled. Actually, nsight into this is offered by something we know about his own epigraphs: he actively patronized this sect after the throne of Pataliputra.39 The caves that he donat­ikas at Barabar near Gaya are marked by his donative hese elaborate caves and the king’s carvings there will at length later; here, it is worth pointing out that these inary caves but were created, through a substantial oney and men, by hollowing out granitic outcrops.40 rs that the emperor set up in various parts of his em­ teriors were mirror polished, giving them uniquely lls. The reasons for Ashoka making such a generous

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ctive predictions made several centuries after Ashoka e Mauryan throne. The version of his early life in which prophesied his future, and in which the soothsayers in d the Ajivika Pingalavatsa in Pataliputra figure, is earlier part—as we saw—of the Ashokavadana. There are several dition in the text, some of which possibly go back to the es bce.41 In its present form, though, the Ashokavadana ed, composed in or after the second century ce, which rediction some four centuries after the time of Ashoka. related prophecies pop up at its very beginning, when predicts the future birth of a Buddha-like figure. One ars after his death, he says at this point, a son will be perfumer in Mathura who will carry forward his own diction, then, whether of the birth of a future Buddha ist king, is a specific narrative device that was culturally hen speaking of the ‘coming’ of figures important to st tradition. nd version worth noting is from the Vamshatthapakasini, ary on the Mahavamsa, the Sri Lankan Buddhist chro­n­was written 800 years or so after the Ashokavadana han 1200 after the death of Ashoka—i.e. in the ninth or ry ce. In the main text, the Mahavamsa, dated to the fifth one encounters soothsayers making predictions about en on various occasions. The ancestor of the first king escent, named Vijaya, is shown as the son of a king who have been born of the union of a woman and a lion. This s a princess whom the soothsayers had prophesied as united with the ‘king of beasts’.43 Elsewhere in the text we at when Brahmans skilled in sacred texts saw the only a later king, Panduvasudeva, they foretold her son as uncles for the sake of the throne.44 The Vamshatthapa­pre­dicting the destiny of Ashoka, follows the forms

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d conventions apart, are there any other reasons for of an emperor to have been predicted in this way? e other kinds of events that are prophesied in this way, orical figures whose destinies are similarly prefigured dia? e Ashoka was born, prophecies and prognostications— by allusions to ‘events’ that either would transpire or s a consequence of particular signs—had long be­ able practice, an incorporation of superstition into nt belief systems by which everyday life was lived. s, auspicious or otherwise, could be indicated by the in kinds of birds—as the oldest Indian text, the Rig es.45 Birds also figure as omens in another text of the the Atharva Veda, in which something fallen from f a black bird was considered ominous because that was supposed to be the mouth of Nirrti, goddess of rruption.46 The disturbing or disruptive behaviour of mals appears in all kinds of early literature, from the where a category of ascetics depicted are those who he cries of birds and monkeys, to the Parantapa Jataka Bodhisattva (the future Buddha) learns to understand of animal cries while studying at the city of Taxila.47 In es the signs to be ‘read’ depend upon the constellation boy, for instance, believed to have been born on an astrological constellation might himself die or bring ath of his father or his mother.48 r of such planetary conjunctions, as indicators of e and misfortune, is also central to the great Sanskrit ent India. In the Ramayana, when Ravana is getting Rama in battle, the planets are blamed: ‘Mercury stood Rohini nakshastra which is presided over by Prajach is the favourite of the moon and thereby indicat­49

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of the Kurus, while when ‘a very frightful comet stands ushya-nakshastra’ it meant that terrible evil would visit mies in conflict.50 Such examples suppose that know­ the future, even though usually hidden, can be secured anding spe­cific signs. The phenomenon of prediction ion, in fact, is part of all kinds of ancient literature and as to think of Joseph in the Old Testament using a cup on, or of the Chinese work I Ching, the Confucian classic on, to realize that this phenomenon was not confined Much later, West Asia’s Qu’ranic stories about Biblical ude to such practices, as when the Qu’ran recounts that or the commencement of the Flood, for Noah, was a nace.52 ces used for foretelling events in the world of ancient ne imagines, were those that were culturally acceptable he ancient world of the Greek epics it was usual for leave the role of prophecy to his characters. So, in the ok of the Iliad, it was Zeus in conversation with Hera esied various deaths when ‘Achilles shall send Patroclus but that when Patroclus has slain many Trojan youths own son, Sarpedon, Hector in turn shall kill him; then anger shall slay Hector and later the Achaeans with d shall take the city of Ilium.’53 This also underlines the epic tales, from Greece to India, prophesying war and as commonplace, and that through these the listeners knew in advance who was going to be defeated, who e in the Greek texts such predictions were articulated by s, and other such characters, in the Indian epics it was mon to spell out what the stars foretold. and soothsayers in ancient India were well versed in d used their knowledge to become powerful. Presum­s reason, such specialists were not always liked. In speci­-

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e did not always apply to them, and evidently they ered acceptable in the royal court of the Mauryas. astra seems to suggest that the king should appoint as (or ‘purohita’) not only someone whose family and re exalted and who had thoroughly studied the Vedic o one who had trained ‘in divine signs, in omens and e of politics and capable of counteracting divine and mities by means of Atharvan remedies.’55 me, predictions at the time of their birth about the their future career also formed part of the popular reat men. The future glory of the Bud­dha had been precisely this way. He was born as ‘Siddhartha’ in the the sixth century bce and, the story goes, it was a sage lared at his birth that he would attain greatness. This a, a Brahman who was also the teacher of the Buddha’s odhana. He is supposed to have developed psychic would often spend the day in the  world of the gods orld). On one such occasion he encountered the gods reat rejoicing and learnt that Siddhartha Gautama, ecome the Buddha, had been born.56 Immediately, he dhodana’s palace and asked to see the child. From the arks on the child’s body he knew that the infant was clay’ but would attain Bodhi (‘enlightenment’). His th the infant is described thus:

m up; and when his gaze ks and signs his lore knew well his voice and cried: peer! He’s mankind’s best!’57

ccurs in an early collection of discourses called the a work which is part of the Buddhist tradition com­ a hundred years of the death of the Buddha. Versions

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arlier Pali version.58 In all instances, though, as in the oka’s coming, these are retrospective predictions made

nturies that followed, such stories about rulers came to st specially when recounting the life of a king who was -born male child of the king or not in the existing system niture the heir to the throne. In the seventh century ce hana’s court chronicler Bana, using elaborate poetic de­ts that when his mother Yashovati was pregnant with behaviour reflected the thoughts of the future sovere­ carrying. This was evident, we are told, in the fact that ewelled mirrors she preferred to see her reflection on f a sword, and instead of the lute she found pleasure in bow’s twang (‘ill suited to a woman’, Bana says).59At his though he was the second son, it was predicted by an whose advice was sought by the king, that Harsha was onjunction fit for the birth of a universal emperor. larities in the later legend around Ashoka and the story —neither of whom were the oldest sons of their fathers ot rightful heirs to the throne—is striking. In both in­have odd signs connected with pregnant queens, as also o had powerful insights into what such signs meant. This the characteristic narrative mode of a culture in which s regularly smuggled into the picture in the shape of a he function of such prophecy being to bestow legitimacy sion otherwise dubious. time to travel to Pataliputra, the city of Ashoka’s child­ f his later years. Not everything about the period of this eror needs to be extracted from legitimizing lore cons­ dreds of years after his death. Unlike the emperor himself, er and culture of Pataliputra can be reconstructed from re contemporary with Mauryan times. Through them

2

Pataliputra and the Prince

ndredth year after the Nirvana of Tathagata, there was a d Ashoka (O-shu-kia), who was the great-grandson of -raja. He changed his capital from Rajagriha to Patali nd built an outside rampart to surround the old city. n many generations have passed and now there only e old foundation walls (of the city).1

s how the history of the creation of the al city of Pataliputra was described by Xuanzang, the us Chinese pilgrim who came there in the seventh cene than 800 years after the reign of Ashoka. Of the many dhists who came to India, Xuanzang was the traveller ered for the extensiveness of his forays across India, Kashmir and Punjab to Bihar, Assam, and the penin­ er he went, he recorded his observations on monas­d cities, stupas, the myths surrounding them, and a e.

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re as the new capital of Magadha by Ashoka—no doubt n told this or gleaned it from existing legend. Contrary uanzang believed, however, Pataliputra’s establishment a’s capital did not have anything to do with Ashoka, hinese pilgrim may have been confusing Bindusara sara—the latter, at any rate, had no relationship of any Ashoka.2 By the time of Xuanzang’s visit, his account agadha’s realm included towns which were well peopled, e old city of Pataliputra was a somewhat unimpressive ng settlement, one that he characterized as ‘having long derness’ whose ‘foundation walls had survived’.3 By ang probably meant that the ruins of earlier buildings isible within the city. He had encountered such ruins aces across India before, but, exceptionally in the case tra, the visible traces of stupas, pillars, old towers, and nes seemed to him to be closely associated with Ashoka. ciations appear to match many of the legends that by unded Ashoka, and Xuanzang is likely to have been h their Chinese versions.4 So, for instance, the early part reign was recounted in them as being marked by much nce the emperor was known to have been a notoriously t at that point in his reign. Proof of his tyranny was ison or ‘hell’ which he had built, a place where all who re killed without any chance of self defence’. After his to Buddhism, the 84,000 stupas that Ashoka is supposed ed throughout his empire over the relics of the Buddha y mentioned, the first of these being recorded as created of the prison in Pataliputra. By the time of Xuanzang, was in ‘a leaning, ruinous condition’, though its crowning carved stone, with a balustrade around it, had survived. ere was a stone on which the Buddha had apparently rked by the impression of both his feet, a sacred fea­

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nches broad), the circle signs embossed on them, and n which fish and flowers fringed all ten toes. Not far ne, he noted a massive stone pillar with a mutilated which, he said, recorded that ‘Ashoka-raja with a firm faith has thrice bestowed Jambudvipa as a religious Buddha, the Dharma, and the assembly, and thrice med it with his jewels and treasure; and this is the of.’5 Since no Ashokan pillar that we know has such an n it, this was possibly a story circulating around the Xuanzang gathered from local people.6 fact is more the staple of the narrative than measurable the way he describes it, Ashoka’s imprint on Patali­ cape was practically predetermined since the Buddha prophesied it as a city of the future. This happened ddha, on his last journey towards Kushinagara, looked well at Magadha, and, impressing his feet upon the ch he stood, said to his companion-disciple Ananda: ears hence there shall be a King Asoka; he shall build al and establish his court, and he shall protect the three d command the genii.’ If Ashoka’s destiny as emperor been predicted by the Buddha in the Ashokavadana, is invoked as having prophesied, and thereby obliquely reation by Ashoka of his royal capital. nzang’s account of Pataliputra portrayed it primarily city may have to do with what the pilgrim imbibed antiquarians and the derelict relics that the populace n, come to associate with the legends around the peror. His familiarity with Chinese versions of many tten several centuries before his time, may well have him to seek confirmation of their in situ authenticity.7 liputra, though, was very different from the remem­

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was, in a manner of speaking, the progeny of the ng been seeded at the topographical point where people moved across the river and along its right bank. Like e trajectory followed by the settlement was linear. Some beginning of recorded history, around the sixth century ars or so before Ashoka was born, a settlement stood which the sprawling city of Patna has now overtaken, r the confluence of the Son river with the Ganga. We because surviving traces of that first settlement contain pal deluxe pottery of that time, the North Black Polished called because a lot of this pottery is usually a shiny as been found in many parts of North India.8 This early was also the one where the Buddha, on his last journey ate of Magadha, is said to have stayed. Pataligrama was called then, suggesting its origins in a village (‘grama’). pparently addressed his devotees in a council hall be­g the Ganga towards Vaishali.9 journing in its vicinity the Buddha is reported as having nds of magical creatures haunting Pataligrama. This he as a sign that a fortress was being built. The intuition med by his disciple, Ananda, who told him that the chief f Magadha—the capital of which was located further nd Rajagriha—were building a fortress to better defend against the Vajji state. monarchical Magadha, the Vajjis were a republican poli­ eracy which dominated a region that stretched beyond nk of the Ganga, in the vicinity of Basarh. Seeing this n as the influence of powerful ‘fairies’ who ‘bend the e most powerful kings and ministers to build dwellingBuddha is believed to have made a prophecy about the ataliputra to his disciple: ‘And as far, Ananda, as Aryan rt, as far as merchants travel, this will become the chief

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e that needs to be justified, as well as to legitimize eat foreseer; it seems thus that much before he began e future greatness of Ashoka, he prophesied the subse­ minence of Pataliputra. This prophecy to Ananda is a ccounts from the late centuries bce till at least the time . In the early texts, however, Ashoka is not credited ation of the capital; the Chinese pilgrim’s account of prediction about Pataliputra is in this respect novel. dha’s sojourn at and pronouncements about what the pre-eminent city of ancient India point to two rs in the evolution of Pataliputra. One is the role of rade routes in sustaining the city as a crucial hub. This sing, for farmers and fishing folk were familiar with the vicinity of Pataliputra from a time well before the links and locales of third millennium bc sites like e Son river, some thirty-odd km west of Pataliputra, on the northern bank of the Ganga, not far from haghara river joined it, suggest this. Pataliputra’s land from the beginning, linked it to Rajagriha and the ur plateau on the one hand, and Gaya–Bodh Gaya and e other. factor, about improving the defensive strength of ates to a more specific sixth century bce feature. It shift that was necessitated from hill-girt Rajagriha, al of the state of Magadha, to Pataliputra in the Ganga 2.1 and 2.2). Capitals are known to have been shifted r regions, Delhi for example being a city where seven are said to have come up at different points in time. ether Delhi’s cities, like Indraprastha and Shahjahana­ the banks of the Yamuna, or as in the case of Lal Kot abad, were located in the rocky Aravalli hills, they were few kilometres of each other. Pataliputra and Raja­

Fig. 2.1:  The hills of Rajagriha with a stupa in the foreground

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s perhaps the only natural feature in its favour. The tonously flat and fairly swampy on its edges, fringed by marshes created by the Punpun river. Rajagriha, by girdled by magnificent hills that gave it a naturally aracter. Additionally, extensive cyclopean fortress-like ilt across the hills, as also all kinds of structures rang­ing ic retreats to royal residences.11 And yet, as Magadha d jostled for territorial supremacy over states that ng and beyond the left bank of the Ganga, it became clear that it was impractical for the political hub of an state to be located there. From the interior hilly ter­griha, it would not have been possible to adequately ate’s exposed long flank along the river. tion towards the swampy plains began in the time of atru (493–462 bce). He is credited with converting the Pataligrama into the fortified urban complex which alled Pataliputra. As noted, he did this so that it could se against the aggressive Vajji (or Lichchavi) republic. the Gangetic plains were dominated—as were many f India—by the Magadha-based Mauryas, but at this e there were several states in North India, the balance ctuating and shifting between them, creating tensions ionships with each other. The Lichchavi confederacy hese many states. Militarily, it formed a powerful force Ajatashatru only after a protracted conflict that lasted or more (c. 484-468 bce). The creation of fortifica­ligrama was probably an important part of the stra­ect Magadha’s Gangetic flank against the aggressive ome fifty years later, in the reign of Ajatashatru’s suc­ n, Pataliputra became Magadha’s capital city. some decades of his death, Pataliputra, it would ap­ ved fast towards fulfilling the Buddha’s prophecy. Of

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Fig. 2.2:  The Ganga river near Patna

was a retrospective insertion into folklore (of the kind ountered around Ashoka in the last chapter). er way we look at it, what makes this first description so spot on is that it captures its essence. The lifeblood n metropolis of Pataliputra, as we shall see, was the web ons, political and commercial, that inextricably bound ns and people, near and far, making it a place whose ended much beyond the city walls that enclosed it. It ines the fact that whatever became its purported past e it was visited by Buddhist pilgrims from China, the rigins of this city and its consolidation as a political capi­hing to do with the family or the line of kings to which onged.

* * *

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Magadha’s political capitals—Rajagriha and Pataliputra

when Ashoka’s grandfather Chandragupta was the g, the famous Greek writer-traveller-diplomat Megas­ some time in the city and left behind a vivid and, d by modern excavations, fairly accurate description sions and character of the city. So we can be reason­ that the city where Ashoka and his siblings spent g years was as described in the narrative of the Greek

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26 bce. While the plains of Punjab figure prominently criptions of Alexander’s army as it sailed down rivers d across the Indus plains, they neither ventured further m nor south-east along the flow of the Ganga. Unlike his s, Megasthenes did. He travelled much further and saw dia, especially Gangetic India, than any foreigner before ng off from Arachosia, he went across Punjab and the ains to spend time at the court of ‘Sandrakottos, king of , Sandrakottos being Greek for Chandragupta. Arachosia in the Helmand area of what is now south Afghanistan, on known by that name possibly stretched till the upper he Indus river. It was controlled by Sibyrtius, a satrap originally appointed by Alexander, and Megasthenes this satrap’s staff. He seems to have spent some time in but if he had any thoughts about that province he does hem with us, nor says anything of note about the places or the people he met there. We do not even know for o he represented at the court of Chandragupta, though that he travelled at the Macedonian satrap’s behest.12 ould have arrived from Arachosia is not surprising, for pta himself, after he had conquered the Nanda king­ cended the throne at Pataliputra, is known to have had designs on the Indus plains and beyond. Whether the dering that river had been annexed by Chandragupta by egasthenes visited Pataliputra is a matter of some con­ The fact that he visited Chandragupta’s capital city and witness account of it, however, is universally acknow­ espite the original text in which he penned his account n swallowed up by the sands of time. ca is what that lost account by Megasthenes is called; the ome down to us from fragments and quota­tions in the ter classical writers. Doubts about several of these frag­-

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d wanted to say something about all of India, both w to be true and what he didn’t. He pro­nounc­ed, for the women of the ‘Pandaian’ land bore children when years of age, and described a race of men ‘among the ians who instead of nostrils have merely orifices’ and re contorted like snakes.16 Yet even those justifi­ably bsolute veracity in the account of such a fanci­ful ob­ tain that he had the unprece­dent­ed advantage of having tra, and that the fragments in which the description of urs were definitely penned by Megasthenes himself. cities in general he says, ‘the number is so great that stated with precision’; several, made of brick and on ‘lofty eminences’, while others were built of wood he banks of rivers or the sea coast.17 Of these, he only expansive account of ‘Palimbothra’, the Greek name ra, the greatest city in India, in part because of its tion with the ruling Maurya, for ‘the king, in addition name, must adopt the surname of Palibothros, as , for instance, did.’ Whether Chandragupta’s name was suffixed grandeur by his capital city is uncertain, but as he built a vast empire, this was the city which formed base of his imperium and of that of the Mauryan ho followed him. ttos’ plays second fiddle to Pataliputra in what survives sthenes account. It was a city that occupied a long where the Ganga and the Son (called Erranoboas by ) met, ‘a city eighty stadia [c. 14 km] in length and km] in breadth. It is of the shape of a parallellogram d by a wooden wall, pierced with loopholes for the arrows. It has a ditch in front for defence and for re­ wage of the city.’18 The description makes the city long 9 One calculation suggests this would mean a city that 20

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easy to get archaeological precision on the size of the ropolis as it stood during Mauryan times since the palaces, the streets and markets, the pillars and sculp­ so much else of Pataliputra lies buried under some centuries of strata below modern Patna. So, how have sts managed to arrive at a rough calculation of its as been possible because wooden ramparts of the sort by Megasthenes have been detected in various areas They have not been unearthed in a continuous line, o, by plotting on a map wherever these were found, a sense of size can be obtained.21 One calculation is that closed by the timber ramparts would have been around res; another assessment computes the fortified city as ler, between 1200 and 1300 hectares. Either way, as the st F.R. Allchin put it, ‘even if the more modest figures re near correct, Pataliputra would have been far larger her South Asian city of its day, and on this score alone inly qualify for the title of Metropolis.’22 Ashoka would to other cities in the course of his duties as a prince, and g so is likely to have noticed that many of these too had mparts and overlooked rivers. But they will have seem­ an compared to his ancestral city. Two locations that minently in Ashoka’s early years are Vidisha and Taxila. rts of Vidisha enclosed around 240 hectares, while the ity at Taxila covered a mere 50 hectares. So, in terms ale, the urban landscape of Ashoka’s early years was he Pataliputra of his childhood was not just any walled banks of a big river. It was by the standards of the time us sprawl which, by comparison with other Indian es and cities, was colossal. awling metropolis now formed the political core of nental empire which, with an emperor residing in it,

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id of Ashoka’s forefathers instead of Henry IV, for tells us that the king was not meant to sleep in the by night had constantly to change his ‘couch’ because eguard himself against all the people plotting to kill s reason his care was entrusted to women, Megas­—the time lag between the Greeks and us leaving room out whether he was also being tongue-in-cheek when bservation. But safety was a pressing concern; Ashoka’s ther had usurped the crown only a short few years we know that some fifty years after Ashoka the crown atched off the Mauryan brow by another usurper. So, dynast would have had as his first instinct the cer­ng the cynosure within a predatory, treacherous am­ aggers barely sheathed round every corner. The king, says, left his palace only on specific occasions: in times he judged cases in court, when he offered sacrifice, went hunting. The rituals surrounding the hunt as the the palace are vividly captured in his account, not least are so extraordinary, the emperor being surrounded iate ring of female security guards:

women surround him, and outside of this circle spearmen The road is marked off with ropes, and it is death, for man n alike, to pass within the ropes. Men with drums and gongs ocession. The king hunts in the enclosures and shoots ara platform. At his side stand two or three armed women. If the open grounds he shoots from the back of an elephant. men, some are in chariots, some on horses, and some even on nd they are equipped with weapons of every kind, as if they on a campaign.23

er the Arthashastra corroborates the Indica. It tells women among the king’s trusted helpers, from bowle guards when he rose in the morning to ‘female slaves

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ocession. Ajatashatru is one of these kings and is shown his state elephant, with a woman attendant bearing the ind him; the accompanying elephants are mounted by houts.25 l the anecdotes and allusions relating to the Mauryan he Indica contain no description of any of their resi­ rters either, this may not have seemed a lack if the ruins ablishments had survived. But nothing has remained. ological evidence for a royal residence, and of the lia of streets and lanes and the secular and religious urrounding it, has been rendered insignificant by cen­ ust and over-building. Segments of structures and walls y emerge in the course of modern construction, in uch as Rajendranagar, where Mauryan terracottas were n sewage lines were being laid; then in the Patna Dak area, which was demolished and replaced by a Kisan the process exposing Mauryan pottery and numerous and in the Patna Museum compound where Maur­ s appeared in the course of digging for constructing a But none of these appear to be royal buildings. This is ng to those interested in visualizing the world of royalty und, especially since several medieval palace com­plexes, of the Vijayanagara rulers at Hampi to the Mughal Agra and Delhi, are well known and have survived. nces and administrative blocks of ancient Indian city generally been more elusive. Even in the Mauryan city which has been extensively excavated, we see dwelling structures along the streets and lanes, but the buildings tend to go missing; and this is true for other Mauryan l. ortant reason for the problem in relation to Pataliputra ch of what we know about it does not, in fact, come

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he remains of the wooden palisade which protected ave been revealed. This was an element of the urban vidly described by Megasthenes. Uprights of strong have been found in excavations in various parts of Patna make it clear that his description was, in this on what he actually saw. These defences were made el rows of walls constituted by wooden posts about paved with wooden sleepers, and covered above with ks. This was likely to have been a tunnel-like passage. hat was covered with earth up to a certain height on We also know that the city’s drains, which discharg­ er outside the city, were made of wood. Such details and palisades are a consequence of numerous digs in ulandibagh in Patna, a locality once dominated by a —thus allowing enough space to excavate. defences and drains seems an odd choice of material oses at hand, but it was a carefully thought out choice. ed, that of the sal tree, is unusually hard and possesses ival capacity required in Pataliputra, which then had, as day, a high level of subsoil water. In fact, in the 1926–7 of Manoranjan Ghosh on behalf of the Archaeologi­ India (ASI) at Bulandibagh, deep ponds of water had led out before digging could begin.28 The watery sur­ Patna were known to cause waterlogging, which was as used for defences and drains. Interestingly, these den planks that have since turned up in numerous loca­ a were not visible to the first archaeological explorers D. Beglar’s 1872–3 account categorically stated that in a he failed to ‘discover a single relic, or any traces of the ’ that were supposed to have been built there. This he h his hypothesis that the ancient city had been washed Ganga.29 Beglar, an assistant to Alexander Cunning­-

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ddell, a lieutenant colonel associated with the Indian vice, who had a keen interest in the history of Buddhism found substantial ‘portions of the old wooden walls of cribed by Megasthenes.’30 These regularly came to light ers dug wells: ‘On striking these great beams standing any feet below the surface the superstitious villag­ to account for the presence of the huge posts, usually heir attempted wells.’31 Later, many more features of uing structures were excavated by officers of the ASI. n the palisades had paled into the background as the a large pillared hall of Mauryan times emerged out of of Kumrahar.32 ing back to Pataliputra’s defences: whoever planned and extensive wooden structures evidently went to a great uble, for sal was not likely to have been available in any the Ganga around Pataliputra. We do not even know orests from which the sal was procured were located. The of the tree is suggested by evidence of the use of its wood ther settlements discovered in this part of India, such nd and Senuwar, the contexts here greatly antedating its at Pataliputra.33 But the real difference was in the scale liputra was the first city in the Magadha region to use or such extensive urban infrastructure. The ancient town d builders seem to have known a thing or two, for the y took to obtain and cart the wood was worth it: more ears later, long sections of their work remain intact. Chandragupta’s grandchildren view this vast woodenarchitecture? Did they climb up the watchtowers and s the ramparts, spellbound by the view? Did they strike ations with soldiers patrolling the city? The day-toalities and pleasures of a Mauryan prince’s life are not om any of the sources, but it is a reasonable assumption

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rdinary, will have been familiar with. Large freencing terracotta figures, unearthed from the locality agh, are thought to represent Mauryan court art.34 nt urbane sophistication of these female figures, with their skirts lifted, suggests dancers of the type that performed for palace people.35 One of the dancers, combed hair in a cropped front fringe, carries a small ru’) in her raised hand. She also seems to have a heavy each hand, the one on the right being pliant. archaeological haul yielded a cache of twenty-one ne discs. They were found packed together in a driedrse in the Murtaziganj locality.36 Pieces of exquisite p, with a great variety of fine detail, these miniature otus flowers, nude female figures that are thought to be fertility, and a profusion of birds and animals arranged arrots, peacocks, and geese; lions, stags, elephants, and an owl and a rhinoceros.37 Why the discs were made pose for which they were used are not clear, but they ith such exceptional skill that the supposition is they o catch the eye of an elite clientele that probably used e sort of ritual. But the localities where such elites lived y have, like the royal palaces, not survived. fficiently rued the vanished structures of the Maur­ let us look instead at an inestimable treasure that survived and has been found, namely the Arthashastra 8 This is a text extensively used by practically everyone on the Mauryas. Like the ramparts of Pataliputra, it dden from scholarly gaze for many centuries: despite lusions to it in later literature, as a material artefact not in evidence.39 The first manuscript appeared in pandit of Tanjore district handed over a set of 168 ios in the Grantha script, along with the fragment of

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Indian Antiquary and eventually as a book.40 While the was no more than a century or two old, Shamasastry it as a copy of a much older text on ancient statecraft, could be dated to the time of the Mauryas. Several other s were later unearthed, some complete, others with s missing, mainly in libraries in Travancore, Madras, n, with one version in North Gujarat.41 These, along entaries on the Arthashastra, were used by R.P. Kangle, of Sanskrit at Elphinstone College, Bombay, to preellent critical edition of the text, along with an English This edition has been used by generations of scholars grips with the treasure-house of insights and advice that of the Arthashastra offered to ambitious conquerors of turies bce. standing the fact that it is widely used for reconstruct­ n times, there are sharp differences about the date and of the Arthashastra.42 As with the Megasthenes Indica, er over the usefulness of this work as a source in the al sense for conclusions about Mauryan material life e: unlike the Indica, the Arthashastra is a theoretical h does not refer to specific events. The historian Patrick pointed out that there is a ‘Kautilya recension’ and a ic redaction’ in which the text’s structure was imposed inal treatise.43 He also provides various arguments to t the ‘Kautilya recension’ was put together much after the Mauryas. However, the cultural data on the basis e has suggested this is flawed and some of that data derlines that the original recension was likely to be of ntage.44 On balance, it is reasonable to consider the core midable manual of statecraft as being anchored in the es bce. Since it is focussed on the doings of imperial ncidental benefit is that it gives glimpses of palace life.

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heart of the residential area of a fortified city.45 The ce itself—if the text’s prescriptions were to be followed, if they were based on some idealized form of actual s made up of many halls. It stood within its own ations, comprising ramparts, a surrounding moat, and eatise designates specific places for a variety of people : the royal family would have slept in quarters given ber or group. The princes and princesses, for instance, ed to live in quarters outside the apartments for the n, including presumably their mothers. The king’s the other hand, was in the centre of the palace, at a m the family’s quarters. sions for making the king’s living quarters impregn­ulnerable are many and border on the paranoid:

cause to be constructed a living chamber in the centre in with the procedure laid down for the treasury, or a mazeconcealed passages in walls and in its centre a living chamnderground room with its opening covered by the wooden deity in a nearby sanctuary and having many subterranean nd) above it a palace with a stair-case concealed in a wall or ntrance and exit through a hollow pillar as a living chame floor fixed to a mechanism (and thus) capable of sinking rder to counteract a calamity or when a calamity is appre-

father Bindusara occupy this sort of chamber? Were allowed in, to be with him? If the prescriptions of nual were strictly followed, the children may well have entry, for certainly the queens were strongly frown­ entrants to his majesty’s living quarters. Instead, the tion was for the king to visit the inner apartments ’) of the queen favoured on a particular day, though s meant to happen only after the host queen was

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sed is Kautilya with security that his injunctions could as the rule book for a medieval nunnery. If he had also ed his way with plants and animal life, the royal home been insulated from many of these as well. Precaution ired against poison and serpents, only the shoots of as the Ashvattha, as also ‘Jivanti, Sveta, Muskaka and daka’, were admissible. The fauna deemed worthy were apparently destroyed serpents, so ‘letting loose pea­ eumons and spotted deer’ on the premises was a good rly useful among bird life, ‘the heron becomes frantic ximity of poison, the pheasant becomes faint, the cuckoo dies, the eyes of the Cakora-partridge become .’47 uarters where Ashoka and his siblings spent their grow­ here might thus have been a plethora of restrictions. he provisions made by their emperor-father for their The number of Ashoka’s siblings remains unknown, n such matters being difficult given the number of concubines available to the king, the tendency not to children at all, and the possibility of some of the king’s ourage being impregnated by male courtiers whose came indistinguishable from the king’s. The tendency in nt Indian texts is therefore to offer a symbolic number he virility and fertility of a regime: ‘101 sons’ is often ereotypical figure, which it is in one account pertaining okan context, where this number of offspring are said n born of Bindusara’s many wives.48 The exaggeration y case that many children in a polygamous royal estab­ as the norm. ey were educated remains unclear. The king himself y to have had much to do with their education since see much of his family. His daily schedule as detailed

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ecret agents, and even being blessed by a chief cook r, but no time was set aside for family and progeny. One t the sixth part of the day, when he could ‘engage in his pleasure’,49 refers to activities quite far removed ed enlarging of the minds of children. rangements were of course put in place within the e education of princes. A general sense of their up­ be had from the section in the Arthashastra which princes were to be trained. Unlike Egypt, where we a employing a distinguished scholar of Damascus to wins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, in the Mauryas the princesses were not thought worthy of n.50 No source says anything about Ashoka’s sisters. elf was likely to have been raised, like his male siblings, ective leader and administrator. A prince’s training the martial arts to more cerebral subjects. In his early robably at the age of 3, he would have been tonsured, tructed in writing and arithmetic. After his initiation ), he is likely to have had several tutors because he was earn the three Vedas and philosophy from the learned, om the heads of departments (and) the science of theoretical and practical exponents.’51 The training was conducted daily. In the first part of the day the subject how to use elephants, horses, chariots, and weapons; in t the prince was expected to listen to what is described his denotes ‘history’ in our time, but in Ashoka’s it nge of knowledge about the world. A prince listening ould have acquired narrative histories of the universe, nd the existing ideas about social functioning.52 reasonably assume that the range of able officials in Bindusara included tutors designated for such work. A harge of the princes was, we know, expected to live in

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sity towards such expansion will have been nurtured by y instruction that first honed his character. is early training was meant to ensure that the ruler’s not lacking in discipline and mental development, disciplined and undisciplined alike, were thought to ger to the king.54 In one well-known analogy, princes bs—creatures known to devour their begetters. It would the existence of sayings such as this that the thought diluted the filial gaze in every sovereign of the ancient ndisciplined sons, disaffected ones, those in disfavour, f evil intellect are described at length, as are the ways to hem or otherwise do away with them. The provisions ary according to the number of sons the king had. If his as disaffected, he was to be put in prison; if there were the recommendation was to send the disaffected one to or some other suitably distant region where he might in llowed up forever.56 pable distrust that such provisions reveals was perfect­since there was no shortage of kings who had either off or dethroned by ungrateful or ambitious sons. centuries before Ashoka a king of Magadha, Bimbisara, he sixth century bce, was murdered by his son Ajata­ hom we met earlier as the builder of the fortifications at a. Bimbisara’s contemporary Pasenadi, monarch of the ­dom, fared little better. His royal insignia was handed son Vidudabha by one of his own ministers, the son installed as king while the dispossessed father was practically everyone. ame breath that cautions kings against their sons, the ers survival techniques to princes out of favour. Disguise g refuge with a neighbouring prince are very highly parricide is reserved as the last option in worst-case

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usara send Ashoka to different parts of his empire ensed a disaffected son? Ashoka apparently went to father’s orders, but whether the emperor sent him e he wanted to keep a contrary son at bay remains y case, for us this seems a good moment to leave Patali­ what Ashoka is likely to have encountered at Taxila if d go there. ould have approached that very distant north-western at cautiously: it was really very far from Pataliputra, m or so across a land, as we shall see, of large rivers t forests. At that point in time, Taxila was also said ewhat tense and turbulent place—exactly the sort of ion to which the discontented prince was, in Kautilya’s posed to be transferred.

3

Mauryan Taxila

a is the name of an ancient city as well the sobriquet of an archaeological site. When Taxila res in the ambitions of eastern aggrandizers like the ers based in Pataliputra, or in those of invaders from the Persian Darius I and Alexander of Macedon, mainly— city that comes to mind. Its Sanskrit name, Takshashila, red down to Taxila by the Greeks when they described emost city of Punjab, and presumably since the Greek ps easier off the tongue than the Sanskrit—unlike the urd-sounding anglicization ‘Sandrakottos’ for Chandra­ abbreviation took root and was extended to describe archaeological site of Taxila. The latter is actually an f several sites: three city sites, and the ruins of many upas and monasteries scattered across hills and spurs ounding countryside, including knolls near the Tamra e northern slopes of the ridges of Margala. Of these, it is ent of people that came to occupy what is known as ound which is central to this story, since it was at the

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hokavadana which recounts his arrival there, as also ances which drove him so far to the north-west front­ ngdom. Taxila, the text tells us, was in the midst of a ch Bindusara wanted his son to quell—bizarrely, says John Strong, without weapons:

ppened that the city of Takshashila rebelled against King He therefore sent Ashoka there, saying: ‘Go, son, lay siege to Takshashila.’ He sent with him a fourfold army [consisting lephants, chariots, and infantry], but he denied it any arms. was about to leave Pataliputra, his servants informed him nce, we don’t have any weapons of war; how and with what battle?’ declared: ‘If my merit is such that I am to become king, may war appear before me!’ soon as he had spoken these words, the earth opened up brought forth weapons. Before long, he was on his way to with his fourfold army of troops.1

erpretations seem possible. Given the tendency of this giography to exaggerate and valorize its protagonist, the point of deifying him, Bindusara’s decision to send xila without the required means could simply denote cy of weapons rather than the absolute lack of them, sequent expeditionary success thereby becoming one miracles associated with his glorious career. Alternat­mean that Bindusara, who as we saw is supposed to this son of his, was engineering Ashoka’s Taxila ex­ nsure a failure that would forever remove him from may be stretching it a bit to argue that the emperor ate premonition about Ashoka not needing to resort even this perspective on the affair is not unwarranted ording to the text, though Ashoka arrived in Taxila at an armed contingent, the swords remained in their

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in Taxila, armed yet not having to resort to arms, fits ter textual representation of Ashoka who, as an ‘irononarch’ (‘ayashcakravartin’), is supposed to have ruled a (India) with the threat rather than the actual use of Whichever way you look at it, benevolence, compassion, n attitude towards his fellow human beings seem to lie of the assertion that Ashoka’s Taxila campaign was nonm start to finish. Prince Ashoka ever actually come to Taxila? He himself he did, but that is neither here nor there because we have amously reticent he was about his early life. Whoever the Ashokavadana, though, may have known that the any markers associated with Ashoka. For one, the most Buddhist monument of Taxila was a stupa whose name, ka, alludes to Ashoka. The nomenclature denotes a ructure built by the Dharmaraja of the Buddhists, the hoka. So, the Ashokavadana’s account of its protagonist’s rbulent Taxila squares with the archaeological evidence. r, the title by which Ashoka was known in his edicts e a little later in the book, was used in an Aramaic ins­ at was found at Taxila on an octagonal pillar of white e epigraph mentioned ‘our lord Priyardarshi’.4 That this i’ was Ashoka is evident from the nature of the mes­ speaks of non-injury to creatures and obedience to the ther words, Buddhists and others familiar with Taxila ave read or listened to this nugget about Ashoka’s early likely to have doubted its veracity. as clear how the scribe who put together this legend life would have visualized the city itself. Travellers fre­ nt to Taxila, a flourishing urban centre in the early cen­ nd they may have carried back impressions of its big nd broad streets. But by then it was no longer situated

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d to Ashoka, nor why its citizens had rebelled against ut this is because the work is purposive and agenda mostly a hagiographical and not a historical work. It buttress Buddhism by highlighting the fact of a great nsformed by its tenets. eaders are more fortunate than their ancient counter­ , because of the extensiveness of its ruins, they can at ancient Taxila was like. This emerged from the ailed excavations conducted by the ASI under John two decades or so from 1913. The ruins so patiently ver long years still stand, testimony of the historical hich Ashoka apparently beheld as a young man.6 The al record of Taxila, it needs to be said, is very different rative of the Ashokavadana. Dated imperial and official which can shore up the plausibility of events mentioned urces, are rare in India, as they are in large parts of world.7 So an episode such as the arrival of an armed nce and his party at Taxila has left no material trace basically unconnected with what has been identified ations, namely the building and rebuilding of houses he changing stratigraphic features, and some events e influenced those changes. This makes it possible to kind of city that Taxila was, and the quality of life of its hokan times.

* * *

ila the prince of Pataliputra would have traversed an stance, nearly 2000 km, that being roughly the distance ent-day Patna and Punjab. The journey will have been

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of the tracts were thickly forested. References in ancient he Mahabharata, as also pollen records and charred mens from sites in the upper Gangetic plains, suggest forests did not, however, deter either travel or trade. arc of communication existed across this northern ing with people and products, and was called the Uttara­ thern road). Originating in the regions beyond Taxila ng across the Indus and Gangetic plains, the Uttarapatha beyond Pataliputra, to the port town of Tamralipti on coast.9 Traders, pedlars, caravan leaders, religious men, commonly figure as travellers on this route; and, as we henes too had journeyed over this stretch. Much before nts of Magadha are known to have travelled the long way n a story set in the time of the Buddha, a resident of the capital Rajagriha, Jivaka by name, went to train under a physician at Taxila,10 returning to his home town after a that lasted as long as seven years. xts make the Uttarapatha visible through such joureological sites have yielded raw materials that were ong the same route. Beyond Taxila, from Afghanistan, for instance, appears to have been in demand in the cities axis, from Rairh in Rajasthan to Sravasti and Rajghat in Gangetic plains.11 Many other exotic stones and metals, silver, came into northern India from Afghanistan. For his was an important reason for ensuring peace in Taxila hip with its citizens. The settlement had become vital as aders and merchants from Central Asia on their journey artland of Gangetic India. cades before Ashoka’s putative journey Chandragupta d the Punjab and incorporated it into his empire, this ssary to consolidate Magadhan supremacy further up Hindukush mountains. If Taxila, the premier city of this

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provinces in the ancient East from a time preceding rrival in 326 bce: the twentieth satrapy of the Achae­ re in the sixth century bce had been described by s the richest in the Persian empire.13 The king of ated to Alexander, who is said to have sacrificed there eld ‘a competition in athletics and horsemanship’.14 , Alexander marched eastward to attack Porus, leaving xila—as he did in various other conquered cities—a Macedonians and mercenaries under a commander. The murdered their commander, but they too did not last s the end of the fourth century bce Taxila was again his time by Chandragupta. nquests such as those by Alexander and Chandragupta, roic men of the past, have been endowed with celebrity e military success and the building of vast empires— a saner perspective might justifiably be thought of as mania of the most revolting form—have come to be wonderful’ and ‘great’. Looked at from a more Ashokan oral common sense based on humanity, compassion, eeling, these men of drive and ambition slaughtered soldiers, divested Taxila of its independent political uined the lives of the city’s residents and their families. adana’s account of a restive populace, resentful of the nisters who oppressed them, if historically true, makes e. And Ashoka is likely to have been a relieved man itizens, contrary to his expectations, welcomed rather him. Taxila look like when it welcomed him? Literary ac­ nsatisfactorily silent about this. John Marshall, who nty-two years of his working life to excavating Taxila, curiosity of the Greeks accompanying Alexander when city’s shaven-headed and long-haired ascetics, whom

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ut the appearance of the city, the houses of the people, ntless other things that an archaeologist wants to know material culture.’15 Consequently we know nothing t the city’s governance by Mauryan officials which the re supposedly rebelling against. here is a welter of ruins—walls and wells, shops and d much else—from which the lives of the citizenry can ucted. Leading a contingent of men and animals, Ashoka hted Taxila from a distance, standing as it did on a plateau between 18 and 21 metres above the surrounding plains. party will have seen a crowded congeries of structures rtually the whole of the Bhir plateau, which measures metres north to south and around 668 metres east to s the city atop it.16 Size-wise Taxila was far smaller than e other great cities of Ashoka’s time, but not many were a natural promontory visible from a distance. Taxila, y well have thought, was in this respect a little like he place from where Ashoka’s mother possibly hailed— Bihar, a very old town on a tableland, seen before it is d not far from Pataliputra. my reached Taxila’s immediate surroundings the variable hat made up the skyline of the city would have become flat-roofed houses were likely to have been of varying surface of the plateau being uneven and the rubble of truction lying buried under them.17 The houses were ith clay, this clay-clad appearance of the city being much when the first settlement was established there in the ry bce. That earliest settlement was substantially smaller ies that grew over it, but its structures would have look­e because the walls of its buildings had across the cen­ evenly and thickly coated with a mixture of mud plaster

8

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e kanjur available all over the plains.19 Whereas the s of earlier settlements at Taxila were generally of a ose rubble masonry, the blocks of buildings that made yan city were neat and compact. The archaeological pan several centuries, going back to the fifth century rlier (this being designated strata IV), and continuing on of the Bactrian Greeks in the second century bce by the first or uppermost stratum). The Mauryan nd stratum, and the walls of buildings of this period e careful and clean ways of construction. The stone h, would not have been visible to the royal visitor be­ ctice of cladding them externally and internally with s to have persisted despite the improved building e city’s appearance will have struck Ashoka as starkly m that of most of the cities seen on the way to Taxila: ushambi and Hastinapur were brick-built since they vial expanses bereft of stone. he impression given by a city depends upon the har­­en the geometry of its streets and lanes with the d public structures that border them. Entering Taxila, eet will have impressed the party from Pataliputra. ts width, averaging some 7 metres and its more or alignment, ‘First Street’ is what it was fittingly called tor. 20   Visit­ors in the third century bce who used this ravelling over an artery that had been Taxila’s main since the time of its first settlement. We know this e is no debris of collapsed or demolished structures of underneath, of the kind usually encountered under uses that line roads. Instead, there is ‘only a deep accu­ mall boulders and river pebbles that had been used to et or had been dumped there from time to time when cessary to raise the level.’21

Fig. 3.1: The city plan of Mauryan Taxila on the Bhir mound

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hey do not connect with a main drain of the type have carried rain water out of the city.22 So, for all poses, the impressive main street functioned both nication axis and wet-weather watercourse. Ashoka ave enjoyed parading his troops through slushy water n First Street had his arrival been during the monsoon, the flow during downpours was more in the nature of n on account of water from the higher lanes augment­

ometry presents another contrast with the quality of t went into creating the system of drainage at Patali­we have already seen an impressive network of wooden drains. Taxila was also very different from s of the north-west, such as Harappa and Mohenjoourished in the third millennium bce. Comparisons es separated by more than two millennia are not ul, but for the historian of archaeology it is difficult of India’s first cities in connection with Taxila since o presided over the discovery of those first cities, also xila. His report on Mohenjodaro describes streets ila’s First Street, run remarkably straight and most of wed, had burnt-brick drains associated with them.23 eyond the orderly if somewhat muddy First Street, ws a city full of oddly aligned winding streets and ikely that the royal visitor and his entourage undertook e, but since archaeological details about them help rebience of movement and habitation, it is worth going is likely to have been seen. Much narrower than the hese side streets and lanes are an odd combination of winding segments.24 The Second Street, for instance, somewhat straight alignment that, less than halfway city, moves by several feet towards the west, and again

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ave been meant only for the private use of the houses d them. This was the case with Lane 2 which, towards its d, was cordoned off by a cross-wall.26 This meant that wanted to cut across from First Street to Second Street use Lane 2, which connected them. Instead, they would to follow Lane 1 or move north and turn left, on Third ane 2 in effect became a kind of private alleyway. akes this mishmash surprising is that the elegant main een the city’s thoroughfare from earliest times. Practically r streets and lanes, the awfully asymmetrical ones, were r, during the late fourth and early third centuries bce.27 have expected the later development to have emulated ionate and urban good sense of the earlier rather than of them, so the disfigurations of Taxila’s bylanes have d many a modern scholar of those times, especially as ities in Mauryan times commonly suggest a reasonable lanning. So, for instance, the ideal urban layout as des­ he Arthashastra is of a city space demarcated by six e running from east to west and three from north to is what anyone familiar with the literature of those d broadly expect to hold generally true. The reality of rban spaces, Taxila reveals, was far less regimented. he prescriptive vision, circumstances on the ground mes, as mostly in contemporary urban India, were of greater significance in how the city and its streets d. he question in relation to Taxila that needs to be answer­f the city administrators had, as seems evident, under­ gramme of public works and practically created a new ation network from scratch, why did they configure the un in such an irregular way? The answer is unclear, but on the basis of what is known from below the streets

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r properties to be acquired, and of others unwilling r land and homes being cut for the sake of straight ity planners at Taxila may have agreed in theory with found it prudent in practice to let the topography of eets and lanes be determined by the availability of land by a drawing board gridiron. The streets that resulted mpromise are winding and haphazard, but they do sent a citizen-friendly solution. that the streets were inconveniently aligned for the that used them for the transport of goods, the plan­ me care to ensure that the corners of houses in the rotected. This was done by constructing wheel-guards of stone pillars set up in corners. The pillars usually ttle less than a metre above the ground, with another uried below ground. Also, even though the streets and sually narrow, there were substantial open squares at nts, a feature created to relieve the congestion in the ways. These squares were scattered all across the city, me breathing space amidst cramped and narrow lanes. e of a stone bench in the south-west corner of one res, known as Square S, around or before the begin­Mauryan occupation also suggests that these were used by the populace. From such street furniture it is magine ancient Taxilans shooting the breeze in their

at the breeze they shot may have been rather smelly. seem also to have served as public areas where large built of stone rubble, were located. One of these, on of Square S, known by the bones and broken pottery cavated out of it, leaves little doubt that it was used its neighbourhood for refuse disposal.28 These public will have required a class of sweepers and refuse

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standing such a system, solid refuse was sometimes o soak-wells meant for liquid refuse. This seems to have se with a soak-well situated in a square at the intersec­e 3 and Lane 4 in the eastern part of the city.29 It was a large quantity of pottery vessels, as many as 164 of ing the whole shaft of the well.30 The dumped vessels contained household kitchen waste, or else they had eir utility and were just chucked. That they were thrown ge numbers into a well meant for liquid waste suggests bcontinent’s famed contemporary incompetence in the ublic hygiene and civic-mindedness goes quite a long Of course, it is possible that when distant dignitaries and aries came visiting, the city’s municipality was galvanized ness. Ashoka would naturally never have experienced he normal state of insanitation in Taxila. alty expected to pay obeisance at the temple at Taxila, rominent public space in the city? The city brimmed . Goddesses outnumbered gods. Miniature goddesses of mbered gods. Many of these were for domestic worship but also seem to have formed part of the paraphernalia orship at least in this most conspicuous area within the the presence of an early temple is clear. ce of worship is in the western part of the city and com­ blocks with a narrow lane running between them. In lock, which is to the north, are two open courtyards, a d hall on the western side of one of the courtyards, and rooms.31 The rooms were dwelt in and the inhabitants have been the temple priests. The debris in this block umber of terracotta reliefs, with a male and female deity de by side, so there seems little doubt about this having ne. Marshall sums it all up:

ion which it occupies alongside the street suggests   .  .  .  that

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female deity standing side by side and holding hands. Such liefs were made to be sold or presented to worshippers at nd to be kept by them as mementos or talismans, just as devas or devis are made and sold today in shops outside dian temple. In this case it seems highly probable that the eferred to on the opposite side of the lane was just such a his would explain why many of these plaques are found in it. ht in drawing this inference, then the Pillared Hall acquires nterest as being the earliest Hindu shrine, by several cen­ hich any remains have come down to us.32

designated B4, close to the pillared hall was domi­arge square tank-like construction which, Marshall ld either have been an ablution tank or a fire pit. Either acility found within Hindu shrines; neither has been y Buddhist and Jaina places of worship. he deities found here, and do they provide clues to of their worshippers? The commonest ritual objects ive plaques showing a male and female figure standing 3 The turbaned male, with necklace and earrings and oti, holds the side of his shawl with his right hand. The ear pendants and a necklace as also a long veil on either ead, rests her left hand on her hip. Similar plaques and a matrix from which these were moulded were found shop opposite the pillared hall. Their presence there hop-cum-manufactory which possibly supplied all eities—a votive relief shows a standing female deity d in her left hand;34 another is a pot-bellied squatting ‘kumbanda’) with bulging eyes and a wrinkled face. ment could produce grotesque standing figures too, r such a shape having been found. The wrinkled face ut the pot belly characteristic of such figures is in this ing.35

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nd made offerings, his conversion to Buddhism being an iated with his later years. As with a great deal else here, emple remains clearly etched, the historical characters to it, prominent outsiders or resident citizens, remain

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important visitors, such as visiting royalty, stay when to Taxila? From their proportions and facilities, none ks excavated appear to be palatial. An affluent resident may have played host. With their many small rooms nd large courtyards and their frontages marked by arly blank façades, these house blocks will have seemed to Ashoka the moment he encountered the city. Many ttlements have been excavated, but few of them have as collection of surviving walls and foundations. Taxila is er than many of its contemporaries, but its ruins allow ruction of house patterns missing elsewhere. houses tended to give the city’s streets a distinctive aes­ ral houses had shops in front, but many were fronted ring and largely blank walls relieved only by narrow s on the ground floor. Wide windows, the norm today, w up in the domestic architecture of that period; it was rd inside the house which was crucial for natural light tion. Most Taxilan houses are organized around such A good sense of the sizes and plans of residences appears ’s description of a house within a well-to-do quarter of

ge ground area of this class of house runs to about 3,600 ft., some 700 ft. were taken up by open courts, leaving some 2,900

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more than half that area. It must be remembered, however, the wealthier classes many of the lower rooms would pro­ cupied by slaves and dependants, and for this reason they er than the upstairs rooms where the family would live  .  .  .   his type of well-to-do house was provided with two courts, ch, it may be assumed, was more private than the other, ourts were usually so placed that easy access to them could d from the street or lane, and through them to the vari­which gave off from them or from passages connected

6

ouses whose room floors were either of beaten earth oarse sandy aggregate) rammed with mud. Earth also oofs of these houses. these Taxilan abodes of the third century bce had ver earlier habitations going back some two hundred ore. Instead of removing the remains of collapsed and ofs, walls, and floors, the common practice seems to level them and build new rooms and courtyards over Mauryan period houses, facilities that had existed in reater antiquity have been found simply buried intact. fluent homes, called House K, had a drain under two , while in another room two large storage jars lay floor.37 old debris, made up of stones, pottery, and other kinds was unlikely to have been an easy matrix to dig into, ally chose to keep the foundations of the new struc­ y shallow. This was an easy enough way of rebuilding. was that it failed to provide the necessary stability to ctures. Cracks and crumbling plaster must have been on, alerting the citizenry to structural weaknesses in gs. To provide additional support, wooden pillars were inside the rooms. Such pillars have not survived but

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opped up. The remains of a circular pillar stand in the a room, while another room shows the remnants of a r. e of English letters as designations—‘House K’, etc.—can seem odd, but it is common practice when and identities of the residents are unknown. Firmer d to be given when a building’s resident or purpose is ancient town of Bhita near Allahabad, south of its High auryan establishment is described by the excavator as he Guild’ because of the presence of a Mauryan seal-die ith a legend mentioning a guild (‘Sahijitiye nigamasa’).38 e no such inscribed objects have been recovered, in­ ve been made on the basis of the particular types of structures found. The ‘priest house’ at Daimabad in illennium bce Maharashtra is known to have contained various shapes; in the phase following, houses like those maker, the potter, and the bead maker were similarly The occupations of those in Taxilan houses have not ained with this degree of assurance. possible to reconstruct the uses to which some of in Taxila’s houses were put. There are bathrooms and nd in chamber 15 of House K one can imagine clothes s getting cleaned and hung: a soak-well and the remains ugh stone flooring, as also large water jars found close the inference. Soak-wells are basically vertical pits. In were either stone-lined, or constructed of earthenware large earthenware storage jars set up one above the other in their bottoms to allow percolation. These were not g water but were maintained in every house for sewage household water. Logically, the rooms in which they d were either kitchens or bathrooms or privies. In several the soak-wells are found in pairs, close to each other,

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nd scouring happened there as well. The usual wells, for drawing water, are missing from the city. There onal reason for this. The height of the Bhir plateau ractical to dig wells. They would have had to be very the ground water. Instead, people got their water from la, a rivulet which flowed outside the city. ow of chambers fronted the houses it is assumed they ops, positioned as they were along public pathways. a row facing the First Street and another adjacent to ng rooms and bedrooms are more difficult to identify. o the front are described as living rooms because they ned towards the street. Tiny rooms, Marshall felt, could rve as living or sleeping rooms because they were too sumptions are not based on anything other than the nd size of the rooms. dentify the people, en masse, who occupied these , for instance, do we recognize the administrators nd their official areas of work? This is not easy since ther names nor dates for those who occupied public er in inscriptions nor texts. Their presence can in es be inferred in a general way from the paraphernalia ation, such as seals and coins. Seals, though, were nds of people, for example to authenticate quality by rs and traders, and as a marker of kingship. Taxilan various types but they never bear names or designa­ e etched with a variety of symbols. Hypothetically, if mbols were found on the coins of the Mauryan era, it t the seals were used by administrators—a congruence It is likely that the seals were primarily commercial in

d expect at least a few of the public buildings to be appearance from the dwelling units. But none, with

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san Dani—he reinterpreted the data that Marshall had —was not a domestic unit. Located at the crossing of two ond Street and Third Street, which ‘cross each other just this building’, the building, Dani believes, ‘served some pose’.42 The frontage on the eastern side, adjacent to the et, is semi-octagonal, with a ring of rooms on its inner rangement of these rooms, as also the square rooms on n side, he says, shows an administrative purpose. The f the inference, as in Marshall’s interpretation of rooms for ‘sleeping’ and ‘living’, lies in the fact that it is entirely d from the alignment of the rooms and not based on lia associated with city administration. aphernalia of commerce, though, is more visible than ministration. We have seen that the seals were likely to ed part of the repertoire of merchants and traders. of copper, glass, clay, and stone, the Taxilan seals are midical or scaraboid. The pyramidical shape was very his time, being used not only for seals but also for deli­ an and agate pendants. Such seals are considered typi­ an and were usually very small. Why they were en­graved n figures remains unknown. In one instance, the pre­taff, a circle, and the ‘nandipada’ (bull’s hoof) to the left ng man suggests that it could well represent a deity,43 ng much worshipped in ancient India. The nandipada occurs on a terracotta sealing—the stamp being the im­ade by the seal.44 This sealing has the figure of a humped th sides with the nandipada symbol above the hump. pyramidical seal, made of copper, has engraved on its s-tree of life’, a symbol much used on early Buddhist s.45 aboid seals, on the other hand, are thought to be of orkmanship. So called because their shapes resemble

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ed on it side by side.46 At the same time, some of these ppear to be Indian in inspiration. Above the scarab s back is engraved a nandipada. This symbol is unlikely ek or Persian inspiration. Similarly, the bull, notwith­ wings, is typically Indian, not Persian. The scaraboid act curiously reminiscent of seals in the Indus civilizhird millennium bce, some of which were shaped in to those in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, even as and script characters on them were typically Indian. rectangular Indus seals in Mohenjodaro were, we s­ed with Mesopotamian designs. The interconnections een Taxila and the West are what the engravings on the als evoke, the hot money being on their use by mer­nsactions relating to West Asia and beyond. eals were not found clustered in one part of Taxila, it ly that there was a specific merchant’s quarter in the e seems true for people practising other crafts. Craftsccasionally visible here and there: a crucible with a om lined thickly with burnt sandy clay, a precious metal a chalcedony burnisher of the type used for polish­d and silver articles—all these evoke the presence of eople.47   They are not limited to any particular sector

h of Taxila’s character and commerce, its citizens and s of the city, was visible to Ashoka is unknown. But y that impressed him because many years later, as the narch, he is said to have built a magnificent structure is was outside the city, on the rocky spurs and knolls e east of the Bhir, where he created a new kind of reli­hment. The worship in this new structure was quali­ ent from that carried out via rituals connected with the city and its temple. Known as the Dharmarajika,

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wn view is that the various goddesses of the Taxilans, and als around them, were likely to have had more religious meaning for the citizens than the grand stupa made at e of their emperor. peror’s connection with Taxila ends at this point—his points us in the direction of Buddhism, and towards the he had gone beyond being a prince pushed to a frontier.

4

fairs of the Heart and State

nt narrations of ashoka’s life, romantic appears for the first time when the Pataliputra prince o Malwa in Central India. Tellings of this intersect with love with a young woman who is known in the ancient xtual tradition as a Buddhist. e was Devi and the romance began in the city of ere her father was a prominent merchant. Soon oka married Devi and moved on to Ujjayini. Ordinari­ love is a popular theme in ancient India’s epics as umerous plays that revolve around the romances of kings in royal courts and cities, sometimes the same old and retold across many centuries.1 The famous King Dushyanta and Shakuntala in the Mahabharata se and became the theme of Kalidasa’s (c. fourth–fifth play Abhijanashakuntala, which brings love to life in the best drama does. Unluckily, this variety of interest s­cerned in the Buddhist literary sources. Their pur­religious rather than literary, description of the

Fig. 4.1:  Ujjayini's ancient mounds with the Sipra river in the background

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ting to that courtship, what seems of interest are the s which brought the prince to Vidisha. This happened a journeyed to administer Avanti in the heartland of ng across the black soil of the Malwa region, ‘rough, d by the feet of cattle’.2 as dispatched to Avanti as viceroy by Bindusara. Unlike ila sojourn, he is depicted as having spent some ten nti while headquartered at Ujjayini, the political and ve centre of the province, a city described as the ‘Green­ ’ since the longitudinal prime meridian was reckoned ronomers from this city.3 If so, he would have arrived y around 282 bce, some ten years before his father ed. By the time Ashoka got there, it was an urban pectable antiquity, having flourished along the Sipra years or more before it became the Magadhan prince’s nctioning. Fortifications of mud were first erected ini in the seventh century bce, and in about the sixth he state of Avanti, whose capital Ujjayini was, became dependent kingdom.4 orial ambitions of this state extended beyond Central e Gangetic north. Pradyota, the ruler of Avanti, was ary of Bimbisara, king of Magadha (and father of fortifier of Pataliputra). The Avanti-based Pradyota have had designs on Magadha and, in one tradition, agriha, the Magadha capital during Bimbisara’s life­ntly it was out of fear of an aggrandizing Pradyota that, atru strengthened Rajagriha’s defences. Subsequently, ota’s successors conquered the North Indian kingdom er which a prince of Ujjayini ruled from its capital, So, the practice of princes administering distant pro­ ge states seems to have been fairly common much a.

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r it. The emperor’s decision to dispatch Ashoka as its gests that the Malwa-centred Avanti province, on ac­wealth and links with various parts of India, was stra­ litical and commercial reasons. of sorts can be discerned as Ashoka travelled on his ers from Pataliputra to Malwa.

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dia’s royalty travelled in style: that is what sculptural ons of large royal processions of chariots and elephants me of the earliest such reliefs can be seen at Bharhut in dia of the second century bce, where historical kings enajit of Kosala, for instance, is shown on a chariot four richly caparisoned horses with attendants and e Ajatashatru of Magadha is depicted sitting on a state ith the others accompanying the leader controlled mahouts.5 Like military expeditions, the itineraries of ings were presumably planned well in advance, with halts on the way in villages, towns, and forests.6 The t that went into these expeditions was crucial because, the movement of sovereigns and armies, travel tracks made suitable for such retinues. It is for this reason that unger brother of Rama of the Ramayana, is said to rganized technical people and labourers to construct Chitrakuta on which he would travel when trying to ama to return and assume the throne at Ayodhya. The nts in that instance were so elaborate—with topo­ uides, surveyors, masons, carpenters, diggers, and even rs involved in the expedition—that the trade routes

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y virtue of his being viceroy and not king, may well maller than those depicted on ancient sculptural reliefs d in epic tales. began his journey from Pataliputra, the track he well trodden, forming part of the long traverse of routes known collectively as Dakshinapatha, or the ute. It was along the Dakshinapatha that Jivaka, the Rajagriha who trained in Taxila, went to the court of e king of Ujjayini, at the king’s request, to cure him Among the more frequent travellers were traders in rtha’) carrying goods from the regions south of the ands. Ranging from the Deccan and peninsular India n and eastern coasts, these found large markets for their cities of Gangetic India. The Arthashastra describes the ha as preferable to other routes, singling out conchnds, rubies, pearls, and gold as plentiful along this with this trade, mendicants moved from North India n and back, a movement reflected in the story of the e Bavari of Sravasti, who went along the southern route own on the banks of the Godavari. On learning that the Sakyas, the Buddha, had become a mendicant, he f his disciples to Rajagriha, the old capital of Magadha, reat sage.10 ong this route are also sometimes depicted as being m those in the North. Avanti, for instance, is shown in as different in its practices and customs from places in plains. It is described as the land where people attach ance to bathing, and where ‘sheep-skins, goat-skins, ns were used as coverlets.’11 Ashoka will have noted ces as he travelled towards Ujjayini. ng that Pataliputra and Ujjayini were separated by usand kilometres, a splendid retinue of elephants and

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centuries later. Many more centuries later, in the time hal emperors, on the best-maintained royal road from hore, the average daily distance covered by caravans was 30 km. Thus, in Mauryan times, on a far more difficult m the Gangetic heartland into Central India, 30 km been a steep distance to aim for as the daily average. If we m per day, Ashoka’s journey to the viceregal region will him 40 days. The variability and difficulty of tracks and ountered on the way make this an optimistic estimate. ithin cities like Ujjayini, where Ashoka was headed, allads were constructed with a veneer of gravel over a clay g-distance alignments in this part of the region were velled tracks whose width is likely to have depended rrain and on what was considered sufficient to facilitate 12 In the hilly areas—comprising part of the terrain in averse across Central India—were narrow passageways cutting through rocky areas. Ashoka is unlikely to have rek before the monsoon months because travel over this pecially difficult. The Damoh area in Central India, for hich falls along his route, could not have been crossed ed conveyances between July and October, its soil being which became soggy to the point of stickiness after the Whatever the weather, the pragmatic option would have animals and carts, not elephants. We also know from s of later travellers that one of the major problems was ze different modes of transport. Oxen and elephants ifferent pace. Jean Deloche, the historian of early trans­mmunication in India, provides a seventeenth-century unt highlighting the trouble with heterogeneous group­

ack oxen and oxen harnessed to the heavy carts of Hindusthan roceed at the same rate. When, in addition, it was necessary

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of 268 camels and 109 carts, from Agra to Surat. Underway ountered the new governor of Gujarat, Baqir Khan, who ying to his residency along with his entourage, and asked to him in the hope that he would thus avoid payment of local hereby reduce the transport expenses. The decision proved udent and costly. The troubles soon began. It was impossible s caravan to keep pace with the fast rhythm of the official Khamva, a sand-storm broke, followed by profuse rains; the e thus delayed and reached the next stage one day after the unately, the governor had halted because of the rain, and ey continued onwards to Bayana. Two miles before arriving ination, one cart wrecked and another became stuck in the s impossible to extricate it and the men had to carry the igo on their shoulders.13

y reason to imagine that the travails of terrain and large convoys, such as the one described by Mundy, the pattern of travel of the Ujjayini-bound royal party uarter of the third century bce. that Ashoka and his retinue took, having long ceased ains unknown, but we can try and visualize it by ex­ villages and towns of his time that existed along its s also the itineraries of ancient traders and travellers. sweep is clear enough: moving south-west from the etic plains, the Kaimurs, which form the eastern scarp yan highlands, will have been ascended. By Himalayan ese mountains are molehills, the highest point in the m long Vindhyan range being only about 1100 metres. -day journey at the head of a large travelling contingent 000 years ago will have seemed Himalayan, even to a eror in his tent. om the middle Gangetic plains, the Kaimurs would cended, and here Sasaram’s location will have been

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, was linked in multiple ways and could be accessed rious routes. The research of the archaeologist Dilip i, who made it his professional vocation to travel along tes, highlights this. So, for instance, if Ashoka began his m Pataliputra and was headed towards the Kaimur hills ern edge of the Vindhyas, the most direct route would along the valley of the Son river. The presence of Deo a, a site flourishing in Mauryan times and even before, there would have been relatively little problem for an­ ers who followed this alignment.15 The other alignment putra followed the Bodh-Gaya and Gaya line in order to to the Kaimur hills, but there again two routes existed jagriha and Gaya: one via the Barabar caves and another ar.16 Practically all these were ancient places of habitapute, and therefore it is impossible to decide which of storic alignments Ashoka will have chosen to follow. We pretty certain he travelled on one of them. have passed through captivating country. Anyone with ying knowledge of the Central Indian hilly climes and plateau will vouch for the beauty of the land. Masses errain and incredible cliffs teeming with rock shelters rsed with long vistas of impressive undulating plateau verine plains. The Rewa jungles were in the nineteenth en dense, full of trees like sal, tendu, saj, and khair, and ng with wildlife—tigers, leopards, bear, antelope, and er.17 Large parts of this territory must have been sparse­ d, but even so, some settlements and sites would have along the way. So, from Rewa towards the Jabalpur area an entourage may well have chanced upon Rupnath and onsidering that at Rupnath there are springs full of water m the rocks, the entourage may even have camped there may be one of the reasons why, many years later, Ashoka

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d out of its ancient mound, whose remains also show ment had stood there for hundreds of years before the ka.18 As the prince moved across the central highlands, noticed how starkly different his native land was from Ganga and its near monotonous alluvial plains, and dhyan rocks and the villages and towns that nestled so the foot of scarps or on isolated hills. e areas that fall on Ashoka’s hypothetical travel itine­ lded ancient remains. Damoh and Sagar are among re the ruins of early settlements have been remarkably e later mid-first millennium ce architectural re­e coins of the Gupta dynasty are widespread.19 Future may yield an older or later past, but this sparsely etch will almost certainly have felt Ashoka’s footprints, he animal on which he was mounted. Within a day or ossing Sagar, the prince’s party will have encountered city of Airikina, which falls in the area of the presentEran. Located some 75 km from Sagar, Airikina is also stant from Vidisha. It was built to ensure protection s by a bend in the Bina river.20 A mud rampart secured cted side. The rampart was substantial, more than de and with a moat around it. uld have halted here and partaken of the city’s hos­ kina possessed the means to provide him and his e chance to recoup in somewhat more comfortable s than the jungles of Sagar and Damoh. Shortly after­ uld have moved towards the part of Malwa on which y of Vidisha. Lying about 250 km east of Ujjayini, have been Ashoka’s last city stop before the last leg of dition. bility and distance from Pataliputra make Vidisha inter­ ourney’s map. But more interesting are the romantic

Fig. 4.2:  The Malwa plateau’s hills and forests as they appear near Bhimbetka

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hter of a prominent city merchant in Vidisha, this we e is otherwise an elusive figure. Nothing is known of or upbringing or even about her persona before she Ashoka, except that she was, like most future queens, ly pretty before becoming one. As we saw in the story dusara and the Brahman girl from Champa (later ther), royal men have the habit of noticing female only when they are arrestingly beautiful. Bindusara’s have been in his father’s mould. And, naturally, the ave us believe it was love at first sight. e with the template, it is less the state of the heart than tive outcome of this affair of the heart which is cen­ory. The Dipavamsa puts it blandly: ‘the daughter of a rchant), known by the name of Devi, having co­habit­ gave birth to a most noble son.’21 A later account is uacious by comparison: Ashoka, it says, ‘made her his was (afterwards) with child by him and bore in Ujjeni oy, Mahinda, and when two years had passed (she bore) amghamita.’22 Either way, this is the defining incident relation to Ashoka’s life in Avanti, an instantaneous even before reaching his destination Ujjayini, and the children to the couple in the course of his obviously there. orians agree with these aspects of the story, there has ous disagreement about other threads. One strange t that is how it appears to those who engage with the tigators much after they are played out—concerns the f this relationship, and whether Ashoka did or did not The historian Romila Thapar, in her book titled Asoka ne of the Mauryas, is certain that Devi was ‘not legally shoka since, among other things, there is no reference in the Dipavamsa.23 Given the brevity of the evidence,

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nslated in a way that suggested sexual relations outside ut is supposed to mean co-residence, presumably within relationship.25 And then there is the odd argument that e of a ‘legal’ marriage could be the reason why, after nsecration, Devi did not become his chief queen (‘since have been debarred from performing the duties of the ’).26 Given that this prince showed himself self-willed in st the tradition of primogeniture by which most princes he throne—he snatched the throne of Magadha at his th—it seems to me more likely that Devi was the wife declared or undeclared, and that the children she bore l become evident, grew into people who were an inte­his public life. hentic is the testimony of the texts which give a glimpse love for a Vidisha woman, their marital residence in many years, and the birth of two children to them? This gures in the Sri Lankan tradition and in it the purpose ing is to provide a synoptic account till the time when on and daughter from Devi went to Sri Lanka. The scholar Ananda Guruge believes there ‘was a special the Sri Lankan Pali sources should have taken special serve the memory of this particular phase in the life It was on his way to Ujjain that Ashoka enjoyed the of the guild-chief Deva of Vedisa, met his daughter and married her. The royal missionary Thera Mahinda duced Buddhism to Sri Lanka, and his sister Theri a, who brought the sacred Bodhi-tree, were both born ionship.’27 It remains possible to test the veracity of this looking at them from the perspective of other allusions. ka was sent to Ujjayini seems authentic since his own mperor refer to the presence of a prince or ‘kumara’ at royal prince heading the administration there seems to

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om Pataliputra. Its description as a town (‘nagaram’) ization of the settlement that matches what we know it in Mauryan times, an urban centre of commercial re­y integral to the larger Mauryan scheme of adminis­ alwa. Vidisha’s remains show a strong pre-Mauryan ack to the mesolithic period, followed by a long phase occupied by people who used stone and copper.29 The phase of occupation there is substantial and goes back o a time before the Mauryas. Its prosperity continued ond Ashoka’s time. So, Ashoka’s halt there looks very d his interaction with citizens of substantial means ’s father, a man of commerce (‘setthi’), even more so mportant function of the viceroy was to collect reve­ and merchants were important in this scheme of they contributed significantly to the coffers of the e. bout Ashoka’s personality also seems worth consider­ ontext. By the time he was sent to Ujjayini he was a of some experience, a prince who had possibly tra­ la and other parts of his father’s empire. If later textual of incidents relating to his life had wanted to conjure ound the sowing of his wild oats rather than a regular y did not have to wait till he reached Vidisha. And, in y Vidisha in particular? If the idea was to show him in ather than a relationship more sober, the story could n woven around places that figure earlier or later in his ra, the city of his childhood, or Ujjayini, where he was fleeting and somewhat incidental way in which Vidisha ers the accounts of it as the locale for the beginning elationship with Devi all the more believable. circumstantial logic has to be applied in order to whether Devi was a Buddhist. The places associated

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3:  Ujjayini’s Kanipura stupa which is associated with Devi

ama grew and flourished and on whose wealth it was endent for its support.’30Again, local traditions link the a at Ujjayini, the city where Devi is said to have resided, was built for her. The Kanipura stupa, made of large ricks at a height of more than 10 metres, is on the northskirts of present-day Ujjain. It is locally known as the ri (‘Vaishya caste’s mound’) since Devi was the daughter ant, this being a characteristically Vaishya occupation. the Buddhist associations, the way in which Devi is n the Pali texts suggests she followed this relatively new e Ashoka, or even her own children, there is no men­ f her having converted to it. In fact, her portrayal in the a, where she is shown—much after the time period that ocus of this chapter—as leading her son Mahinda, by nk (‘thera’), ‘up to the lovely vihara Vedisagiri’, suggests

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y years, but the incident is worth looking at here in e the point that if she was a Buddhist in her later years e being any allusion to her conversion to that reli­gion, ely to have been a Buddhist when she first met Ashoka. —the son Mahinda, and daughter Sanghamitra—are having chosen to ‘receive the Pabbaja ordination’, i.e. or what can be translated as ‘leaving the world’. This l step before ordination into the monastic order.31 the fact that Ashoka had loved and lived with a is remembered by history as a Buddhist does not iately to have influenced the trajectory of his life. On his long sojourn at Ujjayini would come to an end in s which would, almost certainly, have been disapprov­ ut Buddhists.

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rs after Ashoka became viceroy in Ujjayini his emperortically ill in Pataliputra. Grave ill health in a monarch erious political ramifications, and in this case the king . The prevailing sense will have been that he would be ong. It is thus not fortuitous that his father’s failing e the reason for Ashoka ending his residence in Malwa g to Pataliputra, where his bloody assumption of the one would happen. As before, we must depend on later which this turn of events figures amidst a fascinating unverifiable maze of memories and stories. various versions of how these events came to pass. The records the accession of Ashoka with characteristic ly mentioning that upon Bindusara’s illness he came

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kan texts, where Ashoka is described as having killed brothers in his bid to capture the throne of Magadha. amsa says a hundred brothers were so killed.33 Figures s, as we have seen, are a common stereotype, merely a ng that many brothers were killed, not just one, as the a would have us believe. Killing off his brothers may llowed Ashoka to rule, but it is possible that protract­al battles had first to be waged, for the Dipavamsa gap of four years between that bloody assumption and rmal consecration as emperor.34 ore gory and viscera-filled tale is told of Ashoka’s acces­ Ashokavadana, where certain kingmakers, rather than e ministers and key figures in the court of Bindusara. on to ensure that Bindusara’s eldest son would not m is traced back in this text to a slight that the king’s ster suffered at the hands of Susima, the heir apparent. e prince slapped the bald head of the minister in jest. er, however, was not amused and formed a coalition he ‘jester’. The turn of events is described:

e slaps me with his hand,’ the minister reflected, ‘when he king he’ll let fall his sword! I had better take action now to at he does not inherit the throne.’ erefore sought to alienate five hundred ministers from aying to them: ‘It has been predicted that Ashoka will become tin ruler over one of the four continents. When the time us place him on the throne.’35

this, the people of Taxila again rose in rebellion. This d of Ashoka, Susima was sent by the king to quell it. mediately thereafter, Bindusara is said to have fallen . He recalled Susima, intending to consecrate him as his nd ordered that Ashoka be sent to Taxila in his place.

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ver, made the king furious. therefore, declared: ‘If the throne is rightfully mine, let the me with the royal diadem!’ And instantly the gods did so. Bindusara saw this, he vomited blood and passed away.36

finally consecrated in 269/268 bce when apparently e continuing his race’.37 The Ashokavadana supports Ashoka’s ascent to the Mauryan throne followed the dy contest: Susima is said to have been roasted alive rned to Pataliputra. It seems ‘he fell into a ditch’ that have been filled earlier with the live coals of acacia d for his compassion as a Buddhist, Ashoka seems to fair amount over his years as an aspiring monarch to g life of contrition and contemplation. to stretch his Buddhist inclinations to cover the sins of uld need Ashoka to have expressed his own thoughts r, make some sort of admission, or allude to feelings t the manner in which he assumed the throne. Is there his edicts which can make us believe that the later nts of his accession are based on hard self-confessional make sense of all this, it is necessary to go back to cence over his early life and lineage, to his silence about and grandson of earlier Mauryan rulers. It is tempting hat one reason for his silence was because he became violating the tradition of primogeniture, specially as d wanted his first-born son to succeed him. In such s, it would have been logical for Ashoka to draw a his early life and say as little as possible about it. In hat we can glean of his probable misdeeds from texts ct intent on showing his beatitude, Ashoka’s silence on f his life is deafening. Unless in the future some scin­ discovery comes along to piece together this puzzle— n so explicit and articulate about his reigning years

5

The End and the Beginning

a’s `struggle for succession ended in or ound 269 bce when he was consecrated as ruler of the lm carved out by his grandfather and consolidated by The usurper prince took over the throne that he was not nherit, and the large subcontinental empire that came t beyond this his early years as emperor remain an be­fore, plausible speculation must serve instead of ally strong and convincing narrative because there are wit­ness accounts nor any that survive from the years with his own lifetime. As for Ashoka’s own testimony, emained silent about his early life and the bloody after­ bid for the Mauryan throne, so he chose not to speak nitial years of his reign. early years as emperor came to be recalled in literary centuries later. Those recollections tend to be onel, as we shall see, ranging from those that see him as rate and violent ruler to others where his persona is

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the circumstantial evidence around which allegorical cal violence or spiritual passion were created. f narrations, forming part of what is known as the dition—the staple for constructing some of the con­ ife of Ashoka as prince—portrayed the early years of a kind of continuation of his manner of succession, tled matters to his own satisfaction, as he had settled of succession, with violence. assumption of the throne is in the Ashokavadana followed by an orgy of state-sponsored terror. A Chandashoka’, which can be translated as ‘Ashoka the ically spells out the new king’s cruelty and killings.1 sode of his reign discussed in some detail concerns sters who were put to death by him. The clique from ime which had helped Ashoka become king had now egun treating him with contempt. To test their loyalty red that they chop down every flowering and fruit­e preserving those that were thorny. On the face of seems absurd (quite apart from the taxonomic stupi­at have thorns often bear flowers and fruit). But, as ght have put it, this was a bad case of ‘Theirs not to Theirs not to reason why,/ Theirs but to do and die’: for establishing loyalty to this monarch rested not on he king’s command, however absurd it sounded, but y obeying it. His ministers were not loyal enough, for, repeated three times, the order was not carried out. y, Ashoka is said to have personally cut off the heads of ’ of them. is reminiscent of the secret tests that the Arthashastra r kings to test the integrity or lack of it in ministers. s were to be instigated through secret agents to go ing. This was done by the agents suggesting to them

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a person suddenly risen to power.’2 If the instigation d, the minister was said to be loyal. To judge from the rescribed for rulers in Mauryan times, this aspect of vadana’s image of Ashoka appears to hark back to the dition of the Arthashastra. nage did not end with the decapitated ministers. Many to be killed, and now the victims were women who t of Ashoka’s harem.3 Again, there was mass slaughter, having slighted the emperor. It all began in springtime uence of a stroll by the emperor in a park on the eastern aliputra. While strolling there with his harem and en­ fruiting or in bloom, the king came across a beautiful shoka tree—‘my namesake’, as he put it. The sighting put od mood and he is said to have become ‘very affection­s his concubines, no doubt a euphemism for the pleasroyal bed. Here it seems that the young women of his not sufficiently enjoy caressing his body, which was ned. And so, after he fell asleep, ‘they, out of spite, chopp­ flowers and branches off the Ashoka tree.’ On learning king is said to have burned alive five hundred of these revenge for their dismembering his beautiful Ashoka number 500 seems a favourite in this text, as 100 and thers.) point, alarmed by the scale of the killings that Ashoka ally carrying out, his prime minister is said to have appoint a royal executioner who could be delegated the ure mass extermination, leaving the king unsullied. A ndidate was found in a Magadhan village, a weaver boy ka who, on account of his ferocity and sadistic tenden­ e suffix ‘fierce’ attached to his name. ‘Girika the Fierce’— girika—is said to have crowed about his prowess to the when they asked him if he felt up to the task of being

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while ‘inside it was actually a very frightful place.’ a enjoyed full sway in these quarters, revelling in the all kinds of torture on prisoners, and, when the king ring they never emerged alive.4 uelty is virtually a literary trope in Buddhist hagio­ bjective being to show radical and fundamental trans­ n temperament and personality consequent upon Because Ashoka would soon be shown as the ideal er in the Ashokavadana, episodes of extreme cruelty required insertions. The moral change in the king out so much better against an exceptionally brutish in which he was shown cold-bloodedly killing off mediate circle of ministers and concubines. This image not confined to the Northern tradition; it figures in n tradition as well. The Mahavamsa briefly alludes to ng that Chandashoka was so called in ancient times s evil deeds; later, through his pious acts, he came to Dhammashoka.5 ble, of course, that these representations of a merci­ were a redeployment of elements that formed part ed remembrance of Ashoka’s earlier years of violencetion. Cruelty could not have been far during the of Ashoka’s rule because it is almost certain that he s older half-brother, and possibly several others who d the rightful heir. And this may not have been just a tion: the resistance to his kingly ambitions was likely nded beyond the royal family. Who resisted him and unknown. If the records of the Sri Lankan Buddhist relied upon, it took some four years after his bid e for him to be finally consecrated. This was around me four years after the death of Bindusara. The inter­ only really be explained as the context of sustained

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ces, his consecration could not but have left him acutely he problems that would likely beset his monarchy. e loyalty of administrators would in such circumstances mperative. It is, then, a fair guess that the Ashokavadana d an elaborate story around the motif of loyalty to f punishment by death in the face of disobedience or ess against him. It resonated completely with what was ut the early exigencies of his rule.

* * *

hern Buddhist tradition produced an exaggerated por­ ercely cruel Ashoka in the years after his assumption , it was an entirely different image, that of a restless­ g emperor, which was woven into the tale that the texts told about his early reign. The purpose of their to highlight the notion that Ashoka’s quest for a worthy eceptor was what led him to Buddhism, not because inherent predilection for the faith. He might, after all, n the other newly risen faith, Jainism, which was so posed to harming all forms of life that its tenets in non-violence were fanatic. A king in search of a faith compassion could well, in normal circumstances, have e favourably upon the worldview of Mahavira than on Buddha. To account for Ashoka’s preference for Buddh­ ery other competing form of religious compassion thus equire the attractions of a wise man, someone sage-like isma swayed the emperor in the direction he chose. So at the recently consecrated king ‘unceasingly  .  .  .  searched us, clever men’, and for such men he was willing to give up

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nist as the crucial character in making him a Buddhist line with the thinking of the times. Ashoka’s impor­verting the Sri Lankan king Devanampiya Tissa is hat of his son Mahinda who carried, in a manner of Buddhist faith to Sri Lanka. Women in such narrat­ t just in India, are mostly the ‘helpmeets’ of domi­-

ack to the emperor’s quest, the most elaborate telling occurs in the Dipavamsa. The search began shortly me ruler, this being mentioned in a matter of fact way his son Mahinda, a crucial figure for the Sri Lankan ause of his mission to establish Buddhism there. The at Mahinda was 10 years old when ‘his father put his death’, and he was ‘anointed king in Mahinda’s four­ For three years Ashoka is said to have honoured people ribed as ‘Pasandas’. This is likely to be an umbrella term of religious orders since many are mentioned in the asandas who proceeded from the Sassata and Uccheda ganthas, Acelakas, Brahmans, Titthiyas, other ascetics, s.6 They were invited to the palace, and great gifts were them in the hope that they could answer a question the o them. Disappointingly, none of them could answer What this question was the text passes over in silence, parently ‘an exceedingly difficult question’. In this way were ‘annihilated’ and the sectarians ‘defeated’. h ended when Ashoka came upon a Buddhist Bhikshu dha looking for alms on a Pataliputra road, ‘a hand­ man of tranquil appearance, who walks along the elephant, fearless and endowed with the ornament of This virtuous monk’s disposition and fearlessness, as preaching, were responsible for Ashoka becoming a lay e Buddha. In a wonderful reply to the king’s plea asking

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of four lakhs of silver and eight daily portions of rice to Thereafter, according to this tradition, promoting and g Buddhism became the hallmark of his reign. As we er, it also became the connecting narrative thread which at the faith reached Lanka, where the text that tells this omposed. he fierce Ashoka of the Ashokavadana, we have no direct at the emperor’s initial years of rule were dominated ual quest. Considering that it took him some years to his position and be consecrated, such a quest appears ut a revealing series of inscriptions—the first that sed to be inscribed—give us the emperor speaking in son about what Nigrodha preached to him. The sermon the importance of ‘zeal’—which Ashoka is said to have ear or more after he had visited the Buddhist Sangha. ness, the fruit of it, and the possibility that his example more generally followed are spelt out in those first t could therefore be that the sermon on earnestness that msa speaks of was derived from Ashoka’s own render­ansformation. such posthumous stories contain elements that are with­ m of possibility, or perhaps they do not. The verifiable t Ashoka’s transformation had little to do with his quest ual preceptor; in fact, it had very little to do with spiri­s at all. I say this with some confidence because it is e emperor himself, in words that he himself formulated, arn of his metamorphosis being the consequence of hich fell squarely within the realm of certain very material tate. It was a common kingly pursuit which became the nt for Ashoka’s radically different rule and life. atters of state was the ruler expected to oversee? If astra is to be believed, the range was formidable. The

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trade routes, had to be supported, revenue from such entral to state requirements. The king had to protect y the wielding of danda (coercion), ‘For the Rod, used nsideration, endows the subjects with spiritual good, -being and pleasures of the senses.’ And the social order eserved, presumably in conformity with the system of shramas.9 The key to the king’s success was his power sury and the army, so he needed time to focus on

10

se, most relevant at this point is that the king was ‘vijigishu’ or would-be conqueror with, we are told, an own the whole world. Conquest and empire-building, ords the extension and exercise of a monarch’s power beyond his realm, are quintessential within the state ined by this manual of politics. Naturally, such acti­ nd up with every state’s relations with all other states, nd outlying. So, the would-be conqueror contemplat­ nsion of his dominion had to overcome an impos­ r of states in his quest for suzerainty, a fact of life y megalomaniac conquerors such as Alexander and man Caesars. These other states are frequently denied ous existence in contemporary narratives and primary being defined wholly in relation to their territorial à-vis the would-be conqueror and his superordi­-

war and conquest so important? The bottom line ap­ e been economic and strategic necessity: if you don’t er, you will find others exercising it over you. So the y properly a king if he had the ambition to conquer is sway over the universe. There was no escaping the ment the economy of his state to the detriment of other wers: ‘he should follow that policy by resorting to which

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rly years, it is a virtual certainty that Ashoka was very in the mould of the Arthashastra ideal of kingship. his conquering ambitions he, who till this point in time ote to the point of invisibility, becomes historical and or military expedition, the first event of his reign that he mention, is now led by him and recorded for posterity. ry that Ashoka had his eye on was Kalinga, a state on seaboard of India in what now forms part of modern Andhra Pradesh. This desire to bring Kalinga within his e manifest in approximately 260 bce, when Ashoka led my marching from the heartland of Gangetic India to­ ast. good place to go beyond our protagonist’s ambitions ne war and territorial aggrandizement in a somewhat ective. Take the specific time of Ashoka’s march around happened a little after Rome began its extended conflict thage in the first of the three Punic wars which, all told, e than a hundred years (264–146 bc). At the juncture a made up his mind to conquer Kalinga, imperial quests largement of dominion over territories sometimes far become common in many parts of the ancient world. hundred years before Ashoka the army of the Persian h its centre in what is now modern Iran, had crossed e and stamped its authority across regions that stretched y in the west to north-west India in the east.12 Persia was rld superpower of its time. About two centuries later the del inspired Alexander’s successful emulation. Starting mall kingdom of Macedon near Athens he crushed re­ eral Greek cities before leading an expeditionary force ed kingdoms in Africa and Asia extending from Egypt nd eventually defeating eastern adversaries as far away

3

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dynasty, all bearing the name Ptolemy, ruled Egypt hree centuries. By the time of Ashoka’s consecration emies had ensured that Egypt was the principal naval eastern Mediterranean. In those parts of Asia which lay nd north-east of India, similar kinds of consolidation commence. Some fifteen years after Ashoka’s Kalinga Zheng, later the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, came d by 221 bc, after conquering rival states, presided fication of China around a centralized bureaucratic

hese conflicts and rivalries, it is hardly surprising that e part of the history of the ancient world is of battles, nquest. Homer in about the eighth century bce relat­ing und the conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans, us in the fifth century bce writing of the expanding empire, are probably the best-known chroniclers onquest, Homer more literary and Herodotus more torical. Why wars were thought necessary at all is stion which strikes one immediately and forcefully, iss it out of hand as foolish because of many of the ed in treatises such as the Arthashastra—that power he hands of powerful and capable men at the apex of he sustenance of dominion requires the expansion of se men and their armies because the alternative is loss and enslavement. Beyond this arena of competitive as necessary to survival lie other causes, such as the ly male desire to acquire goods and land, food and he ‘Warring States’ period of China in the fifth and ries bce we see that controlling territory became e consolidation of political domination, while in the ower Wars’ of the Aztecs aimed to seize people required victims for the gods.15 Over much of ancient history,

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s of silver, 120 pounds of gold, 6000 pounds of lead, nds of iron, 1000 vessels of copper, 2000 heads of cattle, 15,000 slaves, and the defeated ruler’s sister.16 uch of this weltanschauung formed part of the mental Ashoka cannot be specifically known, but conquerors rom the West were very much part of political happen­ th Asia at the time his own grandfather captured power. sibility of this emperor having been influenced by the nd South Asia is very far from being remote. Plutarch, aphical history of Alexander, says Chandragupta, when saw Alexander in person. When he began to rule from embassies from the Western powers came to his court; ndusara’s years as sovereign, they were there again. A tory told about him and Antiochus I of Syria highlights dian monarch asked for sweet wine, dried figs, and a which Antiochus’s reply was that while figs and wine nt, it was forbidden by law to sell a sophist!17 edition to Kalinga was preceded by massive arrange­ m ascertaining the strength of the enemy’s forces to ing the terrain through which the army would move out the logistics of the whole operation to deciding on best suited to such an operation. In a territory as hot as s for most of the year, winter was considered the best in. This would also ensure optimal use of animals like ts which were an integral part of the army.18 We do not a’s version of the size and character of the fighting force But if our knowledge of his grandfather Chandragupta’s rapolated to assess the grandson’s, Ashoka’s army had its of archers, foot guards armed with spears, combat rs, horses, and large numbers of elephants under the mahouts.19 Weaponry and war paraphernalia—maces, pears, swords, bows and arrows, giant stone catapulting

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ely to have exceeded an average of around twenty km. o Kalinga is a distance of some 900 km, so even just rmy to the target ground would have taken five or six

army reached Kalinga has been variously imagined. efield approached along a route that hugged the right Ganga through Bengal to Midnapur, from where the lta of Orissa is easily approached? This had been for ilgrim path well trodden by the devout making their hrine of Jagannatha in the coastal town of Puri. Or cross Chhattisgarh to reach the Ganjam–Srikakulam n the southern edge of the ancient state, this having of movement of the later Samudragupta (c. 328–78 ce, eror from Pataliputra) to Kalinga, which he invaded ed to conquer the southern regions? The size and he defending forces that Ashoka’s army encountered h in the realm of speculation. The description of its ation suggests it was considerable in size. If there is vidly described, it is the scale of slaughter, death, and esulting from the war. The epigraph which records the

ed and fifty thousand in number were the men who were hence, one hundred thousand in number were those who here, and many times as many those who died.20

erished had fought for the Kalinga ruler; others rather ry and outside the arena of war were badly affected t civilians whose lives, described as principled and re violently interrupted by the bloodbath. The epi­s of these hapless victims as well and deplores the mage:

rahmanas or Sramanas, or other sects or householders,

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then happen injury or slaughter or deportation of (their) nes. there are then incurring misfortune the friends, acquain­ompanions and relatives of those whose affection (for the undiminished, although they are (themselves) well provid­ is (misfortune) as well becomes an injury to those (persons s). shared by all men and is considered deplorable  .  .  . ore even the hundredth part or the thousandth part of all ple who were slain, who died, and who were deported at that alinga, (would) now be considered very deplorable  .  .  .21

part of a longer account graphically capturing the pain ance of Ashoka in his hour of victory, and we will return or the present, what makes the story unusual is that it surviving contemporary narrative description of the . Such narratives are scarcely known to have endured nt times down to ours. As we saw, the original works ho accompanied and recorded Alexander’s campaign in disappeared. As against this, the narrative of the killing alinga was composed within a few years of the battle ll be read in the script and language in which it was sed. Ashoka choose to immortalize the gory details of war? ous king tells a tale of death and decimation entirely self, damning his actions in the very hour of what every general of that period in history, regardless of coun­and culture, would have proclaimed as a triumph. This rare, it is astonishing enough to seem bewildering. A of kings after Ashoka got their military accomplishments n dramatic verse and prose. Kharavela of Kalinga (c. first e), even while recording donations to the Jaina com­cribes at length how various contemporary rulers—the

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various territories, ranging from Sindhu-Sauvira to nd Aparanta, that he valorously gained.23  Ashoka’s ness is that the one and only account that he caused to of a successful war is one in which the conventions paganda are turned on their head. The triumph is disaster. Defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. of imperial misfortune is concocted in defiance lished practice of all preceding time. The emperor he ought to swagger. This reversal of the most hoary dition of conquest is now so well known that we any longer for what in essence it was, and remains: reversal of the very conception of kingship. The te and caring king is born and proclaims himself, ls recognized, for the first time in world history. azing contrition also signals the beginning of a differhis rule, a phase in which the historian enters the s of hard evidence. evidence never got harder. For Ashoka had it all carved

6

The Emperor’s Voice

ing ashoka into an emotional crisis, the t of the Kalinga war radically re­directed the entire equent life and career of the grieving conqueror. The pheaval was also, inadvertently perhaps, a powerful and al idea: by replacing subjugation with compassion as the mental principle of monarchy, it introduced the earliest s of a rule of law in which ordinary folk and the citizenry, only the powerful elites and royalty, were consequential. for a moment to visualize the scenario symbolically, as age, it could take the shape of Ashoka calling for a copy ashastra and setting it on fire in full public view. A new of kingly calling emerged out of this victory-as-defeat, Ashoka touched upon some years later when describ­ e discharged his royal responsibilities and duties over his reign. Central in his narrative in the aftermath of ritorial supremacy was the contrast between his conduct earlier kings. Ashoka’s self-understanding and how he

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flood plain in North India to the castellated hills of the South.1 To distinguish it from the more expansive n rocks that are known as his ‘major rock edicts’, this é has been classified among his minor rock edicts.2 en Ashoka decided to disseminate his words in this not (or possibly could not) bring himself to publicly e traumatic watershed of his career. Rather, it was a nal experience in the slipstream of the Kalinga war d, one which he hoped would inspire his people. So, ck a little in time to Ashoka’s first articulation of his sis, and through that remembrance explore how he vanize others along the same path. ption of any message, and most certainly a royal one, eal to do with circumstances around its articulation. hoka’s voice likely to have been understood by those nd read his words? As there are no references or reac­oka’s edicts in any class of India’s ancient literature of ennium bce, our reconstruction has to be rooted in njecture. Much of the Brahmanical literature of the late e deals with subjects like codes of conduct, parapher­ ing to rituals, norms of social behaviour, and the law. nts like the composition of kingly communiqués and tions to them were never going to find mention. Nor dhist texts of the time in any way primarily concerned who patronized Buddhism. They were preoccupied dha’s discourses, his previous births, and the do’s and onks and nuns. No account by any ambassador from a g kingdom of that era has turned up. If an Indica had around Ashoka’s reign, containing information of the henes recorded about Chandragupta, public reactions or’s messages may well have featured. me, some glimpses can be arrived at by juxtaposing

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may have entailed. Exploring what has appeared in the cal record should at the very least enable one to imagine tive of the subjects of the Mauryan state facing this f looking at them.

* * *

ating with provincial officials lay at the heart of the poli­m in ancient India. The provinces were, as we have n noting Ashoka’s movements to Taxila in the northa in the south, and Kalinga in the east—spread out over of kilometres. Ashoka had inherited an empire extend­ fghanistan to Karnataka and from Gujarat to Bengal. ing an entity of this size required regularly touching rovinces, these being frequently governed by princes of mily. Having served as viceroy at Ujjayini himself, Ashoka ave maintained the practice of delegating close male the provincial bulwarks of his empire. Directions and e frequently given to these local functionaries through r centrality can be gauged from the fact that directives ace and war appear within them. The decrees also in­mands by the king concerning punishment and favour, emptions, authorizations for issuing orders and carry­ tain required works.3 The Arthashastra considered it or such communiqués to be written with clarity and he employment of literate scribes with a beautiful hand d listen with an attentive mind to the command of the t it down in writing.’4 ortance of royal communications as an anchor of im­ nistration is in inverse proportion to what has remain­

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highly perishable, specimens have never shown up.5 t once. This sole exception relates to the settlement of ra near the banks of the Ganga, where wood charcoal ra was recovered in an archaeological context of millennium bce. This suggests a long familiarity with se bark, in the form of thin papery layers which were broad horizontal rolls, was used for writing.6 Rem­ rjapatra have only survived at this one site, and this only because the wood got burnt. enerations of rulers before him, it is likely that some fficial communications would have been recorded on of such bark and leaf. The major post-Kalinga revo­ mmunication was that the emperor ordered several lgations to be inscribed on stone and in public places. edicts have survived remarkably well: found some ter they were carved, several appear in much the state en created. The survival of an ancient document in the ace where it was originally inscribed is in itself unusual. it even more so is that, in Ashoka’s time, it was relat­ exander of Macedon, as we saw, went to great lengths was remembered, even appointing an official historian ose. This notwithstanding, the available narrative ac­ Alexander date to more than 300 years after him.7 of rescripts that Ashoka first sent out to his provinces ere inscribed on his instructions can still be seen at a r of their original locations because the messages were immovable rocks and boulders. There is much variety of surface upon which they were inscribed. Some are orizontal rock faces, as at Rajula Mandagiri in the rict in Andhra, and near Srinivaspuri in New Delhi.8 as those at Maski and Nittur in Karnataka, are en­graved urfaces. The rocks are sometimes easily accessible, as

Fig. 6.1: The Rajula Mandagiri edict is engraved on the flat rock in the foreground, in front of the tree dominating a waterbody, with a temple behind it

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6.2:   Worn-out section of the Rajula Mandagiri edict

am, which is located on top of the hill in the Rohtas har; and the one at Palkigundu in the Koppal district , which crowns a high and fairly inaccessible ridge, can ed after negotiating a very steep elevation. The reasons g rocks in places that appear today to be rather remote habitations will be explored; for the moment it is the ing messages on such surfaces that gives us pause. um that came to be used for inscribing royal epigraphs a depended upon the message and the audience ad­ demi-official epigraphs of Mauryan times, one from arh in Bangladesh and the other from Sohgaura in h, recorded instructions for the distribution of grain ght and famine.9 The commands were intended for ’, a category of administrators associated specifically centres, and were inscribed on plaques. More com­ native epigraphs of the type which were engraved

Fig. 6.3: Palkigundu canopy rock—the edict is on a ledge beneath the canopy

Fig. 6.4: View of the surrounding area from the edict rock at Palkigundu

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ping, graphically describing how he defeated and terri­ontemporary rulers into submission.10 The early edicts were addressed to his administrators too, but were only for them, the messages being more democratically or communication to his subjects in general. For this eems logical to assume that the Mauryan officials en­ emperor’s words on rocks located in areas that were or commonly accessed at the time. raphs were all in the Brahmi script, while the language n amalgam of the dialects of Prakrit. Brahmi and Prakrit he administrative functionaries would have been fami­ Prakrit, though, was not likely to have been the langu­ in regions like Karnataka and Andhra, where there is n of such inscriptions. So, when these messages were to the people in such regions, for the meaning of the be intelligible it would have had to be translated into the age. the process of disseminating such messages, from the they were dispatched to when they came to be inscrib­ In trying to answer this it is necessary to remember nnovation. Each message that Ashoka sent out to his ors in the scattered parts of his empire was in a form ss identical. In the modern world, where the print has made it possible to place the same text in the hands mbers of people within a very short space of time, the Ashoka’s innovation may not be immediately obvious. o be kept in mind is that in ancient India, where the for multiple reproduction did not exist, the state could ut and express its desires and directives in the way it does emperor’s decision to get multiple copies of his message nd sent to various provinces was an attempt at text-based munication, a kind of force multiplier which ensured that

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message, his attempt being to convey the same image every part of his empire. In this reaching out it was portance to him that his subjects hear the singularity s of his voice across the land that he ruled. ages will have been composed on the orders of the points in time when he was possibly on tour, first n materials which have since perished. They were then o various administrative centres. In each instance, it t the message was sent to a prince who was the viceroy ce and who, in turn, readdressed it and conveyed it to is territory for onward dissemination. We know this ne instance, where three versions of an edict are found kilometres of each other, the subsidiary instructions s from the provincial head have also been inscribed. form a cluster in the Chitradurga district of Karna­ magiri, Siddapura, and Jatinga-Rameshwara.12 All of at the prince, described as ‘aryaputra’—a designation hat the man addressed was Ashoka’s own son—and ed mahamatras, from Suvarnagiri (the capital of the vince of the empire) wished the mahamatras at Isila After this initial greeting, the message is much the where. Transcribing the address by the dispatcher to was obviously a mistake made when the edicts were ved from the common exemplar sent to all three ver, thanks to this ancient error, we have a rare glimpse de of transmission of the message: we know that the it to the provincial governor who, in turn, forwarded iption at different locations within the province he

ncial functionaries and engravers who were most esponsible for transmitting Ashoka’s messages are res. One exception is a character who signed off those

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graver.14 The engraver was more likely to have been worksmith; even more likely, several worksmiths, for three texts were inscribed within a few kilometres of the engraving hands are different, indicating more than er.15 Instead of Brahmi—the script used in the main part —Capada chose to use Kharoshthi for his own signa­oshthi was frequently used in the area of Gandhara, upper Indus and Swat valleys in contemporary north ordering Afghanistan. Capada may have used Kharoshthi off to show his dexterity with scripts, as also perhaps hat he either hailed from or was in some way linked -west India. The local engraver inscribed his signature the emperor’s message and so immortalized his name. ny writer-clerks likely to have been employed in the ion, he remains the only one we know by name. ther clerks and engravers are not visible in the same mes the style of engraving attracts our attention to the y of their skill. One such scribe was the engraver of the ict in Andhra. When inscribing Ashoka’s message there, rt of it bidirectional. This segment is boustrophedonic, writing often found in the remains of ancient Greece e lines, rather than following one direction, turn right left to right.16 Was this unnamed scribe using the rock uggest that he was familiar with other writing systems? was the only regional script written from right to left, so raver indicating his possession of a more cosmopolitan of scripts? And why did he give up writing in this way ines? The rest of the text, in fact, was rather haphazardly n the remaining space, with no concession to readability ere is no clear answer to why he engraved the message What can certainly be said is that every official who o read or translate this engraving would, instead of

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y so that the identity of the emperor sending out the easily apprehended. The emperor himself evidently t his subjects would recognize him by his titles alone. a’ (dear to the gods) or ‘Devanampiya Piyadasi’ (dear nd one who looks affectionately or amiably) was how was alluded to in the bulk of these edicts. In some ough, the administrators in charge of propagating added the king’s name to it. At places like Maski in nd at Gujjara in Central India, this king is mentioned Ashoka’ and ‘Ashoka raja’, respectively. In all likelihood ministrator believed that the people hearing or reading eded clarity on the identity of Devanampiya. y and the quirks of writers and engravers, and what ently or consciously added to the epigraphic text ials, represent only one part of the story. How were t down on rock communicated to the people of the was done by a specially designated official through ing in which those who had congregated at the place n were required to listen. So, even if Ashoka’s message d, its dissemination was oral.18 That orality was central acle is evident from the proclamatory ‘Devanampiya a phrase frequently encountered. It draws attention at what had been written had first been spoken, and ker, being the emperor, had to be carefully listened to. away Pataliputra, the monarch was compensating for n most of his empire by speaking to his subjects via es who were standing in for him via reading out his he interplay of orality and textuality also raises the whether the message was read as it appeared on the m a copy that the reader-communicator fished out of ds of his clothes or his bag. In the case of a site like ict was inscribed in a fairly compact way and could be

Fig. 6.5: The Maski edict, relatively legible and easy to read by people standing near it

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ring how important it was for the emperor to com­ with his subjects, did local administrators appoint th rhetorical skills for the readings? Were there many als who could both read well and recite powerfully? g the oral culture of early India, it is very possible that s was a novel experience for Mauryan functionaries have attempted to render a public discourse by the a style similar to that deployed by poets addressing e of listeners. The difference between an oral perform­oet-entertainer and a functionary carrying out the ord­ uler would have lain mainly in the content—a political literary agenda—with the manner of the address being milar, if more declamatory and officious in tone. * * *

Ashoka want to convey in his very first rock edict? This mmunication has survived in the very form in which down in the third century bce at Rupnath, and a full nslation of it gives a good idea of how the emperor set business for which he is best known. Other versions of e will figure subsequently, but the Rupnath edict gives se of what Ashoka thought worthy of recounting and ating to his subjects: not matters of state, but the state of He has become a Buddhist. His metamorphosis needs to ood and emulated. So it is the process and the conse­ his conversion that he highlights.

piya speaks thus. nd a half years and somewhat more (have passed) since I am Shakya. had) not been very zealous.

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is the fruit of zeal. cannot be reached by (persons) of high rank (alone), (but) y (person) is able to attain even the great heaven if he is

the following purpose has (this) proclamation been issued, the lowly and the exalted may be zealous, and (that) even rers may know (it), (and) that this same zeal may be of long

matter will (be made by me to) progress, and will (be made s considerably; it will (be made to) progress to at least one

use ye matter to be engraved on rocks where an occasion elf. herever) there are stone pillars here, it must be caused to be n stone pillars. ording to the letter of this (proclamation) (You) must n officer) everywhere, as far as your district (extends). roclamation was issued by (me) on tour. hts) (had then been) spent on tour.19

edict of Ashoka is also among his shortest. It is not of several edicts, as are those inscribed in later years. l glimpse of the emperor’s inner life is linked to a nouncements about his mission. The message is part­ nal, presenting his self-realization and organizing it chronological pattern of development. The text was y a ruler in the midst of a long tour, it having been t the presence of the number 256 in all versions of this cates the number of days (or nights) that Ashoka had om the royal capital, Pataliputra. The ‘date’ also shows se were dispatched more or less simultaneously.20 ecause it captures an important moment in the life of the time he converted to Buddhism, the brevity and understandable. They betray an impatience in wanting

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derstood the context within which his transformation ned. Let us try and understand the information and s contained in this imperial message and see how they ked. made grassroots contact with his people only after he Buddhist, there being no epigraphs showing this kind r his pre-Buddhist phase. He appeared as a charged-up uler across a large part of his empire in the North (Bairat, aura, Ratanpurwa, and Sasaram), in the heartland of ia (Gujjara and Rupnath), and in the Deccan where, in st frequent articulation of his persona as a royal Buddh­ came to be set down—this message being engraved in e places there.21 Reading it would have left no one in the emperor was now an ardent advocate of Buddhism. d at the outset that he had become a Sakya, meaning a after the Buddha’s well-known title ‘Sakyamuni’). Else­ ome versions of this message, he described himself as a (‘upasake’) of the Buddhist faith. had become a lay worshipper, he stated, some two and earlier, although his initial formal adherence to the new ot enough, in his assessment, to make him sufficiently his seems to mean that Ashoka did not at first feel st in the morality and faith of the religion. It may also as with other laypersons, a great deal within Buddhes and ‘laws’ had not been communicated to him. From ounted story about Anathapindaka, the rich banker ously set up the Jetavana monastery at Sravasti for the e learn that this kind of reticence with laypersons was mon. During an illness, Anathapindaka called Sariputra, a’s disciple, who, when comforting him, expounded a a subject that the ill banker was not aware of—disgust nse-objects, we are told. At the end of it the banker was

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sitation to expound a powerful doctrine immediately ng’s conversion may have been considered desirable, on probably being that a graduated process was in the more effective towards ensuring future zeal by letting himself arrive at the conviction that he was now truly th to nirvana. tal in making Ashoka a zealous Buddhist, he re­veal­ssociation with the Sangha, the Buddhist mendicant and a half after he became a lay follower.23 Such s of monks and nuns were by the third century bc ist in many parts of India. Precisely which branch of enchanted him is not known, but Mahabodhi is a ibility since we learn from a later Ashokan epigraph eror visited it in the tenth year of his consecration, can be inferred to coincide with the time when he nt. The other possibility is that his constant interaction eries in and around Pataliputra caused him to feel about his new religion. There is no way for us to know this matter with certainty, nor what exactly transpired oka and the Sangha. That he became closely associat­ all that he tells us, and this simply underlines that he iously imbibing the teachings of the Buddha. What the doctrines is likely to have been what had by then hed for the instruction of laypeople and fresh converts. ons included discourses of all kinds, especially those ith ‘giving, morality and heaven: the first emphasiz­tages of renunciation, the second revealed the harm, defilement of desires; the third mellowed, liberated, ppeased the mind of the listener.’24 Various texts that e teachings and discourses of the Buddha will also haled and digested, since some years later the emperor ffered advice to the Buddhist Sangha as well as to the

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ble magnitude. The confidence of monks proselytizing aging the expansion and reach of the relatively new faith quired an altogether new dimension. The closest parallel he West is perhaps the Roman emperor Constantine in ntury ce, whose espousal of the relatively new religion nity—coincidentally, as with Ashoka, roughly 300 years rth of the religion—has sometimes been described as n of the imperial state into the sacred state. In fact, a mparative study of Ashoka and Constantine—a subject or present purposes—could yield fascinating insights haracter and consequences of massively influential al conversions in the ancient world. At any rate, Cons­ Christian ecclesiastical history has the same position of surance that Ashoka has in the Sangha’s versions of key n the trajectory of their faith. r the quality and length of Ashoka’s interaction with his message confirms what resulted from it. His newour was now demonstrated in two main ways. First, tention to the eight months or so that he had spent ading to the surmise that he issued this first edict while cond, whereas in preceding times humans and gods ingled, now in Jambudvipa—Ashoka’s name for his e king took credit for making their intermingling pos­ was a way of saying that by creating a shared moral r his people with their gods, their emperor had made a a land of greater morality. ing this Ashoka used a motif that occurs in Buddhist ne that he must have picked up during his interaction ngha. John Strong, an important scholar of Buddhism, hat implicit in this first edict was the idea of a ‘double which gods and humans mingled either on earth or ven, and that this commingling carried the resonance

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hat seems likely though is that Ashoka used an idea ood by people familiar with the faith of the Buddha. not understood what the commingling of gods and lied, he would have taken some pains to explain what he did with so much else. ror also communicated the possibility of this moral­n and available to all those who followed his example, t humble to those who occupied high rank. In empha­ sibility of equal access he was quite evidently following himself in positioning a new moral universe funda­ erent from the stratified hierarchy of the Brahmanical n the social and cultural milieu of the first millen­was social differentiation that was usually emphasized: nas—Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras— as possessing different innate characteristics and dif­ ss to a variety of social goods, from occupation to was a relatively absolutist system of reservations. The were supposedly ordained by a primeval divinity, e in­violable. The individual acting against, or against his status was thus supposedly disobeying a sacred an ordinance which had of course been created, per­ mpos­ed by the powerful upon the lowly, and large­ ed both by the lowly and by society at large. Such on’ within Hindu society, i.e. the willing consent to bjugation by the subjugated, has been widely exposed nterpretation and analysis as among the world’s most emonies pre­cisely because of its incredibly effective of gods and goddesses within great literary stories orded the status of religious texts. The creation of this ultural universe of supposedly sacred acts, exam­ ders from heavenly beings who descend into the n—partly in order to reinforce the tenets of the varna

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ve recognized that in order to combat and counter a brainwashing as powerful as Brahmanical Hinduism e use, for different ends, of some of the same storyniques. This basically meant ensuring that the Buddhist hile asserting a socially inclusive view—both the lowly alted could occupy the same moral plane by following path and achieve heaven (‘svaga’) equally—was not n ways that were out of line with notions of the sacred een internalized by caste Hindus. In other words, the ng of gods with ordinary people was a motif that Ashoka ue of for the spread of a dissenting faith within an old hat extent, it was new wine being made more heady by ed out of an old and recognizable bottle. e initial message also shows purposive variety: Ashoka at, his own subjects apart, people on the borders learn has moved him in this new direction. So, from the time egan publicly communicating through edicts, he pre­ elf as a ruler not merely providing an example to his g subjects, but equally to potential converts beyond the s empire. The message, in fact, strongly underlines the self-proclaimed mission to pursue the promotion of amongst all his subjects, whose continuous progress ure by enlarging his imperial reach. There was nothing out this mission. Instead, as Ashoka put it, the mission ade to) progress considerably’. Thus, instructions were ow he wanted it disseminated. These were fairly precise ed that the proclamation be sent everywhere, to the of the district boundaries of the administrators to instructions were addressed; and that in each district e be engraved on rocks as also on stone pillars wherever een erected. By ensuring that his voice was cast in stone, de sure that this part of his life was set out as exemplary

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ines through his first edict as much as in those that is less evident but appears in retrospect implicit is that reting his own life and behaviour in a way that would ed knowledgeable observers of crucial incidents with­historical life. As one ponders over the constituent this edict, one cannot escape the strong feeling that e emperor’s autobiographical vignette some echo of autama, the man who became the Buddha in the sixth 26 Siddhartha’s decision to renounce worldly life, his hers underlined, was related to a personal trauma. not mention the Kalinga war and his post-war crisis dict, but we cannot escape reading even this pithy light of one of the most famous nuggets of ancient ely the transformative impact of the Kalinga war ueror. Again, while the Buddha moved from being his household to a wandering life in search of truth, aditional calling as head of his ‘household’, the state, moral mission. Like the wandering Buddha, who travelled, the converted Buddhist king embarks on his ouring his empire. His inclusive moral path is patently . Above all, just as the Buddha never failed to reveal erience as the basis of his teachings, Ashoka’s life and gly calling are inextricably combined. The Buddha iples; Ashoka’s disciples were in a sense his entire ad­ apparatus. Was Ashoka indeed framing his life and voke some elements of the Buddha? This possibility, ugh to us, may have been made known, or made more hose unfamiliar with the correspondences by those g Ashoka’s message. hing we know for certain about Ashoka’s first message rding and meaning was, for the average person, unlike had in the past formed the day-to-day reality of royal

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subjects, as also a supreme arbitrator of their disputes, ant to project himself as powerful, not spiritual. The have had to be forgiven if they were confused by a king d of proclaiming his strength via grandiloquent titles, imself humbly as ‘beloved of the gods’. The very thought man being their ruler will have run contrary to normal ocesses within the populace, which, on the odd occasion ght of him at all, perhaps only feared him as a kind of pex of a tax-extracting administration backed up by an read lord who might some day rain down on them with for reasons unanticipated. The power and persona of was mediated on the ground by various administrative es. Villagers and townspeople would normally have been y with local functionaries, not with the monarch. Now, is novel intervention, the ruler had brought himself direct ambit of their world. The situation will have wildering, the imperial initiative without precedent.

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ulk of Ashoka’s subjects, not being mobile or itinerant, ely to have been familiar with at most one of his edicts, ated closest to them—it being understood, of course, any are likely not to have been familiar with any. Those ntered the first minor rock edict will have been left in hat the message of the emperor was Buddhist-inspired the specificity with which the connection is made at the his compilation Asokan Sites and Artefacts the scholar puts this succinctly: ‘reduced to its essence it seems to at everyone become a Buddhist layman, develop zeal 27

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ating in this edict what he wanted his subjects to ob­ of the morality that he was propagating, the earlier nnection with Buddhist virtue is missing. Rather, the ts a sort of universal morality that no religious faith in ely to have any quarrel with. The broad-based nature ems one that would have appealed to all sections of the e key elements of its Brahmagiri version are:

must be rendered to mother and father, likewise to elders; f compassion) must be shown towards animals; the truth oken; these same moral virtues must be practised. ame way the pupil must show reverence to the master, and ehave in a suitable manner towards relatives. n ancient rule, and this conduces to long life.28

us virtues have a universal rather than specifically sonance. In reiterating them Ashoka also invokes r tradition (‘porana pakiti’) and does not take credit, his first message, for initiating a mission. The other g about it, says the historian Patrick Olivelle, is that this is marked by a ‘silence on social vices or crimes, such der, adultery, and other sexual offenses’ which were ajor concern to the state.29 Possibly, Ashoka considered to be something far more personal and “religious”— ment of character, virtue, and spiritual growth—than vil and criminal law.’30 It must at the same time be d that if the emperor was merely reminding people way about the path of morality as defined by age-old may have been because the generality of the message me of its transmission supplemented or accompanied nstructions pertaining to the specific area where it nt. So, this may well have been the way in which this understood in the Chitradurga area of Karnataka,

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dministrative instructions which had originally accom­ message. What makes this second message seem rather based and humane is those absent instructions. On the ragudi and Rajula-Mandagiri, as also at Nittur, stern mpanied the message. Whether Ashoka’s orders were e inscribed or propagated orally has been debated, but bed could be imperious and authoritative;31 in fact they onsiderably at variance with the softly focused universal

sage in the latter places bristles with directions. The xpected that the governor ‘should pass orders in the he Beloved of the Gods’ and that his mahamatras pass ut the necessity of obeying the morality expounded by rajukka’.32 The mahamatras were officials based in cities, e country areas the crucial administrative functionaries ajukkas.33 They, in turn would ‘order’ the people of yside, as well as a class of officials called ‘rashtrikas’— of parts of a district. Additionally, the orders were ex­ he emperor to be passed on to elephant-riders, scribes, and Brahman teachers. Pupils too had to be instructed nce with ancient tradition or ‘porana pakiti’. Ancient gured on more than one occasion in the instructions, a dwelling constantly on it, even ordering that all pro­ in line with it (‘this should be propagated in the proper ong pupils in accordance with what is ancient usage’). s the emperor’s belief that traditional values and usage, prised ‘porana pakiti’, had been forgotten. From first manner in which the decree was drafted would have eminded those who read it that they had no choice in of following ancient tradition, the last line firmly de­ us orders the Beloved of the Gods’. usion of the emperor’s orders, or conversely the act of

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n tradition, would in other places, sandwiched between al orders, have been seen and possibly resented as . So, while Ashoka may well have seen his mission as al and moral, the end result of his constant invocation in the form of orders to and by administrative offi­e been considered by many as an extension into their of the laws of the land.

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or’s first message and its resonance across large parts of ed on specifically how his words came to be engraved icular location, the encounters of his mission with and practices of people in varying terrains will also considerably. Of the large number of texts that have his message, none were found located at or near the f the Mauryan realm. Pataliputra, Vidisha, Ujjayini, e among those that have figured in Ashoka’s life, and now already as being commercially and politically here were many others cities as well, such as Sopara, alhar, Kaushambi, and Champa, to name a few that rosperous: the material evidence of archaeology and y sources suggest this. However, these urban agglo­ ere not the spots chosen for inscriptions. Ashoka’s age was engraved mainly in the hills, in rock shelters, inent rocks in the vicinity of locally significant places. wanted his words to be engraved in such places and emier cities of his empire, he doesn’t tell us. So, let us aces he chose, or which happened to be chosen by his y and see why such places were picked.

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a settlement in the south-east of the hill now known as udda, that being the most conspicuous hill alignment d here. The settlement today is only recognizable from ities of potsherds that litter the soil where cultivated ton and sunflower now stand. But a few thousand years time of Ashoka, a copper- and iron-using culture flour­ spot. ds that emerged out of excavations conducted at Maski learn how some of the subjects of the Mauryan em­peror s part of Karnataka. This was a sedentary agricultural ch reared cattle and goats.34 While the houses have d, we know that timber was used in their building holes—in which originally were wooden poles that ed without a trace—have been seen and these must orted the frame for thatched roofs. The habitations or less disappeared, but the burial practices of these e survived a little. That the burials and habitation were aneous is evident from the fact that there is an identity of pottery found in both deposits. Several of the burials n the habitation area itself. Lots of bright-coloured ed pots and jars, iron objects such as arrowheads, lances blades, and animal bones were buried with the dead. granite menhirs were also found here, and this is one these people in Maski have been given the appellation -building people’. The monoliths, though, were not with funerary deposits, so what exactly they signified known. There is also uncertainty about what the uses ome of the objects were put, as for instance certain -looking spheroidal stone balls. In the opinion of the hese could have been sling-stones, or ‘bolas’, for kill­ving game. They could also well have been playthings of them were buried with a child, placed near its feet.

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ucturally unprepossessing settlement pattern can give impression that this was an isolated interior village. o know the area’s history point to the presence of all acts and inscriptions here which capture its links with in the subcontinent and beyond. An early hint of this, od before the time of Ashoka, is a terracotta cylinder d with a man driving an elephant. While the elephant stically Indian, the man’s ‘radiating’ headdress and of his mouth, as also the seal’s cylindrical shape, sug­ finities with Mesopotamia.36 Such cylinder seals were cur more frequently in the third millennium cities of lization further north, at places like Mohenjodaro and Did a merchant trading goods between Mesopotamia it this region? If yes, what was the trader looking for region? Gold may well have been one such resource shall see, has been found here. n also had a strategic significance. More than a thou­ ter Ashoka, among a bunch of inscriptions that either Maski (called ‘Mosangi’, ‘Musangi’, or ‘Mosage’) as the f the administrative region or as a political capital, is entury ce epigraph which alludes to it as a battlefield. conquests of the Tamil king Rajendra Chola I, which Sri Lanka and Kerala to Orissa and Bengal, is the of Jayasimha, identified with the Chalukya king Jaya­ o was described as being put to flight at Musangi.37 Jayasimha’s base was at Kalyani, while Rajendra Chola he deep south, the fact that the invading Chola king Karnataka-based Chalukya in the vicinity of Maski is ts critical location. impse similar subcontinental links in the time of the ociety of the region. The inhabitants used beads that ginated from areas very far from ancient Karnataka.

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raw materials would have come in with commercial ll kinds: traveller-traders from the north-west carrying them, and people from this belt travelling there and with saleable goods. The material yields of trade add ge of the intersection between these regions at huge om each other. This intersection, as we saw, was evident resence of scribes in Karnataka–Andhra accomplished thi and employed by the Mauryan provincial admi­

as one precious resource here that traders and rulers Maski would have dearly sought: gold. The region was deposits. Known to geologists as the main Maski band war series, a number of old gold workings here under­ that these deposits were exploited in premodern times. ngs have been found near Maski, and many in areas beyond. Two gold objects of the first millennium bce e site make it seem most likely that the auriferous veins mined in very ancient times.38 The chance discovery of n edict at Maski was in fact the result of the prospect­d in 1915 by a gold-mining engineer of the nizam’s C. Beadon, in that area. One may even imagine that rovincial capital in this region, known as Survar­den mountain’), may have been so named because of its regulation of gold, with Maski as a base for prospect­ning. e that the reference points of this settlement extended nd its immediate environment is reinforced by different affiti marks on some of the pottery, from the habitation l as from burials. There were some nineteen types of er scratched or incised, including trident-like marks, essly incised crosses, V-like incision marks, and one an arrowhead. These form part of a marking system

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uth-west of Madurai) yielding sequences where the reveals only graffiti, followed by one where the graffiti h the Brahmi script, and eventually the Brahmi script the exclusion of earlier forms.39 In other places, as al near Erode, Brahmi inscriptions on pottery show s incised at the end.40 Either way, graffiti seems to have convey messages in a way that script signs did in more forms. nings encoded in the Maski graffiti marks remain nd no potsherds with Brahmi inscriptions have been Yet there is every possibility that by the third century ople in Maski were familiar with the Brahmi script they may well have seen on the cultural equipment of y groups further south and west. So, even if this was that the king had made his presence felt in this form bourhood of their settlement, such inhabitants would zed the script in which his message was engraved. possesses many gneissic hills and outcrops; the pro­ als responsible for engraving Ashoka’s message chose nd most conspicuous of these hills, in whose shadow Unlike many other sites in Karnataka where both second minor edicts were set into rock faces, here t message of the emperor, Minor Rock Edict I, was ved. But instead of a rock face near the settlement, was inscribed some distance away, on its western it invisible to the local population. Importantly, it visible to those who passed that part of the Durgada This is because Ashoka’s message was written incons­ n an interior-facing outcrop of a rock shelter with dge above it. It was not as if other rocky outcrops ilable. Much nearer the settlement area and beyond accessible rock faces than this one, which is rather

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r’s message to survive for as long as possible, and the offered by the overhanging ledge made them glance at the location. Simultaneously, this was a location to community rituals and local festivals. Such conjec­ly be affirmed or rejected via excavations in and around the large cavern. But certainly it made sense to engrave within a place ritually visited: what appears an idiosyn­on may not have been so then. That said, considering that people to gather in by the edict is limited, the audience t in time was unlikely to have been a large one. lk who came to the outcrop could hardly have failed to ficials about the emperor. The name ‘Ashoka’, inscribed would through constant use have become familiar. matory use of a first-person voice revealed that he was a religion which would have been perceived to have a owerful backer. People thousands of kilometres away emperor in Pataliputra would at the very least have us about what he was saying to them in this dramatic ected way, by inserting himself into their landscape. munity with connections in the large subcontinental imperial presence in this form may even have been an honour specially bestowed to the area. The assurance tarian moral universe may have struck an emotional most humble cultivator at Maski was being told that he onsequential and could exalt himself merely by follow­ ing’s footsteps. e some possibilities. It is also possible that the notion ng of gods and humans sounded alien to the populace. ist faith was not a part of the local sacred landscape, ything in the king’s message show awareness of Maski’s gious practices. The message on the rock had been into their midst, and his expectation that they move in

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remotely resembling Buddhist symbols. No Buddhist ver constructed here during or after the third century those which came up in other areas associated with greatest likelihood is therefore that, as before, Maski’s ontinued to believe in the deities that had traditionally em in life and death. The emperor’s strange message rd, and ignored.

* * *

an’s wishes were engraved into only one area of the y; in other places there seems a greater anxiety to mination, for the same message is inscribed at more ce within the same locality. The Chitradurga cluster epigraphs at Brahmagiri, Siddapura, and Jatingais a dramatic instance of this anxiety. Many stunning apes can be encountered across large tracts in this part , so an abundance of locations was available. But these hs, instead of being spread out, are within a radius of apura was a little over a kilometre west of Brahmagiri -Rameshwara was less than five km north-west of it. seem interlinked because of intervisibility. Siddapura rds Brahmagiri. From Brahmagiri, Siddapura and eshwara were both visible. From the panoramic nga-Rameshwara, in turn, these rocky locations in the od where the emperor’s message was inscribed could entirely possible that the combination of locational a more or less identical royal epigraph at all three ured that they came to be seen as interconnected. k at these landscapes a little more closely. Brahmagiri

Fig. 6.7: Brahmagiri enclosure with Siddapura rocks in the fields and Jatinga-Rameshwara hill in the background

Fig. 6.8:  Brahmagiri edict

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rnagiri, the provincial capital. Suvarnagiri was the rince whose name we do not know but who was pos­ a’s son. It was ‘at the word of the aryaputra’ (prince) mahamatras of Suvarnagiri that the message was sent hamatras of Isila (‘they must be wished good health’, ge said). Brahmagiri was thus where ancient Isila d. And since administrative officials of the rank of mahae attached to it, it was likely to have been an urban

been identified on the ground? In 1940 the archaeo­ Krishna believed he had searched out ancient Isila a of the edict-bearing rock, and the place was so described xcavator of Brahmagiri:

hern slopes of Brahmagiri, largely covered by a tumbled mass boulders, bear extensive signs of ancient occupation in the pot-sherds, fragmentary walls and remains of small terraced roughly revetted with dry-stone walling. It is to be presumed housand years ago more earth remained amongst the bould­at the present day, and that much evidence of this part of een washed away. But at all times the main area of occupation e lain, as surface-remains and excavation combine to indicate, gentle slope which forms the transition from the hill to the e a long strip some 200 yards in width is a mass of occupationsherds. Beyond it, the fringe of the plain itself, to a depth of or more and a length of about a mile, forms what must have lmost continuous belt of megalithic structures, mostly cistany of these have been removed by agriculturists, but some still survive in intermittent patches.41

is description it is apparent that, like Maski, this was habitational debris packed with plenty of potsherds, cemetery area of multiple burials alongside megalithic The royal rescript was meant for this iron-using culture 42

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atercourse.43 A couple of millennia later, washing this n known as ‘akshara gundu’, or letter rock) with water to endow it with usable medicinal virtues, which leads he supposition that the superstition may have per­to the later period from a time after the Mauryan. o survived some distance south-east of the Brahmagiri he hill, is a small apsidal structure made of bricks. The d a structure made of large bricks (1’5” x 9” x 3–3½”) hought to be indicative of a fairly early time, although which would help provide a secure date was found.44 deed a Buddhist chaitya or temple, as is surmised, it that the imprint of Buddhism at Brahmagiri went uddhist-inspired message of the monarch. head of Brahmagiri, the question arises why Isila’s on decided to get the very same edict inscribed on l just a kilometre or so distant. This falls within the t of Siddapura village and so is known as Ashoka’s ict. But in the third century bce the town community d have been the target audience for the message—the body that will have imbibed the Brahmagiri message. of this near duplication cannot be missed, nor the hy such proximity seemed desirable in a context where a sufficient size for engravings were not remotely in Here, in the middle of cultivated land is a horizontal ocky outcrop which was used for the engraving. A large s over the ledge and seems almost to have squeezed the n it and the inscribed surface. Interestingly, this part aces the Brahmagiri hill and not Jatinga-Rameshwara. dapura slab’s orientation merely functional, in that it the best surface available for putting down a message twenty-two lines, even if the restricted space above business of reading it difficult? Alternatively, were the

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al cattle-keepers and goatherds used shady overhang­ aves as protection against the hot summer sun? At the me when Ashoka’s inscription was discovered, Sidda­ hilly landscape bore a name that suggested such links. d ‘Yenamana timmayyana gundlu’, or ‘the buffalo-herd s rocks’.45 Which of these is the best explanation, and her deductions lurk are matters for unending speculation at Maski, no specific archaeological pointers can guide t there is every reason to imagine that all who came to —devotees, shepherds, local children, lovers in search —could not have failed to note a Buddhist emperor’s oming larger than life in their lived landscape. hmagiri and Siddapura the edicts were inscribed around eas of the rocky ridge, at Jatinga-Rameshwara, the third s cluster, they happened to be located on a high hill some m the surrounding town and villages. Some similarities nga-Rameshwara edict with the other two locations. As riting is cut into a slanting horizontal rock face and has lder overhanging it. It is likely that the same group of ated the appropriate rocks here, for at all three places ered horizontal faces best suited to their purpose. At re vertical face had been used, as also at Udegolam and within each province the local officials seem to have wn clear preferences when it came to deciding on an rock face to write on. back to Jatinga-Rameshwara: what makes it most dra­ at the engravers, instead of using the base or an easily art of the hill, carved his message on the summit. The hilltop, made relatively easy today by some 700 steps, hokan days have been steep and strenuous. The character scape of this hilltop location in the third century bce known from the range of religious associations presently

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ed by many to have fallen, even as Jatayu tried to rescue art of the rocky eminence that lies above and behind ring rock lies a pond whose surrounding rock surface the impressions of human feet. Among these are a d as ‘Sita pada’ (the feet of Sita). There is nothing, can help track such beliefs back to the time of the mperor. The hilltop became famous over time as a pot called Balgoti Tirtha, a place of pilgrimage for the god Shiva under the name Rameshwara. Like y of the powerful royal patrons of this ‘tirtha’ inscribed es on rock surfaces and boulders. But that happened millennium later. hough we do not know what brought people to this auryan times, the simple truth remains that no state would have taken the trouble to carve an important e at a place no one visited. My hunch is that the sheer ndeur of the Jatinga-Rameshwara hill, dominating n the landscape around it, was likely to have had a ritual dominance in the lived world of ancient com­ hin this area. Such communities climbed the hill on monial occasions. The pre-existence of sacredness asso­­ hilltop explains its reuse. The edicts, in turn, trans­ place. Jatinga-Rameshwara was probably a local or at al religious spot. Ashoka’s message made it part of ces connected to each other by the imprimatur of an o ruled from the Himalayas to the hills of Karnataka

people who trudged here to pay obeisance to their espond to the Buddhist message? There will have been of responses, from rapt interest to scarcely concealed However, by contrast with the Brahmagiri rock— n the modern era was seen as endowed with special

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he rock was called ‘balegara-gundu’, or bangle-sellers’ us holes were punched into it for posts that supported ed by them at the annual fair.46 An ancient sacred space d by an emperor’s new-found spirituality now suppor­ mundane and entirely material quest. * * *

sessing iron-using communities with remarkable graveaditions dominated the places in Karnataka where rly edicts were inscribed, an entirely different repertoire ons existed around the king’s message at Panguraria in ia. ed hilly tract with a range of rock shelters is how one ribe the landscape of Panguraria. It is a place with rock one very many centuries before Ashoka even as it carries onance of his Buddhism. The prehistoric paintings show cluding monkeys, and hunters. They are in the same line lters, halfway up a hill, in which Ashoka’s message is pread across the hillside are a large number of stupas essed stones, some with platforms, the diameters ranging 76 metres. Alongside are monastic cells within rubble A stunning architectural remnant from Panguraria is brella and an umbrella shaft that supported it, which e Mauryan. Engraved on the shaft is an inscription rds that the umbrella is the gift of ‘bhikshuni’ (nun) ta; it was caused to be made by Pusa, Dhamarakhita, and amtevasinis’ of Koramika.47 ‘Amtevasinis’ literally means on the border, although it was usually used to describe

aposition of painted rock shelters and Buddhist remains

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stupa built by Ashoka we will discuss later, stands on a line of rock shelters can still be seen along an old to Vidisha. The shelters bear prehistoric and historic ns—animals, men, an antler mask, horse and elephant re-existing sacredness of these places from prehistoric s a continuity into historic time of a new variant of ic religious impulse, the shape now being Buddhism. ups, adherents of the later faith, sometimes chose to shelters in unconscious or deliberate acknowledge­ e sort of emotional kinship with those who had gone

d have been true for Panguraria as much as for other What makes Panguraria both different and distinctive is only place within this region where Ashoka’s rescript on the stone walls of a rock shelter.48 Known as the ave (or ‘gufa’), the edict-bearing shelter lies in the Rehti st, in the midst of jungle foliage and spectacular scenic surrounding landscape. An uneven back wall within hows the writing. Part of the rock seems to have been able by the engraver. So he set down the epigraph in ree lines of writing in the first part and five lines in

further distinction: Ashoka directly addresses the local Kumara called Samva.50 Such direct communication is t Maski, Brahmagiri, or any other Ashokan location at time. All who read or heard the Panguraria message, as would have learnt that the governor was the recipient from the king himself. The governor’s title, ‘kumara’, s a scion of the royal family though not a son of the the ‘aryaputra’ in Karnataka. from where the king sent his message is also pro­e first time. Ashoka is communicating with Kumara

Fig. 6.9: Ashoka’s edict in a rock shelter at Panguraria

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iew of the countryside around the Panguraria rock shelter

a offers a precious hint about some of the places that ng for during his long tour of 256 nights (or days). This s us to wonder about the reactions of resident Buddhist uns in such viharas to the royal visitor and his entour­ n appearing on the horizon will have been perceived onarch to be touring his kingdom not to consolidate but to extend it spiritually. His extraordinariness will to many to border on the peculiar. ing this communiqué from the king, we imagine va arranging to get it inscribed in a place where Bud­ lready resident. The governor himself will have been d in one of the cities of the region. If it was in the nguraria, either Nandner or Ninnore, both commercial d well have been his capital.51 It is logical to suppose

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gestion is that the Panguraria complex may well have ery Upunita-vihara mentioned in the rescript, which as asking the royal governor to visit’, we are told, ‘in n of the promulgation’ of his message there.52 Whatever name of the present site of Panguraria, it was by then ddhist sanctuary. This means that the intended audience, y other audiences, for the emperor’s inscription was a ommunity already in existence at this location. Ashoka’s s similar to those at Maski and Rupnath, but the fact ended audience here was Buddhist will have resulted in kind of reception for it. dent monks and nuns will, one assumes, have felt sured about the rightness of the path they had chosen, their afflictions worth the while now that this same eing trodden by the emperor himself. The mendicants the other viharas that Ashoka will have visited, may have been surprised by the import of his message. nquerors of the lands of other rulers, or as builders of pitals, were commonly encountered within stories that n the third century bce of the time of the Sakyamuni. ver, was a king proclaiming he was one of them. What t he decide to join them and live among them? The tenor w proclamations might well have made the discerning as no saying what might happen in the future.

7

Extending the Arc of mmunication to Afghanistan

ile officials and scribes were etching the mperor’s messages in the various parts of India, a yal communiqué was pro­mulgated beyond the sub­ound 259 bce. The timing of the proclamation, around ar after Ashoka’s coronation, makes it broadly con­­ us with the others that we have just waded through. messages, though, this one was in Afghanistan, in the andahar. Ashoka get an edict engraved in a region as remote utra as Afghanistan, and how may we visualize the aking his presence felt there? Speaking historically, print in this territory should not surprise us as the become part of the Mauryan realm since the time upta, when large parts of it were seceded to him by ographically speaking, however, its remoteness within arsh terrain and climate make it an odd choice for

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Herat towards the north. Mainly for this reason, many before the appearance of Ashoka, specific points in n had become a zone of cultural interfaces and trading s of all kinds. artefacts strikingly evocative of links with the West and om Greece and Iran to the heartland of Gangetic India, d up from sites in the region.1 Agricultural settlements ng existed here, in what have been described as the squeezes’ of rivers and tributaries.2 These are found arge stretch, in the area of the Amu Darya river in the in the southern mountains and foothills. The fourth m bce saw the appearance of pottery in an extensive series at Mundigak near Kandahar, sharing clear parallels with om sites in Baluchistan. Those, in turn, occasionally that appear to be of Iranian inspiration.3 All this is per­ al since an important route to Baluchistan from Iran ough Kandahar. The ceramic parallels also show that, th, Afghanistan’s relationship with Baluchistan was far al while with the more distant regions to the west, the eraction was limited.4 Later, in the third millennium aterial culture of this area shows parallels with that nian sites of the same timespan. Shahr-i Sokhta in Iran ed alabaster vessels which reached Mundigak.5 As for fghanistan, in the third millennium bce a Bronze Age outpost, exclusively marked by antiquities and arte­ appan tradition, was flourishing at Shortughai near the er.6 Shortughai perhaps represents the earliest Indian mmunity settled far from its land of origin while main­ ong links with it. Harappan settlers came here for its ces, ranging from metal ores to the deep blue lapis of Badakshan. Lapis was fashioned into beads worn in ettlements stretching from Punjab to Gujarat.

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Map 3: Afghanistan in relation to Iran and Pakistan

their realm, Kandahar became their main bastion. int in time, very likely, the Aramaic language, steeped ian terms, came to be used in the administration ovince where Kandahar stood came to be known as d was considered an important political prize, having over by a loyalist of Darius I of Persia against a der to the Achaemenid throne.7 Later it was overrun in 330 bce, a consequence of his defeating Darius III he Macedonian conqueror, now the ruler of the satra­ chaemenids, placed new administrators in position to quests.8 He is known to have appointed a Greek gover­ osia who was provided with a military arm consisting

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st Afghanistan and the Indus area, being forced to make Chandragupta Maurya. Through a diplomatic detente d king ceded Gandhara, Arachosia, and Paropamisadae t Greek name for the south-eastern part of present-day n). In return he received 500 elephants and a female Seleucus (for a matrimonial alliance). Paul Kosmin, the Seleucid empire, believes that this was a mutually xchange: ‘Geopolitically, Seleucus abandoned territories ver securely hold in favour of peace and security in the r Chandragupta, he ‘gained unchallenged expansion into hwest corridor. His gift of elephants may have alleviat­ den of fodder and the return march!’10 What Arachosia n Mauryan times remains unknown, but a people called re mentioned in sources of that era as locally resident. geopolitical perspective these territorial acquisitions the Mauryan monarch’s powerful pan-Indian empire nfettered access across this part of Asia. communications were one element of this larger line­ rconnections that left a mark on Afghanistan, a land unes had for long been tied to those of political overlords ousands of kilometres distant. The great trade and utes in this part of Asia passed through its territory, so e was no doubt habituated to the comings and goings of onquerors.11 All the same, like populaces around other it may well have cogitated and scratched its head for a hen first confronting Ashoka’s epigraphic scrawls in the hile here we look at the first of Ashoka’s epigraphs in n, some years later several more were put down in that on, a couple of them in Kandahar itself.12 Two others valley of Laghman in eastern Afghanistan, carved into in on ridges known as Sultan Baba and Sam Baba, two km m each other.13 A third, also from the Laghman region, 14

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south Afghanistan that the emperor first addressed stern subjects, on the outskirts of Kandahar. The city on sandwiched between mountains and a sandy area y called Registan to its south.15 The plain on which it ween the Arghandab and Tarnak rivers and commands ng through the Tarnak valley by Ghazni to Kabul. south another route skirts Registan to Quetta and the rom where the Indus plains could be accessed.16 The ay west of the modern one, about four km from it. this old Kandahar, while eroded and robbed in most a massive citadel in the midst of an imposing walled h a series of superimposed defences.17 Covering seve­ square metres and rising some 35 metres above the citadel was an entirely man-made elevation, built on y possibly it was the location of the city’s adminis­ .18 after 260 bce, those resident in Kandahar (as also sited it) would have noticed unusual activity around cing rocky outcrop which was part of the Kaitul massif, onghold. They were sure to have noticed it because it he road to Girishk and Herat, a track frequently used and traders. They will have spotted the preparation of panel which was inset into the rock and smoothened re. The involvement of the local government would parent from the presence of officials co-ordinating the of the panel on which, soon enough, a few hundred ed. Ancient bystanders, like us today, may have wond­ state functionaries had chosen this particular rock for Was it, like many other places where the emperor’s d been inscribed, part of a sacred vicinity or near hrine? Perhaps. The attractions of engraving royal o rock here may have been considerable, given the

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known to later wayfarers on this trail, though it is abur’s engravers, encountering it, would not have made of what their predecessors were getting at. ird century bce, what would have drawn residents and his chipping and grinding will have been the fact that r’s message was in two familiar languages. The other hat we waded through, which were sent out around me as this one, were a fairly similar broadcast, being same language and script. This first Afghan rescript of the other hand, used neither the Brahmi script nor vocabulary of the carvings we saw earlier. Greek aic were served instead, the Greek featuring above c, keeping two readerships in mind. An example of ualism is the medieval stone tablet discovered in the s of a monastery near the Gauri-Kedara temple at ar in Orissa. The tablet was inscribed in Oriya and use it recorded a transaction between a debtor, a man escent associated with the monastery, and a creditor, a Oriya.20 Many centuries before this, in large parts of eyond, epigraphic records in more than one language me a fairly familiar sight. With the Achaemenids, ultilingual inscriptions became almost the rule, the d best-known example being the monumental epi­ limestone cliff on Mount Behistun in the Kerman­nce of western Iran. Here, Darius I (Darius ‘the Great’) century bce had a trilingual epigraph inscribed in old amite, and Babylonian. Later, such inscriptions were urther west, such as for example those of the reign of III (425–338 bce), the eleventh emperor of the Achae­ pire. These are at Sardis and Xanthos in Turkey. Lite­­ces to such inscriptions also abound, and, if Hero­dotus d, stelae with inscriptions in cuneiform and Greek were 21

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of Greek alongside Aramaic by a Pataliputra-based ws us that at least part of his audience was Greekat Kandahar had such speakers is also known from a ption found at old Kandahar, recovered a few hund­ m Ashoka’s bilingual rock edict and inscribed on a It mentions a Greek-speaking citizen who describes he ‘son of Aristonax, one of Alexandria’s citizens’.22 st citizen of that city known to history was a Greek. surviving epigraph suggests that he dedicated what n the statue of a ‘beast’ to what is called a ‘temenos’ of temenos was likely to have been a kind of sanctuary ated to a Greek deity, which means that not only did e Greek inhabitants, it also had structures associated e.23 There were Greek settlers in other parts of Afgha­n­as at Ai Khanoum in Bactria, a Hellenic city that flour­ mes somewhat later than those of Alexander. arrival of Greek, Achaemenian Aramaic, the langu­l communications in the Persian empire, was in use econd half of the first millennium bce, Aramaic had most widely used script across the ancient Near East, to north-west India, as well as in Egypt and Asia use this was what officialdom used.24 Presumably, it ed by the Achaemenids into their satrapies in Afghan­ e Indus valley, roughly from Arachosia to Gandhara. ollapsed but Aramaic continued. This explains why the peror used it for transmitting his message. Incident­ m Aramaic that the Kharoshthi form of writing, widely h-west India, evolved: Ashoka later used it for another es there. Everywhere else, in the subcontinental main­ have seen, the Mauryan empire’s administrators used he Brahmi script. While many different languages will oken across the area, the Mauryan administration had

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n message was composed in two ‘foreign’ languages, ersia and the other from Europe. dahar situation is not, however, as singular as it seems. dicts were inscribed in languages used here in govmemoranda. It was a pragmatic decision. If the admi­ of large parts of India conducted official business in this part of Afghanistan the familiarity was with Greek ic. By using these the administration was ensuring e dissemination by factoring in the nature of bilingual­ Greek and Aramaic apart, other languages and dialects o have been spoken in the region, though what these been we don’t know because they were not used by the nistration—at least not on surviving rocks or anything me down to us from that period. Such antique speech ikely to have persisted beyond the conquests and in­ e West. The persistence does not necessarily mean the ere of separable population clusters—Greeks and Pers­ dha migrants and indigenous groups. All it means is wo of the main languages and scripts were used by the ion, people in general continued to speak in earlier auto­­tongues. This regional linguistic situation was being d by those who carved the inscriptions. m and content were also qualitatively different. Unlike uddhist convert of mainland India who took pains to spiritual evolution, in Kandahar we see a remarkably emperor who has already converted others to his path. ge is not about his metamorphosis, it is a supremely ummary of the sovereign’s spiritual success:

(of reign, or since the consecration) having been completed, dasses (Piyadassi) made known (the doctrine of) Piety to from this moment he has made men more pious, and every­ ves throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from

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n opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on ion, they will live better and more happily.25

was issued around the time of the edicts we have The differences between it and those are several: in r message he relates no personal experience nor gives s for propagating his doctrine of piety. He does not converted Buddhist. The confessional mode is omit­ e earlier moral expectations from administrators and message is closer to being an announcement outlining f a new era of general spiritual success following the f the king’s consecration. In its tone it is similar to xtolling the successes of ancient conquerors, except, nature of the victory. The conquest proclaimed is otion of piety which has enabled his subjects to live more happily.’ he character and quality of the language in this bi­ iption—does it capture what constituted Ashoka’s commentator, Paul Bernard, remarks on the excelontemporary nature of the Greek language which, , does not give the appearance of having languish­barbarized by misuse’. The vocabulary suggests an bridization and dilution with local accents and usa­ges.

full of vitality, aware of contemporary usage, skilled in g of the literary language, familiar with the terms used by rs and sophists, as well as those found in the vocabulary able to find the closest equivalents to specifically Indian uch as eusebeia for the notion of dhamma, diatribe which ool of philosophy’ in Greek for pasamda, the Indian term s sect, and enkrateia, the Greek expression for self-control, ies to the restraint which the emperor’s subjects must ong themselves.26

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to adapt the ruler’s voice to a form locally appropriate ehensible. Mortimer Wheeler had such elements of re in mind when remarking that at Kandahar ‘we need ger to hesitate to accept a full-blown “Alexandria” upon Old Kandahar. This was no mere tired vestige of a pass­was a balanced Greek city with its writers, its philoso­ eachers, no less than its executives and its growing nt of Hellenized “natives”’.27 aside the encomia for a moment and looking at pos­ems in the wording, it would seem that in the third e the precise terminology required in Greek for Buddh­ s will have involved something of a wrestle because of exact equivalents. The deployment here of the Greek r piety is an example. The intention is to introduce the mma, but in fact the Greek word is something of a far he Ashokan notion of dhamma.28 Eusebeia apparently espect or awe by humans towards the gods or other gs; it applies much less to interactions between mortals 29 It also involves the idea of sacrifice, which in the ext meant killing animals. This would make it most ry to Ashoka’s dhamma, ceasing to kill animals being he emperor’s concerns. Moreover, rather than anything to gods, dhamma is a moral order involving humans and n that order. In the early edicts of Karnataka it occurs in with the Buddhist virtues (‘dhamma-guna’) which were ised. So, what the north-western people of the empire ebeia seems worth thinking about. The interpretive out­ ng a language to transmit a message culturally ground­re will have modified the meaning of the message, at aps crucially enough to seriously puzzle people. the other epigraph in Aramaic inscribed below the s too uses words more at home within a culture rooted

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ving] fallen [it] was made which [was that] our Lord Prydrs, romoted Truth (Qsyt’). Since then evil has diminished for d he has caused all hostile things to disappear, and joy has ughout the whole earth. And moreover, there is this (?): for of our Lord, the king, little is killed; seeing this (?) all men up [killing animals], and those who caught fishes, those men up [doing it]; similarly, those who are without restraint (?) to be without restraint (?). And [there is] good obedience to er and father and to the old people, as destiny has laid down ne. And there is no judgment for all men [who are] pious. nefited all men and will continue to benefit.30

he Aramaic phrases do not correspond with the Greek. ces are worth highlighting. The king here ‘promotes ’ in Aramaic) while in the Greek he makes known his piety’. Unlike the king who abstained from killing in scription, here ‘for the feeding of Our Lord the king, . Presumably, this meant that hardly any animals were tered for the royal kitchen. This reduction apparently his subjects to give up the killing of animals—or so the s. The declaration’s end—‘And there is no Judgment men’—stands out because the Greek message does not verall, however, the Aramaic vocabulary seems able to message without the possible interpretive difficulties . The Persian cultural grounding of Aramaic seems ive to a translation of concepts from the heartland of he overt preoccupation of this edict with giving up the mals, incidentally, continues to figure prominently in r Afghanistan epigraphs. The Aramaic Pul-i-Darunta tion noted that no living being was to be ‘fattened’ with beings, while two other edicts, also in Aramaic, from ak about the king having dispersed and expelled from us (population) the lovers of  .  .  .  hunting of creatures

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manating from the king determine the matter or were tors left largely free? These questions connect with al authority was constituted in the separable parts of an empire, the dominant issue studied by historians ing the extent or lack of an authoritative centralized ion. Evidence of varying kinds of authority exercised rent regions led Romila Thapar to describe the Mauryan ion ‘as a relationship between three categories of con­en the metropolitan state, the core areas and the peri­ ons.’32 Her definition is based on the history of the rmation, the nature of the administration, and the f the economy. The metropolitan state was Magadha, h centralized bureaucratic control much before the The core areas were already states before they were by the Mauryas, states like Gandhara and Avanti. On the , the peripheral regions were areas of relative isolation ntecedent histories of state formation, but possessing ources much valued by the Mauryas. These categories mmutable and core areas could become independent ust as peripheral areas changed into core regions.33 administrations, ancient and modern, exercise power across large territories is only natural, given varying quirements. The problem is that macro analyses using or economic might as their measure of all things tend mewhat singular ground realities across diverse regions. perspectives, outlying regions come to be seen as passive or the metropolitan state, as also passive recipients of s emanating from a distant central authority. Histor­ yed by royalty in dominant centralizing states defined regions that their masters conquered and controlled n relation to the needs of the centre. Interpretations of ughal, Mughal, and British colonial periods were also

Fig. Prelude 2:  Part of Ashoka’s message on the rocks of Erragudi

  Ashoka and his queen on a second century ce panel of the Kanaganahalli stupa in Karnataka

arakshita, Queen of Ashoka nindranath Tagore)

Fig. 12.2:  Sanghamitra with the Bodhi tree (Nandlal Bose)

Fig. Epilogue 1:  Depiction of Ashoka supported by his wives on the upper segment of gateway pillar at Sanchi

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of empire as the homeland of real people with their es, cultural predilections, and continuing everyday spirituality as well as resistance to impositions from yond. The central state’s armed might was, besides, ed only sporadically, and sometimes restrictedly for action, leaving many areas of activity open for local and variation. The fundamental point is that regions wn local histories additional to the history of their or control by an external state, and in fact the most r detailed history of a region can be more connected that make it autonomous rather than controlled. hich Thapar sees as a periphery, seems not to have been that broader sense; it was not remotely the passive cultural innovation from the Mauryan metropolis. g’s message was received there seems to have depended of factors at the level of the locality, ranging from the communities to the nature of trade and commerce. processes can be seen at work in Afghanistan. This was ion at the edge of the Mauryan empire continuously ences from Greece, Iran, Central Asia, and India. Very as through this part of his empire that several of the hoka would later send to sovereigns of the Hellenistic .34 Even at this point, the existence of a Greek sanc­ndahar within a few yards of the emperor’s edict he presence of citizens who were familiar with and ult activities rooted in the classical world of the West. o seen that terminology locally introduced, such or ‘piety’ and qshyt or ‘truth’ in place of the Prakrit emplifies how inter-ethnic contacts resulting from nces played a part in translating Ashoka, even if the racter could not have been an entirely local concep­ er words, while Afghanistan marked the physical limit

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minor rock edicts while showing a general concord­another edict of Ashoka, Rock Edict IV, in which a se of prior ethical accomplishment is conveyed. The e can only be general because Rock Edict IV is a far orate statement within which the obedience that is the Kandahar edict figures in only one of its senten­urther complicates the question of such a link is that IV came into being two years after the one at Kandahar. of the chronology, not much is gained by trying to genealogy of the first Afghan edict in other royal res­

er, perhaps, to seek an explanation for the qualitatively aracter of the Kandahar epigraph in a different set of cts. One possibility is that the edict was specially com­his part of his empire, which had formed part of the many earlier conquerors. Local administrators may at a confident and assured message was more appro­ than one where the emperor’s personal angst and etamorphosis were spotlighted. These officials had a with the world of Persia, where kings made triumphant ons about their deeds and battles in elaborate detail. ing a message which spelt out what Ashoka had achiev­ e more in line with what monarchs in this part of Asia isseminated. For this reason, there are elements in it been described as similar to the great Behistun inscrip­ rius in Iran, in which the facts narrated are counted ing’s succession to the throne, with the king stating hing changed with his reign.36 But Darius is shown as over his enemies and protected by a god (Ahuramazda). contrast emphasizes personal humility and the ultimate non-violence.

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has traditionally been rich in all kinds of carnivorous raphic description of this diet—including hunks of head and feet of sheep, chicken, skewered meat, hot k soups, even dried meat—has been provided by a fghan history and culture, Louis Dupree. Hunting ularly gazelle, markhor, ibex, quail, pigeon, and par­ eating fish were equally important to the average would be nice to know even more about the range of cient Afghanis ate, but the list of non-vegetarian de­dy sufficient to turn the stomachs of vegetarians, the the consumption of animal flesh being not exactly his kind of context, might there have been hoots of he efforts on behalf of vegetarianism from distant

s of domesticated sheep, goats, possibly cattle, red , and horses have turned up in neolithic contexts.38 major urban centre of Mundigak, some 55 km north material from the second millennium bce exposes ng from domesticated animals like the ass, the horse, to wild fauna. Apart from the ibex, the lynx, and the ones include those of a raptor.39 It is likely that later rst millennium bce, this dietary pattern was main­hatever the claims of administrators on the success policy of non-violence towards living beings, it is believe that vegetarianism took off here. Epigraphic nts were listened to, not necessarily followed. People carry on with their lives as before. ways the Ashokan message here is really much larger g that the emperor intended. Looking at it now we hat what the king said did not always define or even influence the tenor of daily life. The populace will have f these particular exhortations as most peculiar, and

8

An Expansive Imperial Articulation

a’s maiden excursions in public communiion were aimed at converting his audiences into herents. ‘Rock of ages cleft for me/ Let me hide myself the singer in the popular eighteenth-century Christian ing refuge in Christ. ‘Rock of ages cleft for me/ Let me lf in thee’ would have been Ashoka’s version, seeking r the Buddha. It is perhaps not generally recognized that autobiographical and confessional mode to propagate ews, familiar to us in the Christian tradition from the pioneering fourth century ce Confessions of St Augus­ ticipated by over six centuries through Ashoka’s virtual of the tradition, if not the genre, in the shape of his short earlier versions whetted his appetite for such He seems to have grown ever more convinced that involved not just ruling well and prescribing policy but rect and affective communication with his subjects. So, bce, some three years after his first edicts, he went on

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, nor only in the vivid combining of personal elements practice. It lay also in the length and elaborate nature dicts, rendering them qualitatively different from the ones. oice was first heard in edicts that ran from some six o lines. ‘Short’ is a relative term, the relation being to scripts that came to be transcribed in the second cam­ graphs. As against the first articulation of the ‘minor’ ow encounter a series of messages, of more than a es covering, in several instances, multiple rock sur­mmon consent these are known as Ashoka’s major he word ‘major’ denoting the length and possibly the he message. Collectively, the rendition appears like a coherent anthology comprising fourteen edicts. ders of the emperor, this set of edicts was transcribed ces across India. At many of their locations they have . The most extraordinary of these sites is Erragudi in re we saw the first of Ashoka’s minor epigraphs—which ost easily accessible of the Erragudi rocks, inscribed on the boulders. Five further boulders marked by similar ustered across the hill face, the most imposing of these recipice some six metres or more above the lowest. boulders crowd the eastern slope, their surfaces marked rahmi characters, some still easily decipherable, others visible. The varying conditions of preservation apart, the observer is the plethora of words. Their sprawl is the topmost rock, generally described as Boulder A, wo inscribed faces. In general, the boulders show the rs unevenly: sometimes, seven lines of writing cover res, while on the same rock five lines also crowd into a metre long. The same message is also known to cover —one of the edicts has twenty-nine lines on a single

Fig. 8.1: Part of the inscribed Kalsi rock in Uttarakhand as it appeared before a shed was built over it

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Pakistan, at Kandahar in Afghanistan, and at Kalsi in d. In two places within Orissa—Dhauli and Jaugada— omplete set of edicts, though some of what is found on s from that on the axis from Pakistan to Andhra. A few r edicts have not endured well: Sopara in Maharashtra fragments of a mere three edicts, while at Sannathi in only four edicts have been found. Similarly at Kandahar, a mere two edicts have survived on a single rectangu­ limestone. Interestingly, the edicts at all these places— Sopara, and Sannathi—are not inscribed into large in ut on dressed stone slabs. Unusually, in Sannathi, they the front and back of the slabs, leading to the inference b was vertically set up by the inscribers so that their ins­ ould be read. Ashoka’s major rock edicts could some­ med his major stone edicts. e these enunciations, what do they say about Ashoka, we surmise about their reception and audiences? First, t us look at the important events and career trajectory eror as he presented them.

* * *

1/260 bce Ashoka fought the first and possibly only war of his reign, at Kalinga. This is the only conquest s here, and since no other territorial victory figures in later edicts it can be presumed that this was his only ary battle.1 The number displaced (‘one hundred and nd’), killed (‘one hundred thousand’), and dead as a e of the war (‘many times as many those who died’) ar that this was warfare on a very considerable scale,2

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people who had actually practised the dhamma that espoused.3 The future protocols for human relation­ uld come to define the emperor’s idea of dhamma— nce to parents to proper courtesy towards slaves and re those that the king now saw as having been al­ y many whom he had slaughtered, dispossessed, and e describes his victory as deplorable because of the mity with which he had inflicted misery, the ironic f suffering he had created. roceeded to do in the immediate aftermath of Kalinga Certainly, he lost all appetite for conquering new soon, he became a Buddhist. Within a couple of years, year after his coronation, we see him on a pilgrimage hi, where the Buddha had attained enlightenment years earlier. This was the beginning of what Ashoka he second part of his reign, a watershed in the conduct al and political life. undertook what were described as ‘dharma yatras’ e usual royal ‘vihara yatras’. Vihara yatras were marked such as the hunt; Ashoka’s yatras were mass contact involving donations and guidance on dhamma: ‘On the following takes place, (viz.) visiting Shramanas nas and making gifts (to them), visiting the aged and them) with gold, visiting the people of the country, them) in morality, and questioning (them) about uitable for this (occasion).’4 It was this, Ashoka declar­ e him supreme pleasure while those in the ‘other part’, earlier pleasures, were deemed inferior. yatras be described as tours? Vihara yatra and dhamma en generally understood as pleasure tours and dharma tively, travelling and journeying being their central factor of enjoyment and hedonism in vihara yatras

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racter of his father for the yatra reads: ‘O monarch, an excellent season for thy son to go ahunting’; and deed, we desire very much to go on a hunting expedi­ ill avail of that opportunity for supervising the tale of However, ‘yatra’ in ancient India also indicated festivals. is that a dharma yatra should be understood as a festi­our. This is academic quibbling over a term with no of a resolution: perhaps some of the tours were con­ h an air of festivity. The point in our context is that, tival or tour, it would have seen the king moving around his is what the edict suggests when it says he met people try (‘janapada’). Ashoka was making himself accessible ten on the move, meeting people of all kinds, donating gold, instructing them about the dhamma. a couple of years after he began touring, around 257/ he king vested enhanced spiritual responsibility in Specifically, the rajukkas and pradeshikas and other administrative officials were ordered, even while carry­eir routine duties, to undertake an inspection circuit ears to preach the dhamma, the usual Ashokan favour­ njoined—proper behaviour towards various classes of animal life, respect to be shown to parents and elders, ith friends as well as, importantly, to persons with dif­ ous inclinations. The injunction against slaughtering all gs—presumably animals, birds, and fish—was naturally commendation in this idea of the moral life. Whereas k Edict II had underlined the need for proper behaviour as something that ‘should’ be done, or as an order of r, here it was expected to be preached by his officials so is subjects personal merit.

us is obedience to mother and father.

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nce attached to such public instruction of morality h the way that Buddhism had always tried to estab­ nes, alongside the giving and donating expected of the conformity with established doctrinal practice does verything: there is an interesting deviation. Shramanas renunciants that included but were not limited to nks. By alluding to Brahmanas and Shramanas in the Ashoka extends Buddhist ideas somewhat beyond boundaries into a broader humanism. The espousal on and thrift within the fold of meritorious conduct ous morality into administrative duty and state func­ materialism and conspicuous consumption are cau­ t, possibly as a veiled warning to affluent citizens who ssage as also to sections of officialdom. Ashoka does ensure the acquisition of wealth per se, the donation of deserving perhaps justifying the initial acquisition. ons on the ground were combined with a sweeping ance of the impact of such measures. In the twelfth coronation the emperor issued a public rescript in ided to explain with graphic detail how the practice of t he had instituted had led to a social transformation ngdom. This was obviously a king not content with dating the nature of the social change required, he rested in ensuring they had been made to happen and quently benefit posterity. The edicts emphasize both s been a break with the past and the intent to ensure a future for those who will come. ted mention of past times in relation to the present to highlight this change. Earlier, ‘for many hundreds ughter of lives, cruelty to living creatures, disrespect nd disrespect to the Shramanas and Brahmanas in­ w, what had increased ‘to a degree as was not possible

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hat this continued after his time: ‘the sons, grandsons randsons of king Priyadarshin, Beloved of the Gods, te this practice of Dharma till the time of universal and, (themselves) abiding by Dharma and good con­ nstruct (people) in Dharma.’10 igraphs of later kings, this kind of proclamation would mulaic and used to underscore the permanent nature of eing enacted, whether the grant of land or the construc­ emorial pillar. Ashoka’s epigraph is novel in being the ne of inscriptions that made such declarations. It must have appeared formulaic to his listeners because third e audiences, familiar with sons murdering royal fathers rs, may have been sceptical of any king, however well eing able to ensure the continuity of his predilections as s successors. subjects even vaguely convinced that a change of such had come to pass merely because their king said so? nts in our time equipped with excellent communication d far more effective methods of coercion have not man­cessfully bring about social transformation simultane­ s the regions of India, so Ashoka’s claim that he had does edible. Their encounter with Mauryan officials charged sponsibilities may have prompted the recognition within e of a ruler with exceptional drive and ambition who at , even if he did not succeed, at moral change. This may een Ashoka’s intention. His Buddhist emphases and the f differences from what had existed ‘for many hundreds s a statement of intent couched in the language of ach­ Departing from his minor rock edicts, the emperor now usions to the value of age-old traditions, or what he had d ‘porana pakiti’. ollowing year, the thirteenth after his coronation, he

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ctions is long and detailed and reveals a proactively st administrative group spread across his dominions. hamatras were engaged everywhere ‘among the adhe­ ma (to determine) whether a person is (only) inclined rma or is (fully) established in Dharma or is (merely) rity.’11 And who were the people within the domain ? Practically everyone, it seems: the edict specifies all s, people dwelling on the empire’s western borders he Yavanas, Kambojas, Gandharas and the Rastrika, the servile class, the Aryas, the Brahmans and the the destitute and the aged, even prisoners. The new to cater to all kinds. With prisoners their work was : they were to distribute money to those who had p in ‘unfettering of those’ who had committed crimes he instigation of others and help in getting aged eased.12 The larger-than-life presence of this class of derlined by the fact that they were said to be engaged a and other towns, as also in the households of ings and relatives. The impression is of a consider­able ve apparatus having been put in place to oversee the morality in the public and private domains, including n kin. e events for which Ashoka provided a series of chro­ arkers. They spanned from 261–260 bce till 256– m the Kalinga war in his eighth year (261–260 bce) us ways in which, from the tenth (259–258 bce) till h years (256–255 bce), he altered the administrative s the creation of a moral empire. There is good reason at other events and innovations in statecraft were ced over these years. No specificities such as ‘dates’ for these, their existence being inferred from their ngside the record of changes in officialdom.

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a range of such states and people: the Cholas, Pandyas, , Tamraparni; there were the territories of the Yavana hus and chieftains neighbouring him. The basis for the f relations with foreign powers is in the Arthashastra o the monarch’s expansion of his own realm through Ashoka’s consideration in the matter overturned this an thumb rule. The king’s circle of influence in other ame to be based, or was showcased as being based, on asures, specifically medical care and the nurture of living istant realms, both human and animal. Two kinds of ility were established: hospitals, and facilities in which and medicinal plants hitherto unavailable were im­ planted. Roads were laid and wells dug for ‘enjoyment’ and humans. The compassionate and moral life now es Mauryan foreign policy. narch’s immediate personal access to officials at all times policy carefully proclaimed:

in the ages gone by, there was no transaction of state-business porting (of incidents to the king) at all hours. ave made the following (arrangement). porters should report to me the affairs of the people at any place, whether I am engaged in eating (or) am in the harem e bed-chamber (or) on a promenade (or) in a carriage (or) on h. am now attending to the people’s affairs at all places. when I issue an order orally in connection with any donation mation or when an emergent work presses itself upon the ras (and) in case there is, in connection with that matter, a sy among (the Ministers of) the Council or an argumentation uncil in favour of a particular view), the fact must be reported mediately at any place and at any time. have I ordered.13

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e Vedas, cattle and holy places, of minors, of the aged, distressed and the helpless and of women, in this accordance with the importance of the matter or its he manual prescribes designated areas for the king’s ctions. Unrestricted entrance was necessary for those ee him in connection with their affairs, but it was in hall that such audiences were to be held. Like other alace where interactions and decisions relating to state made, this hall was to be separated from the inner the fear of violence being a constant threat. Indeed, the palace) should live in his own quarters and not quarters of another.’15 these anxieties feature in Ashoka’s account of his ve innovations. The informality outlined is so complete mpted to imagine the king’s eating and love-making by people with problems rushing in and out of his bers. The reality is likely to have been far less colour­ to the emperor careful and limited. The change would have been seen as a new political culture in which the al required ‘exertion and prompt dispatch of busi­hatever effort I make is made in order that I may dis­ ebt which I owe to all living beings, that I may make in this world, and that they may attain heaven in the The expressions here are uncannily and ironically extolling of the energetic king in the Arthashastra:

piness of the subjects lies the happiness of the king and beneficial to the subjects his own benefit. What is dear to ot beneficial to the king, but what is dear to the subjects is to him). re, being ever active, the king should carry out the man­ material well-being. The root of material well-being is material disaster its reverse.16

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hastra, its core having been composed earlier and its y possibly living in the time of Ashoka’s grandfather, re known at least by repute down the decades. A ruler ataliputra was in fact very unlikely not to have been th the work, at least as a body of ideas. In tracing the of Ashoka’s welfare statism it would be fair to say that variant form and with different ends in mind, been before his time.17 * * *

en major edicts, all formulated and inscribed in the ry bce, seem to resemble an anthology now because we m as a group authored by the same king. But the fact ct set’s locations are hugely diverse also makes aspects ecific to each, while the thousands of kilometres sepa­ m simultaneously suggest an asynchronous history that id to sometimes complement and at other times con­ general impression of similitude. mposition was individual: each decree was composed before being inscribed. The edicts themselves make this en alluding to the years in which Ashoka chose to issue rees. As the last date that figures is the thirteenth year on, the edicts could only have been set down after that gh whether they were composed and erected immediate­ a couple of years later is not clear. Why the emperor to get earlier promulgations inscribed in other parts of —to which, at the time of engraving, many more texts d—is also unclear. He was probably anxious to show art of an interconnected whole, much like different the same story. A symmetry of official accountability

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s because of the pattern and placement of the writing, ck Edict providing an instance. Kalsi is situated on the Yamuna river in Uttarakhand, at the junction of d the hills, from where Hindu pilgrims are known to ds Yamunotri. Here, one part of a fine-grained rock polished. Onto it were carved the first nine edicts l letters. Below this set, however, the letters become e as on the upper part (constituting edicts 10 to 14). ealizing that the original surface was too small for tters, the remaining record came to be carved on the he rock as well. It is unlikely that the same hand ins­ edicts, or that they were inscribed simultaneously. It hat while initially the engraving was carefully crafted, edicts were done sloppily. d engraving process can be seen at Shahbazgarhi in day Mardan district of Pakistan. Here, unlike at Kalsi, ne rock was used. Unlike both Erragudi and Kalsi, the cript was preferred. The first eleven edicts are on the a large mass of trap rock up a hill.18 The next is en­separate boulder towards the foot of the hill, and the cts (13 and 14) are on the west face of the same big ill whose eastern face was first inscribed. This west face d to chiselling.19 Why the scribe chose it and ignored her available rock surfaces eludes us. But their variant graving, as well as the different sizes of letters in the ows a process of accrual, a progression stretched out. km to the east, at Mansehra in Hazara district, the ics the Shahbazgarhi form. Kharoshthi, the script etter suited to the area, is used again. On the highest ll-polished square was created at the surface and upon eight edicts were inscribed in very small characters.20 ho wrote on the second rock, located a little below the

Fig. 8.3: Rock edicts arranged in columns at Girnar

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nar in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, some thirty e north-eastern face of a large granite boulder shows all ts. The writing is uniform, arranged in neat columns. dicts appears to be divided from the other by straight arious cartouches, carved into clear compartments, early seen. It seems plausible that this was ordered to a single point in time, when all fourteen texts were ce the composition of the edicts was more usually a ocess, instances of inscriptional simultaneity would est they were set down later. All the edict texts will have be available in finished form to be set down together ngraving campaign.21 So, Girnar is likely to have got r those at Shahbazgarhi and Kalsi, to which successive been sent. * * *

good place to begin looking at this full anthology of iqueness being that it is the only site where both the es and the new ones are found together. At Kandahar different Ashokan inscriptions as well, but not on the ocks.22 ting down the new message, the first modification e that his subjects at Erragudi would have noticed, was to Ashoka’s early title, ‘Priyadarshin, Beloved of the or the first time, Ashoka was called a king. This king n by recounting what he had instituted in the five-odd alinga, but with an enunciation of dhamma concerned th protecting animals from mindless sacrificial cere­

ing being should be slaughtered for sacrifice.

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his proscription is the intent to prohibit festive gather­ jas’) involving animal sacrifice. This was a departure Ashoka had enunciated his idea of morality a few years first minor rock edict mentions kindness to living out outlining prohibitions. Now, ‘restraint’ orders were near towns.24 While the location of ancient settle­vicinity of Erragudi where this order would have been ains unclear, elsewhere it was inscribed either near or ntres, at Girnar and Sannathi, for instance, which were capitals. The Orissa edicts are at Dhauli, not far from town, and at Jaugada, within the ramparts of a fort. he exact location of the Sopara message is not known fragments of three edicts were found, we know that a thriving port in western India. Towards the north-west, hi and Mansehra were, as noted, strategically important of trade routes.25 The populace in all such locations will d a lot of persuading to abstain from eating meat and sacrificial ritual. From the abundance of bones in early s spread over both North and South India, there is little animal flesh was in great demand,26 with people of means so importing exotic livestock. The earliest of these, the of the third millennium bce, relished catfish brought in stal location several hundred kilometres distant. There n to believe that the well to do two thousand years later ve similar delicacies. Karnataka–Andhra belt, death rituals as evident from ncluded animal parts in the burials alongside the human arly, in ancient Hindu belief and practice, sacrifices xen, rams, and horses commonly figure in offerings to he merit so obtained, one commentator points out, is the Mahabharata: ‘animals killed in sacrifices to the ment of Vedic mantras went to heaven and it [the epic]

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ardless of these occasional scriptural impediments, icture is one of a populace not just carnivorous but

ould scarcely have been unaware that his dictum resentment. This is possibly why the edict presents ion alongside an outline of altered culinary palace

dred thousands of living beings were formerly slaughter­y in the kitchen of king Priyadarshin, Beloved of the Gods, of curry. , when this record relating to Dharma is written, only three ures are killed (daily) for the sake of curry, two birds and . s animal is not (slaughtered) regularly. ree living beings too shall not be killed in future.29

mma being propounded must be regarded as work in an idea Ashoka sent out via other parts of the mes­ cessors—sons, grandsons, and ‘the generations com­ m till the destruction of the world’—would continue erit, for ‘whosoever among them will abandon even a do an act of demerit’.30 This warning betrays anxiety e of impermanence: guilt over his own usurpation en some part of the anxiety since the expectation that s would respect a tradition he was establishing had by his own record. Hammering home the dhamma, ell as metaphorically, by casting it in stone seems in to have been the consequence of some nervousness ‘his descendants may conform to it.’31 Stating and re­ e wanted dhamma to continue as state policy beyond rays a deep insecurity at the obvious difficulties in tinuity faced by all monarchs of the time, such con­ g been violated in other respects by his own actions

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the empire to which they belonged, and of the larger lers that formed part of his sphere of interaction, will an important motive for the massive coverage Ashoka is was, in a sense, a message given out via the spread of a he sense being given of a huge empire. A panoramic vista every direction beyond it is ultimately also a technique nicating imperial strength, and obliquely thereby the he message and the requirements being spelt out. At or instance, people were likely to have known of political ond their borders in the South, such as the Cholas and These realms had cultural and commercial contacts India from at least the fifth century bce.32 Kodumanal, n the Erode district of Tamil Nadu, was a flourishing plete with a gemstone industry. Beads in different stages ture, discarded chips, raw material blocks, and a range stones—sapphire, beryl, agate, carnelian, amethyst, lapis ably from Badakshan), jasper, garnet, and soapstone— unearthed from habitations there. At Porunthal in the river valley of Tamil Nadu as well, beads of quartz, nd glass have been found in large quantities. The several ass beads and a glass furnace found suggest production ercial scale. ct of the present and the past juxtaposed in these ins­ the use of dramatic and effective rhetoric. In a passage th metaphor, Ashoka suggests that the change could through a transformation in sound: where war drums ounded the emperor was now ensuring the sounding (‘bherighoso aho dhammaghoso’).33 While in the past accompanied armed battles—the beating of the ‘bheri’ to arms—there was now only the sound of dhamma aimed. Rhythm and onomatopoeia were to be deployed he messages sonorous and effective. The enunciation in

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sition. The words ‘Formerly, in the ages gone by’, in cur constantly for oratorical effect. he more striking aspects of the major edicts is the rception of himself as a sovereign spiritual guardian esponsibilities. The seventh edict includes an impas­ for the practice of religious tolerance. It is the em­ the edict says, that everywhere in his dominions all ts should live. Proto-secularism is a possible term e, making the Ashokan link with the modern Indian tutional commitment to such values entirely logical. speaks of how he imagined ordinary folk should con­ ves. People, as he put it, were of ‘diverse inclinations assions. They will perform either the whole or only a duty).’34 His view was that being liberal was worthless control, pure thoughts, gratitude, and solid devotion. ration of what he had said in the same message earlier uishing between a person fully established in dhamma rely charitable.35 Religiosity was frequently expressed conscience-salving donations, and the emperor was own that he did not consider such giving sufficient. ts would not have had a problem imbibing this part ge. What is likely to have made them wary was the tone with which he offered his opinion on how they ught not to conduct their social rituals. An instance ars in the ninth edict, which expounds on the kinds h Ashoka considered superficial and unsatisfactory: eremony on the occasion of illness, the wedding of a ding of a daughter, (and) the birth of children  .  .  .  on ns, the women folk (in particular) perform many and ds of) ceremony which is trivial and meaningless.’36 were warned that such acts lacked all efficacy whereas ted with dhamma produced results. And dhamma,

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principles running through the edicts, of proper with parents, friends, and holy men, and giving up g beings (‘prananam’), are continuously elucidated, the ict offering a variation on the same theme. The results line with dhamma mean happiness in this world and rit in the next. The king’s subjects will have seen this affirmation as a sermon in which the foundational mes­ as a leitmotif to underscore its significance. monizing monarch returns to proto-secularism in edict, which has been generally seen as the supreme on of tolerance for all religious and philosophical core feature is the belief that at the root of dhamma culture in which every sect honours every other (they n and respect one another’s Dharma’). And how is this sed?

nt in regard to speech, (which means) that there should be ment of one’s own sect or disparagement of other sects on riate occasions and that it should be moderate in every case ppropriate occasions. e contrary, other sects should be duly honoured in every way casions). erson) acted in this way, (he) not only promotes his own sect, enefits other sects. (a person) acts otherwise, (he) not only injures his own sect arms other sects. if (a person) extols his own sect and disparages other sects w to glorifying his own sect owing merely to his attachment injures his own sect very severely by acting in that way. ore concord is commendable.39

nce defined here is not a passive virtue of cordial dis­the Other but rather a positive effort at a concord as mutually beneficial. This being an important prior-

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ed amiable and respectful forms of public inter­action

lamation of a social philosophy and accompanying gramme at Erragudi and elsewhere is likely to have al populations that the emperor’s Buddhism was not ntrusive. His articulation of moral zeal bordering on ism in relation to customary practices is undercut or this espousal of tolerance, this idealization of a public he essence of dhamma. And, as in the other edicts, the hlights how he intends his administration to realize art from the dharma-mahamatras, mahamatras who d what are described as matters relating to women the royal household and harem), and officers in charge cattle and pastures, are said to have been roped in for

teenth edict the emperor is at his most poignant, finally nner strength to speak about the life-changing episode his is where he exposes the destructive consequences of ictory and pronounces himself the chief villain of the here that he draws attention with great detail to the epentance it aroused in him in order to convince his ut the importance of self-realization. The composer of s the people of Kalinga (‘Kalingya’) were successfully y the king in the eighth year following his coronation. accompanying details need not be repeated here. ficant is how from that painful past Ashoka moves to appealing to a group of his adversaries to follow his ese were forest dwellers (‘Atavi’) who he hoped would had, so that they would not be killed. Kalinga had been orce and the Atavikas may well have been the next in reby) explained (to them) that, in spite of his repent­ oved of the Gods possesses power (enough to punish

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monarch’s hegemonic effort. Ashoka was also implicitly ere the limits to his philosophy of tolerance: for all his dhism, the resort to war and pacification was not ruled s in large forested tracts were found especially difficult to y monarchs at this time. The Arthashastra is categorical vika, ‘living in their own territory, are many in number fight openly, seize and ruin countries, having the same ics as a king.’41 Ashoka’s edict, threatening and cajol­oup, shows the persistence of powerful enemies within of empire. The message speaks of various kings and ond his frontiers and those within his territories:

a conquest has been achieved by the Beloved of the Gods not (in his dominions) but also in the territories bordering (on nions), as far away as (at the distance of) six hundred yojanas, he Yavana king named Antiyoka (is ruling and where), beyond dom of) the said Antiyoka, four other kings named Tulamaya, Maka and Alikasudara (are also ruling), (and) towards the ere the Colas and Pandyas (are living), as far as Tamraparni. se here in the dominions of His Majesty, (the Beloved of )—in (the countries of) the Yavanas and Kambojas, of the and Nabhapanktis, of the Bhoja-paitryanikas (i.e. hereditary Bhojas) and of the Andhras and Paulindas, everywhere are conforming to the instructions in Dharma (imparted) by ed of the Gods. where the envoys of the Beloved of the Gods have not pene­ ere too men have heard of the practices of the Dharma and ances issued and the instructions in Dharma (imparted) by ed of the Gods, (and) are conforming to Dharma (and) will to conform to it.42

on of these names has a pattern to it. The kings and ntioned either lived beyond the western borders of the mpire or across its southern rim as far as Sri Lanka.

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cific means.44 Some of them may well have been states n expanding Mauryan empire had territorial designs. uryan envoys now deputed there would have had to ka’s change of heart. The hope may also have been at these rulers abandon all thought of aggression, ainst Ashoka’s territory.45 n seen above recurs with regard to people in Ashoka’s ons: specifically mentioned are inhabitants of areas in st, west, and towards the south. Among these were the populace at Erragudi may have seen this as a refer­m and, if so, one wonders if they agreed with their sessment that they were conforming to the morality w his mission. The Yavanas and other people who outhern and north-western parts of the kingdom are ntioned, possibly because Mauryan control over them . That they are described not by an encompassing uch as people (‘jana’) but in terms of their ethnoidentities means that Ashoka wanted to specify them o must, above all, conform to his dhamma. People in f his empire are not mentioned because presumably own to have been or assumed to have been conform­uired ways. ages demonstrate an acknowledgement of the actual s within the Mauryan realm, the potential sources of here is a similar acknowledgement now of what could e expected by Ashoka of his successors. The ‘dhamman written so that his sons and grandsons would not h conquests. Yet, pragmatically accepting that conquest ssors was very much in the realm of possibility, the hed that they would be somewhat merciful in the ory in such warfare. ‘In any victory they gained there ildness (“khamti”) and light punishment (“lahudan­

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ys he has ensured that a great deal was written down, would be written in future. A great deal, though was not rywhere. If some of his records were expansive, others e, and still others of a medium form. For the long re­ this case, one reason for their elaborate form is that some topics which) have been repeated over and over g to their sweetness, so that people may act accord­the other hand, their abridgement is in many instances because a particular place may have seemed unsuitable record. In some, the king acknowledges, a poor scribe own an incomplete record. In any case, all types of are told had not been placed in their complete form . at this anthology as a whole and in relation to his ge, Ashoka will now have appeared to his subjects in a different way. While in his first message the emperor conversion to Buddhism as instrumental in his politi­t connection is now no longer overt: the repentance ga is now central. In the minor edicts a broad-based oted in tradition was disseminated. Now the emphasis to the necessity of transparent governance. The writ not laid down, but the emperor takes trouble to eluci­ritual basis of his political interventions. s constitutes a unique political intervention is worth g. Empires make their presence felt in the archaeo­rd in various ways. Kings frequently and literally coined nce over their dominion—for instance, the Indo-Greek s bear their names in Greek, and on the obverse in her empires sculpted their rulers in stone. The Kushana particularly partial to this, the iconic image of the ng the martial representation of a belted and booted hka, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Of yet others, the

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not the methods by which Ashoka makes his political ble. There are no imperial portraits on coins or sculp­ e there courtly structures where one might imagine living with his family and in the proximity of core and ministers. Instead, the artifact indisputably he epigraph. His political reach is best visualized via objects, which mark out the Mauryan empire of his ater kings would also appear as rulers through words d, but Ashoka is distinguishable from them because cuously shuns the standard regal template of boast­aterial possession and territorial grandeur. He does n messages proclaiming battles won and empire aug­ proclaims himself, instead, as a man of strong intellect nvert subjects to his point of view instead of demand­ing bedience. And he wants to convert them by inscribing near the places where they live, where they worship, ays that travellers use and the hilltops overlooking

ss of these interventions on the ground is, of course, udge. But what is beyond dispute is the fact that through his major edicts advanced the notion of a ly new kind of political and social community.

9

he Message in the Landscape

ual analysis of ashoka’s rock edicts needs plementing with context. The conclusions arrived at examining authorial voice, political-moral agenda, in using specific concepts and terms have been on tion that the edicts comprise a single long anthology. hem as texts, however, is not enough for understand­ ey were read and understood in the places where they osefully inscribed. The situating of documents within es and arenas requires to be understood as well since e was made a visible aspect of social and sacred land­ specific histories of some of these locations till the time actually help us in going beyond the textual similarities s to see their contextual particularities. cts were, as noted, located in the suburbs of towns, travelled by caravans and used by the itinerant. The king’s anthology was not floating unnoticed at such as anchored in places that conditioned perceptions of it

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oka’s imprint remains vivid in many of those places, a mbination of words on rocks that acquires a resonance he remarkable ruins of settlements and stupas as ces of Mauryan intervention. In short, historicizing nd towns and their suburbs in which the edicts were essary. * * *

e message was, in its full form, beautifully and comut on the eastern side of a single large rock. This is e suburbs of Junagadh city in Gujarat. The hand that fourteen edicts was likely to have been the same, the early and decisively cut, more or less uniform in size. lf is spectacular and on ancient visitors its impact may considerable as it is in our time. While no ancient of it has survived, the response of a visitor in 1822 gly well worded:

cribe what to the antiquary will appear the noblest monu­ urashtra, a monument speaking in an unknown tongue of   .  .  .  The memorial in question, and evidently of some great is a huge hemispherical mass of dark granite, which, like a the body, has protruded through the crust of mother earth, ure or inequality, and which, by the aid of the ‘iron pen,’ has rted into a book. The measurement of its arc is nearly ninety face is divided into compartments or parallelograms, with­ e inscriptions in the usual antique character. Two of these I had copied, by my old Guru, with the most scrupulous d a portion of a third, where the characters varied  .  .  .  I all it a book; for the rock is covered with these characters, in execution, that we may safely pronounce all those of the nt class, which I designate the ‘Pandu character,’ to be the

Fig. 9.1:  Part of the historic dam that has survived (in the foreground) at Junagadh

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Girnar was written before the Brahmi script had been His account is arresting for the recognition that the monument and inscription, an ancient rock trans­ monument by the writing on it.2 n which the Girnar edicts were inscribed on a single that, at least theoretically, it would have been possible l placed on a specially created platform to be at eye e edicts and read them out to listeners below. The mpact manner of the layout made it possible. This was, mpossible at Erragudi, where the edicts were engraved le boulders at different heights. A more important dif­ hat the Girnar rock stood—and was probably chosen on—in the vicinity of an artificial lake, not far from dge. Known as Sudarshana lake, this waterbody was consequence of the construction of a dam during the the instructions of Chandragupta Maurya. There is an al configuration of structures and remnants in Juna­ makes it possible to see Ashoka as part of a dynastic o which he was adding. g this configuration is possible on account of details m subsequent historical records. The dam built in a’s time is mentioned as having been embellished of Ashoka. The signature of these monarchs on the nown from Mauryan records but was recorded in the k inscription of the king Rudradaman, more than 350 handragupta.3 This tells us that Mauryan monarchs the historically remembered landscape of Junagadh in turies ce. Still, that this glimpse is offered some four r the dam was built highlights the non-contemporary evidentiary threads used for re-creating the fabric of ndscape in the time of Ashoka. ng the time lag, can this inscriptional reference be

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onstructed by Vaisya Pushyagupta, a provincial gover­ ndragupta.4 The same record notes that conduits had to it by the Yavana king Tushaspha, who governed the the reign of Ashoka. Evidently, one of the emperor’s hared ethnic affiliations with the Yavana rulers on the ern borders of the kingdom. Perhaps more noteworthy system of governance, in the longer-term political Saurashtra, is an aberration, for only when an all-India sed enormous strength could it bring Saurashtra into rative orbit.5 So, for instance, though the Marathas col­ te from this province, they were not powerful enough h an administrative apparatus within it. Only when quered Saurashtra in the sixteenth century was Guja­ d by officers appointed by the Mughal. Akbar was in the first ruler after Chandragupta to have properly Saurashtra—in the sense of also establishing his own administration there. Ashoka was evidently the legatee gupta’s spoils and administrative system. olitical governors of Mauryan kings were based in the at had made them choose Junagadh as their provincial s is hard to say for certain, but one reason will have been y defensive neighbourhood of Junagadh. The area was d hill-girt, with the highest mountain in Gujarat, the h summit, located at Girnar. The hilly areas of Kathia­ were relatively secure, causing many towns to come e centuries, including Adityana, Mendarda, Talala, and Junagadh’s access to the coast must have been another actor. The ocean is less than 80 km from here and from impse is sometimes possible of forests and low hills a continuous sweep to the sea. Tod, having ascended of the seven-peaked Girnar, marvelled at having seen ighted up by the sun’s last rays, while silence ruled over 7

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f Somnath, which means the Mauryas ruled a swathe to the south-west coast of Saurashtra. Situated on k of the Hiran river, Prabhas Patan was a port which de and traffic to and from the hinterland. If Juna­on was naturally secure because of the hills, Prabhas ade secure by the creation of a fortified core. The time mporary with the Mauryas (Period IV which stretches th till the first century bce) saw the creation of a stone the wall marked by bastions at cardinal points.8 The his kind of town in Saurashtra continued well into es, with eighteenth-century urban centres here being itary fortresses.9 aspect of Junagadh which comes alive thanks to ins­ usions to the construction of a dam by the Mauryan me of Chandragupta, and which continued to receive on during the reign of Ashoka, is the availability of mably it was required for cultivation, as drinking water, ther usual purposes. So, was there a large town here? t located? And why did the administration decide to ankment rather than, for instance, dig wells? Mauryan town was situated is not known. It could n in the area of the Chamunda locality of modern Juna­ the accumulation of habitation deposits in a moundn is visible over the hillside in its vicinity, and on the f the fortifications in what is known as Uparkot. The ents of Chamunda are known to find sculptural relics, artefacts, and even skeletons where they stay. This area r from what must have been one edge of the lake that ormed behind the dam. Why a dam-like embankment ted here has to do with the suitability of a large bowlat is naturally available in this hill-encircled basin, the ng the Sonarekha (sometimes called Suvarnarekha)

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und, for in city areas and their environs water is usually great depth. The elaborate historic ‘vavas’ or wells there, tions of the medieval centuries, go very deep. The Adiin Uparkot has a depth, from top to bottom, of some Such deep wells were unknown in Mauryan times. Taxila example: the height of the Bhir plateau on which the made it impractical to dig wells. The residents therefore ater from the Tamra nala, a rivulet which flowed out­area.10 In Junagadh the Sonarekha river perhaps fulfill­ function. e, a state-sponsored embankment was built across The likely locale of the lake and the remnants of the nt were identified by Khan Bahadur Ardeseer Jamsedjee, wan of the princely state of Junagadh, in the nineteenth He believed two dams had been constructed, one in the udradaman and an earlier one in Chandragupta’s. The am was older and smaller and he sought to identify it ocks of masonry in the bed of the Sonarekha river near ir gate of the city, in whose vicinity there were mounds. dam is no longer visible, the description given by Jam­ ests what it looked like in the nineteenth century:

top of the mound on the right or north bank it was clear s of masonry were remains of a dam that once lay across and stretched westward till it joined the easternmost spur of kot rocks. Surely this was the original Chandragupta dam of were in search. The length of the gap or breach in the dam is Of the mound that ran from the right bank of the Sonrekha gini spurs few traces remain. The height near the river bank thirty feet. The length of the embankment or west side of between the bed and the Citadel was 314 yards. Of this about of masonry remain; 174 have been carried away for building. dth of the masonry varies from 43 to 53 yards.12

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und labourers excavating huge blocks of stone which avement hollow in the centre, and which passed rom the bank of the lake. This had the appearance of mains of a conduit or canal. Clearly, keeping the bund order had been ensured by Ashoka’s administration. ng in this area, one edge of the lake would have been in f the Girnar rock.13 Such a landscape, created, altered, d by Ashoka and his predecessors, will have been seen ced as a symbol of the power of the dynasty in improv­of its citizens, possibly in a far more meaningful way cts. The basic point is that Ashoka’s voice in Girnar been seen as one element, albeit singular in content, constellation of Mauryan interventions, creating in the groundwork of power within which state pro­ s were received and interpreted.

* * *

r had an impressive lineage of connections with the narchs, there was something that the emperor had t earlier at various places from the outcrops of Andhra eyond the Ganga which was missing in this much more setting. At Girnar the full set of major edicts had been create one long sermon. The overall impression here eror doubling as spiritual preacher, holding forth on riance with local religious rites and practices. But the e was not privy to what the Erragudi people knew. is minor rock edicts, Ashoka had specified that his sis had a Buddhist basis before he spoke at length about ther matters in the major rock edicts engraved there;

Fig. 9.2:  The Bhoria stupa in the Girnar forest, the massive cut created by nineteenth-century excavations still visible

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not need to take up precious rock space. In several a the epigraphs had been positioned in the vicinity of st monuments. At such spots there were early stupas (‘chaityas’). These were either known or likely to have cted with Ashoka’s patronage. Knowledge of the king’s ill surely have travelled out from such places. relics in the landscape of Junagadh which have an ion with Buddhism reinforce the idea. One such is the , also called the Lakha Medi stupa. Located in a stateest known as the Girnar Reserve Sanctuary near the Bhordevi temple complex, this is the most impressive st structural relic of the area. Built on a rocky knoll o the east of Junagadh city, it stands in a delightfully ey which provides a magnificent view of both the ar and the Datar hill, the highest mountain after ated by J.M. Campbell in 1889, with the massive cutt­ d by him still clearly visible, the entire ground around with bricks and brick fragments, as also many small e main stupa is made of solid brick in herringbone de, a stone coffer was found with a stone pot. Inside e relic boxes of copper, silver, and gold, with semiprecious stones—such as an aquamarine bead, a ruby, nd an emerald—inside the last. There was also coaly ic’ which ‘had the appearance of a dried twig, though fle heavy  .  .  .  the fractured ends or sections, do not, w a woody texture.’15 Various stone pieces including iling slabs and the remains of a stone umbrella were the vertical axis of the mound’, which probably means ried inside the stupa. Why were these buried inside d were they part of a previous stupa that had been Possibly. excavations did not yield either a coin or an inscrip­-

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n Bihar, where the Mauryan enlargement that came to original mud stupa was done in burnt brick. Similarly, arajika stupa at Sarnath is made of brick, surmounted by e umbrellas set within a square railing. nt brick used as a construction material in Gujarat in nturies bce? The archaeologist Y.S. Rawat surveyed an ic fort on the Taranga hill in north Gujarat and suggests fairly early there.16 The fortified settlement dated to entury/second century bce shows burnt-brick cons­ er granite boulders. Like the bricks of the Bhoria stupa, fairly large. The use of brick is, culturally speaking, a aberration in Junagadh since this is an area where, arly medieval period till today, stone is primarily used ction, good quality stone being locally abundant. The f brick building in Junagadh might have remained an for the fact that bricks were much used for Buddhist Ashokan times, and that the emperor had a strong pre­ nagadh. literature credits Ashoka with the construction of as ,000 stupas over the relics of the Buddha, which he is o have redistributed after exhuming them from earlier

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exaggerated number apart, the Ashokan stamp on erent parts of India is unmistakable. Within this pro­ upa construction and relic redistribution, it is unlikely cial capital like Junagadh would have been bypassed, the edicts were so majestically inscribed. If so, the can be the only site where such relics would have in the Junagadh area. The relics that have been found pa also lend credence to this assumption. und the hills of Girnar, structural complexes of which rvive also used large burnt bricks.18 Their Mauryan s seems likely. At Surajkund in the Girnar sanctuary circular well cut into the natural rock, and another icks.19 The bricks are large and of various sizes, some th figure marks, a chaitya, and a conch. In another part in the Hasnapur dam area and close to a local religious ina Baba ki Samadhi, is a stupa site. This appears to ade of a combination of large bricks and some stone. in the dam area too, which is now submerged, brick ns exist and become visible, according to local people, ter level in the dam drops. Thirty km from Junagadh, mnath forest checkpost, a large concentration of solid rickbats lies scattered. In the suburbs of Junagadh are by large bricks. One of these, near the Palasini river, is am Chora, named after a hill where it is located. Towards he hill are big blocks of dressed stones interspersed icks and a number of earthen lamp (‘diya’) remains. is Intawa, a Buddhist monastic site in the midst of e on a hill above Bhavnath. Intawa was excavated in ded the foundations of monasteries, as also many artefrom water pots and coins to a rounded clay sealing legend that mentioned the seal as belonging to the gha of the vihara of Maharaja Rudrasena.20 This is

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ra the brick complex is within walking distance of the f the Sudarshana lake, the Ramnath Mahadev mandir om the Junagadh area. In fact, it cannot be visualized as forming part of the circuit that sustained the ancient centre here. The distribution of the other sites in the st area, however, begins to make sense when it is juxta­ the topography of the hill zone. The forested tract ve a great deal of flat land. There are four small valleys e Girnar range and the surrounding hills which are in of Bhavnath, Hasnapur, Surajkund, and Bhordevi. The halting places of the famous Girnar pilgrim circuit (or ), which starts annually from November, are these very in the vicinity of these places that early historic brick ound. Intawa is above Bhavnath and was a Buddhist te. Surajkund, marked by a late centuries bce well and termined brick remains, may well be part of a Buddhist Jina Baba ki Samadhi and Bhordevi, both are marked by ts of Buddhist stupas. uch before its fame as a centre of Jaina and Hindu rnar appears to have been sacred to the Buddhists, and e earliest circuit of worship in and around the Girnar st. It is hard to be sure of Ashoka’s role in the creation of But as the emperor’s provincial capital will have been the pport centre and as the emperor himself was a Buddh­ ence of brick in the early Buddhist monuments of the st does seem to suggest that Ashoka ploughed resour­ veloping places of worship and shelter for the Buddhist ommunity there.

* * *

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ng at every point. The fixity of inscriptions carved on ed with the roughly similar ideas conveyed regardless end to make us arrive at a singular meaning, a sense edict range being reducible to a narrow range of tements about a contrite emperor’s endeavour to cre­ os of citizenship within an ethically governed empire. mon threads running through the edicts should not he possibility of interpretive variation and plurality Political authority and cultural hegemony vary across mediate the reception of every statement and mes­ ehension in a particular way is also a consequence of e and historical structuring in which the speech act for example, it can hardly be denied that perceptions uilt and repentance will have differed in Orissa, where war was fought, from perceptions of these at Erragudi

ue with this theme of local interpretive difference, k at Sannathi in Karnataka, where the message was a free-standing slab (or slabs) which bore edicts on From what has survived, it is clear that two of the edicts e had earlier been found only at Dhauli and Jaugada whereas before the Sannathi discovery it was believed of Ashoka’s long rescript was meant for Kalinga alone, dent that they were also intended for other places. The they bear, though, are the same as those in Orissa and o as Separate Rock Edicts 1 and 2. As in Orissa, the t is omitted here, but unlike in Orissa the emperor’s statement on tolerance in Rock Edict 12 is included. other edicts, what has survived at Sannathi are Rock 14. The absence of the Kalinga Edict, the thirteenth in y, means that it was deliberately dropped. ains the absence of Ashoka’s account of Kalinga in

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herers who used microliths of all kinds. Their material will have included other sorts of objects that have not he site was then abandoned and later occupied by a black re culture. This was an iron-using society and its potthe kind usually associated with megaliths in Karnataka d. The Mauryan occupation here overlay this horizon. dvent of the Mauryas, a far richer material culture ppearance, marked by the use of burnt bricks, North hed Ware, polished stone pestles, shell bangles, beads of nd semi-precious stones (jasper, carnelian, crystal, coral, ), coins and a disc stone bearing a typically Mauryan anding goddesses flanked by palm trees and various A major moment in the life of any site is when a system ions is constructed, indicating what is considered worthy and consolidation, and at Sannathi the first phase of the ns—constructed by cutting a moat and heaping the earth alls—goes back to Mauryan times. urya advent seems to have coincided with prosperity of een before, but that would not in itself suggest that this own was established by Ashoka, or that he established it ering the region. The date of the urban centre cannot be tablished, but that it existed in the time of Ashoka seems n—the presence of his edicts suggests this. Equally, the anaganahalli, situated very close to Sannathi, was first in Mauryan times. This was in the form of an earthen me 16 metres in diameter and rising to a height of a metres. The Mauryan antiquities included a mutilated ndstone lion capital fragment on the west of the stupa, a single sherd of North Black Polished Ware. Ashoka, n, established stupas marked by his various messages at ons, and the first stupa here must have been built with ge.

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Ranamandala, suggesting it was a battlefield. K.P. ho led the excavations of the Archaeological Survey eves ‘the place may be the historic battlefield or site Mauryas subjugated the local Satavahanas in a battle this territory in the Mauryan conquered vijita.’24 This, not enough, especially since no part of the emperor’s any reference to or remembrance of the conquest of What is certain, though, is that Ranamandala revealed antiquities which appear to be Mauryan, ranging erds to a circular medallion bearing reliefs of standing esses flanked by trees and animals. These belong to mily as those found at Mauryan sites in North India.25 gestion has been that the reason why Kalinga was not that Ashoka did conquer Karnataka. What transpir­ arnataka conquest was not comparable to Kalinga, this was a recently annexed region the emperor was spect in omitting mention of warfare at Sannathi. This also explain the omission of the Kalinga edict.26 roblem with the Sannathi edicts as compared to those that the slab-bearing part of Ashoka’s message was situ. When it was discovered it formed the pedestal Kalikamba in the Chandralamba temple. This means is likely to have been around the early historic city at possibly in the vicinity of the Kanaganahalli stupa, we re where it originally stood. From the perspective of hat the ancient landscape looked like, Orissa is easier to since the rescripts are exactly where Ashoka had them nlike the Sannathi slab, which bears only part of the Orissa edicts are fairly complete. This makes it possible maginative yet historically grounded account of how encies resulted in a changed royal message.

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e process is especially clear because the edicts there have uch better. At Dhauli and Jaugada, significant chunks longer message were not inscribed, three edicts being o. 11, which reiterated the emperor’s idea of dhamma; magnificent statement on tolerance; and No. 13, which Kalinga conquest in ghastly detail. Two other edicts, y historians as Separate Rock Edict 1 and Separate Rock st here.27 iscussing the nature of the message that these separate ded, it seems advisable again to examine their landscape. ng the ancient name for the eastern edge of India that rissa and part of Andhra, this was the scene of Ashoka’s its omission here is thus logical: only a few years had d the emperor would not have wanted to rub salt in the the wounded. He also took his time getting his long scribed there at all: the engraving was undertaken only ntire anthology was complete. The arrangement of the of these places, at Dhauli near Bhubaneshwar, reveals wo of the three columns here carry edicts 1 to 6 and 7 to 4—this last edict would not have appeared here if the prepared at Pataliputra was not already complete. Below thin a border of straight lines, the two separate edicts .28 ks of Dhauli form part of a hill which is in turn part nges of parallel hills. These ranges are not far from the e Daya river, some 7 km from Bhubaneshwar.29 Here, an nd monument combination was created. The rock had a specially created for the edicts, and a little above it was here, out of solid rock, an elephant was hewn, one of the mens of early sculptural art.30 Ashoka’s epigraph refers s elephant represents: at the end of the Sixth Rock Edict the appellation ‘seto’ or the ‘white one’, indicating that

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site of Ashoka’s message is Jaugada, much further he Rushikulya river in Orissa’s Ganjam district. Much ka, this area was inhabited first by people who used s and black and red pottery, and then by iron-users d of beads made of shell, bone, agate, carnelian, crystal, By the historical period it had become a township. In is perhaps the only site of Ashoka’s major rock edicts must have been an extensive town surrounded by oth Jaugada and Dhauli are in the eastern coastal belt. adjacent to hilly jungle-covered regions—the Khurda orms part of the Chhotanagpur plateau in the case of he rocky forested stretch from Bastar to Vizianagaram Jaugada.32 places be identified with the towns that find mention phs? The Dhauli inscription alludes to Tosali while entioned in the Jaugada epigraph. Jaugada was likely n located inside Samapa, the city mentioned in the cts. The mahamatras of Samapa, who were the judicial alaviyohalakas’) of the city, are specifically address­ cribed rock was part of a group of outcrops located earthen square fort surrounded by a moat. On the identifying Tosali is more controversial. While it is n later inscriptions both as a region and as a place, here ras of Tosali were alluded to as the judicial officers of e location of the city has been a matter of some dispute, fied early historic site of Sisupalgarh, which lies a short m Dhauli, being the most popular contender.35 It has on deposits going back to pre-Mauryan times. On the he mound of Radhanagar in the Jajpur sector of Orissa to have been an important early historic city, situated o the north of Cuttack, on the right bank of the Keula nagar was fortified, with wide (some 40 metres wide)

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headquartered there, in the same way as at Suvarnagiri, nd Taxila. Many other segments of this eastern region d with settlements, including Manamuda in the Boudh ch has yielded pottery with a close affinity to that of c plains and Central India; and Asurgarh, a port town di district which was fortified and contemporary with .37 However, only Tosali and Samapa find mention in igraphs. the place of the fateful battle? While it is likely that he zone stretching from Jajpur to Ganjam, precisely Mauryan forces were actively resisted by the Kalingans known. Where one would like to locate the definitive ombat—whether near Bhubaneshwar and not far algarh and the Dhauli rocks, or much further south kakulam—depends upon the route that one imagines rces used in their traverse from Pataliputra to Kalinga. s that the Mauryan troops took the same route that ter was followed by the Gupta king Samudragupta in inental campaign. Samudragupta is supposed to have Kalinga from Chhattisgarh.38 Dilip Chakrabarti finds eptable hypothesis because ‘both these monarchs came putra and both had Kalinga in their purview.’39 The narch’s campaign, though, was qualitatively different of the Mauryan. Samudragupta was moving in a very fashion against the confederacy whose kingpin was the g of Kanchi. So, his line of movement across Dakshina Ganjam-Srikakulam made eminent political sense. On and, Ashoka’s campaign was a far more circumscribed nd for him, the Bhubaneshwar–Jajpur area was likely to strategically significant. The presence of urban centres garh and Radhanagar, as also his edicts later engraved suggest this. So, his army possibly took the Bengal–

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ovincial government must have been headquartered to the administrators of Kalinga that, as we shall see, tly spoke in his separate edicts.

* * *

inga’s landscape recast the message put there? Since ences of his actions haunted Ashoka, it seems likely ter, along with eleven of the original anthology that major rock edicts, he caused two further edicts to there, both qualitatively different from the others.40 emperor, speaking in the first person, instructs the sali and at Samapa, whom he specifically mentions as ed with many thousands of people, his object being to ection. For the first time, he uses words that indicate a ship with his people. The Second Separate Edict, which rs before what is designated as the First, says:

my children. half of (my own) children I desire that they may be provided h all welfare and happiness in this world and in the other so is my desire for all men.41

a recurring motif: his officials were asked to fulfil nd inspire people ‘in order that they may learn that the m like a father, (that) he loves them as he loves himself, ey are to the king like (his own children).’42 Much the seen in the First Separate Edict: ‘just as for (my own) sire that they may be provided with all welfare and this world and in the other world so I desire for all

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o, why were the officials in Kalinga being informed that ated all people as his own children—unlike, for instance, manned the administration in Gujarat and north-west possible that, after its annexation, the newly conquered e being treated harshly by Mauryan officials? Among a ecently vanquished, could Ashoka have appeared in the father figure? We can only guess that there was a degree n in Kalinga, and Ashoka was therefore being discreetly veloping his rescript within an affective mould was one ding bridges with them. onquered borderers’ (‘amtanam avijita’) in Separate 2 were also addressed in this intimate way.45 Border d be quite troublesome and those on the borders of the mpire certainly were. In addition to describing them as , the emperor used every temperate word at his disposal to them that he was not an aggrandizing and brutal t one who wanted their confidence. Simultaneously, he duce in them the practice of morality:

occur to (my) unconquered borderers (to ask): ‘What does the e with reference to us? lone is my wish with reference to the borderers, (that) they n (that) the king desires this, (that) they may not be afraid ut may have confidence in me; (that) they may obtain only from me, not misery; (that) they may learn this, (that) the orgive them what can be forgiven; that they may (be induced) o) practice morality; (and that) they may attain (happiness) this world and (in) the other world.46

suffered from a trust deficit vis-à-vis those addressed: ent. Presumably, these borderers would have been privy less way in which Ashoka had run over Kalinga and eared they were next in line. Ashoka is at pains to per­

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a strong hint in the edict, he was looking at ways of d improving an insensitive Mauryan administration in alludes to this when he exhorts officials to pay atten­even-handed in the administration of justice (‘niti’), ate the right qualities necessary to the discharge of

n the administration (of justice) that a single person suffers isonment or harsh treatment. ase (an order) cancelling the imprisonment is obtained by ntally, while (many) other people continue to suffer. ase you must strive to deal (with all of them) impartially. e fails to act (thus) on account of the following dispositions: cruelty, hurry, want of practice, laziness, (and) fatigue. must strive for this, that these dispositions may not arise

root of all this is the absence of anger and the avoidance of

is fatigued in the administration (of justice), will not rise; ght to move, to walk, and to advance. 47

ms very aware that all was not quiet on the eastern ng for words to motivate his administration there, he ocal about the dire consequences of failure: ‘there will tainment of heaven nor satisfaction of the king’. They heaven and pay the king’s debt by listening carefully.48 of paying a debt had figured in the Sixth Edict, where e of discharging the debt he owed to living beings.49 new articulation, it was the officials who by carrying es would enable Ashoka to discharge this debt. A sense between ruler and administration was being sought, gines that this message was necessitated by problems linga. places, Ashoka’s engraved messages were read out

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e: ‘And this edict must be listened to (by all) on (every constellation Tishya. And it may be listened to even by rson) also on frequent (other) occasions between (the shya. And if you act thus, you will be able to fulfil (this onsidering that the edict is primarily concerned with administration and justice delivery, a reading between ems called for: the emperor seems to be saying he dis­ f the existing state of affairs and has given officials ressal instructions. Via repeated broadcasts heard at least a year (implied by reference to the Tishya constellation), of accountability is being attempted. The line ensuing apparent: ‘in order that the judicial officers of the city at all times (for this), (that) neither undeserved fettering rved harsh treatment are happening to (men).’51 further, and specifically at this location, that a quin­ rutiny will be conducted by a mahamatra of suitable neither harsh nor fierce, [but] of gentle actions’,52 to judicial officers have been acting according to instruc­ promise of supervision was not restricted to Kalinga: es of provincial administration—Ujjayini and Taksha­ pecifically named—were also instructed to send out s for the same purpose triennially. On account of this t has been assumed that these separate edicts were not ntric but intended for administrators in other parts of as well.53 This may well be so, and the Separate Edicts i suggest it. All the same, at Kalinga the instruction rried a meaning more loaded by recent events and the ce of them. arts of Ashoka’s message that are found at Dhauli and neither about the preaching nor the practice of dhamma. entrally concerned with delivering better administra­ olitically sensitive province. The emperor modifies the

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f meaning across landscapes is a myth. In the peculiar ka’s edicts, which despite being spread over thousands tend very strongly to be seen as disseminating a single as seemed worthwhile to me to scrutinize the truth his truism. The valorization of Ashoka by Buddhist hy is understandable, yet it cannot be denied that agenda driving such history has helped immensely the idea that Ashoka’s messages can be reduced to a mon in defence of the faith. By contrast, because the ch political authority is inscribed in a landscape are aried, attentiveness to situational variety is necessary. s are conquered by the sword and require healing; pacification; yet others may respond best if addressed d Aramaic. Landscape, in relation to Ashoka’s edicts, la rasa on which nothing other than contrition and agenda, bordering on missionary zeal, are written. offers possibilities sometimes invisible. guished king pointed out to his companion in a very text: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, n are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

10

Building Beliefs into Edifices

a’s initiatives and orders, made known ross his empire through epigraphs addressed to his subts, are only one of the constitutive elements of the em­hority. There are important others, of a qualitatively der, which too left a material imprint. Among these are yal programmes for building, renovating, and modify­ s edifices. His epigraphs pertaining to these programmes about religion, religious personages, and interventions he practice of his new faith. ge of such structures is as diverse as the places where they ucted. Some are caves that the sovereign got excavated or ascetics. Others are spaces sedimented with Buddhist s where Ashoka’s stamp can be seen because he journeyed ilgrim. He installed numerous pillars at places that had some way in the life and death of the Buddha; others at uddha could not have visited. Stupas too were built with tronage, sometimes over relics of the Sakyamuni that he to have extracted out of older stupas. The stunning pil­ n the Magadhan capital, which is likely to have been built may well carry the same religious associations.

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ctures, only some bear dates in relation to the king’s dates which would make it possible to clarify when ilt. Some carry no inscriptions. In such instances, the ch the structures are said to have either been built or either literary—the authors of ancient texts describing t by the emperor—or else include elements generally iagnostic for identifying Ashokan edifices, such as rs and the specific sorts of bricks used. Archaeological sually identified by ‘type fossils’. The archetypal objects pan civilization, for instance, range from long flint im­ rectangular and square inscribed seals. Similarly, pil­ polish so typical of inscribed Ashokan pillars, as also uctures made of bricks—which, in terms of size and ble other structures built in this period and which have been found constructed on the same floors where the —can be reliably identified as type fossils of Ashoka’s

les perhaps had fixed or flexible associations with the may have been the initial reason for Ashoka’s jour­ engagement with them, as for instance Lumbini, the thplace. His visits to them were, however, often trans­ personally, they may have made him more devout, mportant, via the structures he built there he changed configurations and gave them new meaning. Other have done this as well, but Ashoka’s ability to influ­ence capes was much greater because massive monoliths required large resources and labour. They also perhaps many instances, reaching understanding with Buddhist todians. At some Buddhist sites Ashoka assumed the ious instructor. As the powerhouse of belief in his day, and monarch at the same time’,1 he felt he was entitled e Buddhist Sangha on religious and doctrinal matters.

Fig. 10.1: Hills around the Barabar caves, the Phalgu river in the background

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ce, the year that Ashoka issued his rescripts about the er courtesy and proper behaviour towards ‘Shramanas nas’—subsequently these appeared in the Third and r Rock Edicts—he had caves excavated, these being in a way, of his beliefs. Tolerance for all sects, the f elders in all religious communities, and the desire sects live across his dominions were thus supervised as material events. Appropriately, the four Barabar ot exclusively for Buddhists. One of them may have st; at least two were given to the Ajivikas in the twelfth coronation. the name of the highest hill among the rocky ridges y lie in the Jahanabad district of Bihar, some twentyth of Gaya, and therefore only a day’s journey from A large part of the area around the hill, like the environs Pataliputra, comprised an expanse of cultivated plains. ny of these plains was broken by the dramatic Barabar granite, rising ‘like rocks from the sea’.2 Today, the ath temple crowns one of the peaks. From here the s, rock exposures, water reservoirs, and the Phalgu istance form a stunningly beautiful landscape, enough e envy for the ascetics who made this hill their abode entury bce. Ascetics of the Ajivika order had, as we saw, ad tidings for Ashoka, so a disinterested distri­bution of ry sects may not have been the idyllic scenario paint­ed y those desiring to boost the emperor’s proto-secular his was all the same a major philanthropic act, the first aves created on this scale in this part of the world, and have been widely recognized in Ashoka’s own time. four such caves. Three are located in a prominent d natural outcrop,3 the Lomasha Rishi cave and the e being adjacent to each other. When these names

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:  Interior of the Sudama cave with a hut-like structure carved into the rock

nscription by ‘Priyadarshin’ dating to when he had been welve years. A great deal of effort went into the creation . It comprises two chambers, both of which were highly rectangular outer one with a vaulted roof and an inner th a hemispherical ceiling circular in plan and imitating hut. Like the Sudama cave, the adjacent Lomasha Rishi wo-chambered. What made it different was a carved bove the entrance on its exterior. In this, the central arch w of elephants in motion, moving towards a central stupa ides. Immediately above this, in the middle arch, a kind een is made up of an intersecting circle design—the type ed on the throne (‘vajrasana’) that Ashoka is supposed en in honour of the Buddha at Mahabodhi. While this ot carry an epigraph, the polished character of the outer nd its general architecture leaves little doubt that this

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Ashoka’s dedications is now known as Karna Chaupar. ed out of the outcrop within which the Lomasha Rishi caves were created. Facing north, it is a one-chamber a vaulted roof. Polished to a high lustre, it is marked k-cut platform on the western end. However, this was years after the others, i.e. nineteen years after Ashoka’s The Ajivikas are not mentioned here. Instead, the king first person to say that ‘this cave in the very pleasant ountain) was given by me for (shelter during) the rainy possible that wandering mendicants in need of reli­able g the rainy season used this cave. There may also have nding structures in Barabar since at places the stone of walls peep out of the ground. Whether they were neous with the caves excavated on the orders of Ashoka ertain. In any case, recipients of such a substantial on had to be influential; so, had they approached the erson? Or did Ashoka, along the lines of the rescripts d the same time—those highlighting the importance of gious people—create these structures out of regard for nts? On the whole, after the long hortatory epigraphs, of Ashoka’s donative records at Barabar seems both somewhat unsatisfactory. re is known about the technology and design of cons­ he Barabar caves which, like the writing of public ck surfaces, represented an innovation. With their ls and invariably rounded roofs, they imitate the archi­ more humble wooden and bamboo dwellings. They ate in rock the form of habitations in which ascetics omfortable. Except that, unlike huts, these are rooms ty. The walls are plain but, because of the proportions , have a highly developed aesthetic appearance which, hanced by the remarkable polish. The lustrous inner

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he Marabar caves (a thinly disguised reference to Bara­ lack of ornamentation and sculpture, a remarkable m, the polished stone surface which captures light like ned spirit and yields colours and shadings that seem to fe of granite. One of the characters, Mrs Moore, dies with the Marabar Caves in her head; another, Adela Quested, the echo, ‘Ou-boom’, in one of the caves into believing n molested. Ashoka could not in his wildest dreams have t his gift to the Ajivikas would, 2000 years later, result in vel using these caves as the lynchpin of its plot.7 sible to demonstrate the planning that went into the xcavation of these Ajivika abodes? While the caves are dimensions, it has been suggested that they have all on a grid using integers of a unit of circa  85.5 cm.8 This n that the size of the interiors was not random but based measure. Further, the various steps by which this major ork was executed can be partially reconstructed on the es that the incomplete Lomasha Rishi cave has provided.9 at this cave’s interior was only partially finished reveals ders of emperors, even those as powerful as Ashoka, ways followed in letter and spirit. The messiness of the of some of his edicts at Kalsi and Erragudi suggested Barabar caves it looks as if the administrators either pect the caves or did not think it necessary to finish e required standard. Odd—because Kalsi and Erragudi nsiderable distance from the Mauryan capital whereas ka hill is close to Pataliputra, making it easier for the catch recalcitrant building contractors by the neck. nge, plus c’est la même chose. e interested in the technology of their construction, ess is a blessing. Through the scooping, chiselling, and arks still visible on the floor, ceiling, and walls of the

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cave’s overall outline. From the chisel marks it appears progressed from bottom to top. The chisel edges were anging between 0.7 and 1.3 cm—the marks preserved ve and outside it suggest this. After this, the dressing of was done, now with a lighter chisel. Dressing involved lel straight grooves over a comparatively even surface. e seen on the floor and on the outer face of the hut ve. The depth to which the grooves were cut seems to onsequence of keeping in mind the surface which was lly polished. ed stone was then treated by pecking and grinding. ves thinning the ridges left behind by chiselling so that f flat surface is produced. The hewn surface, though, d rough. This was evened out by grinding—the sur­ bed by using coarse sand, water, and a coarse-grained emoved all marks: the pitted parts, the coarse texture, othened surface then had to be polished. Polishing was f grinding where the rubbing stone used was of a fine s the sand too was very fine grained. In these caves, the ually produced a glistening surface because the rock neral particles like feldspar and hornblende which have erties. These are the particles which reflect like brilliant is day. mary of the several stages involved in creating caves in points to a meticulous process and careful planning. t of edifices on this scale needed lavish outlays. The ssion of such a construction programme is the trouble emperor is prepared to put himself to for religious sects endicants and ascetics of some authority considered h abodes by the powerful Magadhan court will, in turn, social perceptions of the worth and power of asceti­ ndicancy. The hollowing out of a hill is also a landscape

Fig 10.3:  Lomasha Rishi cave architrave, with elephants moving towards a stupa

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cipient and could have been for the Ajivikas or other More challenging is the Lomasha Rishi cave. The its exterior has strong Buddhist overtones, so it may welling for the desirably faithful. If so, it would suggest way of promoting harmony among religious cults, aimed in his edicts. Inter-faith coexistence and rivalry to this period of strife and competition for sectarian nd relations between Ajivikas and Buddhists were, for icted in a variety of ways. In the Buddhist literature s are cruel and deceitful, others are shown in the com­ dhists and, on occasion, fed by them.10 The Jainas were ve had an early and close relationship with the Ajivikas, e tensions when several Ajivikas converted to Jainism. speculate that the frieze on the Lomasha Rishi cave— hants and stupa and lattice frame design resembling Mahabodhi throne gifted by Ashoka—signifies a cave . In that case, at Barabar Ashoka was creating dwellings s, Ajivikas, and sundry sects and ascetics simultane­ ddhist connection with Barabar becoming significant od. Many centuries after, the ancient name of Barabar, as inscribed on a stupa at Kanaganahalli in Karnataka: vato’ or ‘Khalatika parvata’ is mentioned on a label ngraved on one of the upper drum slabs of the stupa.11 halatika had been integrated within Buddhist stories, which are usually depicted on stupas. At Khalatika itself arly Buddhist stupas or chaityas, the decorative as­pects ha Rishi cave indicating the only possible connection sm. Secular abode-donations at single locations were n. King Pandukabhaya, grandfather of Devanampiya a’s contemporary in Sri Lanka), was depicted in the dition as having built proximate hermitages for Nigran­ y Jainas), Ajivikas, and Brahmanas.12

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at the phase when Ashoka’s Buddhist persona becomes e. Though involved in many matters of state and gov­ xes and punishments and land grants were evidently not, perspective, matters to be recorded on stone. Subjects ttracted the record-keeping of most emperors—such es lagging in paying taxes, safety measures for state nd complaints of harassment and incompetence by the ion—if put down anywhere at all by Ashoka have not hey do occasionally appear, but only in relation to his l agenda. On the other hand he projects the persona of uddhist in several of his epigraphs and through these it ble to chart both his progress as a convert and under­ ale of his influence over the monastic community. trove to portray his own illumination, in the tenth year nsecration, as a consequence of his pilgrimage to the Buddha’s enlightenment at Mahabodhi. Unsurprisingly, mple at Mahabodhi is generally attributed to Ashoka. s building coincided with or followed his visit is not arge sandstone throne that today lies behind the present in the shade of the Bodhi tree is also regarded as an onation. The temple that he is thought to have set up of, being in the form of an open pavilion supported by with many other buildings attributed to the emperor’s there are no Ashokan epigraphs on the pavilion of the abar: the attribution is largely based on what we know sculptures. A century or so later a representation at the upa of Bharhut in Central India depicted a throne, with f the Bodhi tree behind, surrounded by an open-pillared his was labelled in the Brahmi script: ‘Bodhi tree of the ya Muni’, or ‘Bhagavato Saka Munino Bodhi’.13 Since (‘vajrasana’) is so realistically depicted at Bharhut, it y that the pavilion-like temple was also a faithful image.

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ving built a chaitya at Bodh Gaya as also at Lumbini, d Kushinagara.15 Mahabodhi’s seventh century ce or Xuanzang says Ashoka had surrounded the Bodhi early three metres high stone wall.16 A Burmese record he eleventh century ce says that ‘King Dhamma Asoka’ e on the spot where Buddha took a meal.17 The throne ormous carved seat made up of two horizontal slabs. e is highly polished while the upper has designs on all honeysuckle motifs; on one side, these alternate with e. The carving is very similar to those on some Ashokan her category of monumental sculpture). Considering f the sculpture, the polish, and the massiveness of the was likely to have been a royal commemorative gift. suing years the emperor provided vivid glimpses of of Buddhist sanctity by inscribing his presence at them. at Nigali Sagar (or Niglihawa) in the Nepal terai, some ter his Sambodhi visit. This is in the Kapilavastu dis­ its name from a large artificial pool in its vicinity, the . The focus on an epigraph here was a stupa dedicated a Konakamana (or Kanakmuni): Ashoka expanded and the fourteenth year after his consecration. Buddhists akamana to be twenty-third in the list of twenty-four ny stories about him exist in Buddhist chronicles which h leitmotifs from the Buddha’s life—such as his early pent in palaces, the practising of austerities at the end daughter of a Brahman gave him milk-rice, and his ed enlightenment under a tree (an Udumbara tree).18 hat by the third century bce a cult around the previous s geographically anchored, the Mauryan emperor’s and building activity adding to their importance. The edifice that Ashoka enlarged can no longer be traced d. However, for many centuries after his time, a stupa

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his time there was already in the Nepal terai a kind of uit around places associated with the Buddha. This ex­ o the Gangetic plains and is possible to recognize from or’s edifices along the path of his pilgrimage. In that ntieth year he paid obeisance at three sacred sites: Nigali hawa, and Lumbini, all fairly close to each other. The first ative places connected with Buddhas who, within the , antedated Gautama Buddha. Nigali Sagar was connected mana, Gotihawa to his immediate predecessor Kraku­e twenty-second Buddha. Lumbini of course was reput­ garden where Maya had given birth to Siddhartha. Ashoka get to these places? The entourage would have he stretch from Pataliputra across the Ganga through to the terai. This was then, as it is today, a ‘sweep of rich plains’: the archaeological sites there show it clearly.20 alignment that linked Pataliputra with the area where ood was dotted with early historic settlements and m the Ganga bank opposite ancient Pataliputra, through atragarh, and Balrajgarh to the terai area. Considering s in the terai, travelling by elephant would have been option. Alongside, there would have been bullock carts ovisions, and an armed contingent. In the terai, during nth century, the cart tracks on which bullock carts tra­ so circuitous that they took double the direct distance nation. It may have been worse in Ashoka’s day. Many l also have had to be crossed: rivers and rivulets such as ga, Tilar, Jamuar, and Siswa.21 People in the villages and he route may have been made aware of the king’s travel presence of advance parties would have ensured it while ng the state of repair of roads, vetting the halting pla­ he way, ensuring provisions of animal fodder. Elaborate nts will have been put in place to receive the royal visitor

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d visit. Whether this was then called Kapilavastu or was nother another name we don’t know.22 The fortified was most impressive. Originally of mud, brick walls, a deep ditch, were subsequently raised.23 The terai habitation sites of all kinds and formed an important he imperial domain, quite apart from being important The local administration will have been on its toes in ocations. these pilgrim places did Ashoka visit? Lumbini first of being already a hoary place of pilgrimage. What today he modern Maya Devi temple pre-dated Ashoka by he Buddha’s birthplace is represented as a square brick form on which is a longish sedimentary sandstone ointing what was believed to be the exact place of e would in Ashoka’s day also have been a large brick r it. Did Ashoka think it too modest as a shrine given stature? Or was the emperor inscribing his presence in his preceptor’s birth as his most powerful patron? This elevant because Ashoka did not merely pay obeisance. pillar and erected a much larger temple-like edifice hplace. The magnificent monolithic pillar was hewn tone. While only part of it has survived (nearly four the ground and a little more than five metres above), et up the pillar was likely to have been several metres n inverted lotus capital and an animal image on top. s of the abacus and bell capital have survived, but not g animal. Xuanzang, much impressed in the seventh rts seeing the column topped by a stone horse. ilar pillars were fashioned during Ashoka’s reign, all nd freestanding, placed on base-slabs below ground. bar caves, their quality speaks highly of the technical olved:

Fig. 10.4:  Ashokan pillar at Lumbini, with the modern Maya Devi temple by its side

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perience to produce such pieces of art; another sort of ex­ needed to transport them from the quarry to their place , and it requires still further expertise to erect the pillars om 8.6 (Lumbini) to 51 (Vesali) tons and finally to top them s weighing a further two tons.26

oles were the kind of paraphernalia constructed at religious places. However, it is unlikely that those mes before Ashoka were remotely like his. This com­ tapering polished monolith topped with animals and symbols was an Ashokan innovation.27 The pillars were t of Chunar sandstone, a high quality variety com­Vindhya hills on the southern edge of the Gangetic porting the monoliths from there would have been en if facilitated by the proximity of the Ganga.28 The ocks would have had to be rolled down hills and taken e areas to the river. The archaeologists P.C. Pant and wal, who first drew attention to the Chunar stone ed that five stone blocks could still be seen lying partly n the river. The ancient quarries also yielded several d and unfinished cylinder blocks of stone, some of which of the Kharoshthi script. However, these are unlikely okan lineage since their proportions (between 1.65 to in length) do not match with those of the majestic noliths. temple, before Ashoka at least two construction phases nearthed which included brick pavements and a kerb. ostholes below these pavements and kerb defined a going back to the sixth century bce, possibly earlier.29 open centre of this area, substantial root features which the excavators interpreted as representing the a tree shrine. If so, this is possibly the first tree shrine identified at a Buddhist place of worship, a feature

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temple or chaitya whose foundation trench had a filling that is thought to be Mauryan. The superstructure was of timber. After this, the circumabulatory path was th paving added on the west and north sides. The temple t did not carry an Ashokan epigraph, certainly none that d. The pillar, however, did. The emperor inscribed on of his visit.

ng Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty came himself and worshipped (this spot), because the akyamuni was born here. oth caused to be made a stone bearing a horse (?) and caused llar to be set up, (in order to show) that the Blessed one was . made the village of Lummini free of taxes, and paying (only) an are (of the produce).31

been quibbling over some of the terminology used in ph: what did the term ‘vigadabhi (ca)’ mean? While the Hultzsch thought it a reference to a horse, two words that d there, ‘silavigadabhiti(ca)’, have also been thought to made from, or decorated with stone’. The stone ‘sila’ en interpreted as a reference to the marker stone found milarly, the meaning in the allusion to ‘an eighth share’ giya’ is debated. While this has usually been understood ng a reduction in taxes to one-eighth, a competing pointed out that this would not have shown Ashoka ularly generous donor since the amount of tax from a ize of Lumbini was not likely to be a princely sum.33 An explanation has been to see this as referring to a onee of the relics of the Buddha. The remains of the Buddha s cremated have been frequently described in Buddhist s having being divided into eight equal parts which jagriha, Vaishali, Kapilavastu, Allakappa, Ramagrama,

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e read as referring to getting a share for it from one of ghth portions.34 The problem, however, is that there is ubstantial stupa here that can be considered Mauryan, relics been recovered at Lumbini. For the moment, seems best to see Ashoka as having made a revenue ven if not a generous one! uch conflicting interpretations of the royal epigraph, g is the way in which memorialization was combined n overt expression of political power. The emperor visit when he came to worship at the place where the born. At the same time, the pillar that he put up was umental dimensions that it must have more or less original shrine. So the shrine too was renovated and royal patronage. The emperor then used the occasion a reduction in agricultural taxes for Lumbini village. ly the earliest documented example in South Asia of a on deploying a sacred landscape to announce revenue The example is multiplied in later times: there are plenty of exemptions and privileges given by kings along­ments to religious establishments, including on occa­ mptions.35 bing of Ashoka’s presence here was followed by Ripu than 1600 years later. This king of the Naga dynasty rimage to Lumbini in 1312 ce, where a Buddhist m Mani Padme Hum’, or ‘Hail to the jewel of the ngraved along with his name on the very Ashoka pil­ the emperor’s pilgrimage.36 wa can be seen the remnants of a pillar that Ashoka put aps the same tour.37 Unlike the grass-covered stupa, portion of the pillar is now visible. It used to be known ar Mahadeva—an appellation which suggests it was s a broken (or ‘phuta’) Shivalinga. In the late nineteenth

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Fig. 10.6:  Gotihawa pillar remnant, once known as Phuteshwar Mahadeva

ons at Gotihawa, associated with Krakuchhanda, have ery old village going back to the ninth century bce. The d bones found here are common at such sites, as also mpressed with straw and reeds that were accidentally n huts at the location caught fire.39 The third century a brick stupa here with a diameter of some 10 metres made of bricks of different types. On the basis of there h Black Polished pottery, the archetypal early historic ch has been found via the paste in a couple of bricks and y layer which constitutes the binder of the bricks—the d well have been Mauryan. The likelihood is reinforced ricks being handmade and of different sizes, suggesting of mass production. n’ does not of course mean ‘Ashokan’: gaps in our

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Fig. 10.7:  Nigali Sagar pillar segments

shokan pillars such as that at Lumbini and at Sarnath wer parts are rough (since these were meant to be the Gotihawa stump is finished from the base itself.40 is similar to that of the one at Lumbini. The found­ears a simple geometric rendering of the hill-andbol, which is considered typically Mauryan.41 Sagar Ashoka had expanded the stupa of Konakamana ier: this is recorded over his subsequent visit alongside t the spot and his setting up a pillar.42 The pillar is now of the two surviving parts one bears his epigraph. The has not survived, Xuanzang’s sighting of a lion figure our only evidence of what it looked like. The emperor up pillars elsewhere in the terai but they have not come is, the surviving monoliths provide us a bird’s eye view m circuit that then existed around the predecessors of on to the Buddha.

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rai pilgrimage shows a worshipful monarch combining with a building project that modifies and expands the hich made up the existing sacred landscape there. He his respect to have been an innovator on a grand scale. raphy of Buddhism was now subcontinental: the faith ntially transformed from its original small base in North increased or expanded monumentality of each sacred made the individual site much more prominent than it ltering regional micro-economies. most evident in the religious architecture of Vaishali. me 29 kms north of Hajipur on the left bank of the in Bihar, present-day Basarh has many ruins that can be ith the ancient city and its suburbs. Ruins and structural ve also been found in neighbouring villages and areas Charamdas, Lalpura, Virpur, and Kolhua. Vaishali, as the Vajji confederacy’s bustling capital much before the ry bce: the Buddha lived many times in it, specifically in of Mahavana where the Kutagarshala or hall stood on of the ‘Monkey Pool’ (‘markataharadarira’); and at the in the Amrapalivana, built for him by Vaishali’s famous Amrapali.43 Because of the Buddha’s close association n, the Lichchavis received a share of the relics collected re after he was cremated. ence around the archaeological landscape of Basarh hese literary allusions. At the large mound known as ka Garh, a fortified town was revealed, whose twentymud rampart appears to have been constructed around ntury bce.44 The Abhisheka Pushkarni, a tank that had o consecrate the Lichchavi rajas, was also identified with na Pokhar which lies less than a couple of kilometres rh. In this case, while a wall complex protected the tank, parently a second century bce construction. There are

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bout the fifth century bce. Constructed of mud, it was enlarged on four different occasions with bricks. This of the oldest stupas in India. Made entirely of earth, as twenty-seven mud layers, each separated from the n layer of gravel, it stood at a height of a little more d a half metres with about an eight metre diameter.45 stupa was probably constructed around 550–450 tinued to stand till the first century of the Christian pa was built on the foundations of an earlier shrine. though, was of an entirely different order from the onument constructed over it. Its excavated floor has bones, which appear to be part of offerings, and for t was described by the excavators as a pre-Buddhist ya’).46 So, obviously, the Lichchavis used a place that considered sacred to create an entirely new kind of ucture over it. ver, the earlier phases of the stupa’s construction which ere. The mud stupa was said to have been constructed ddha’s death, when relics were placed inside it. It was ring stupa which Ashoka is believed to have changed her novel way. The Buddhist literature is full of allu­ ka’s ambitious programme of opening up seven of the l stupas containing the Buddha’s relics. Remarkably, elic stupa confirms that this was indeed dug into. The on was not a pit. If it had been, it would have contained material. Evidently, an intentional breach was made to reach the relics: the relic casket was found in this breach extended beyond the relic casket to a distance etre. Probably, more relic caskets were expected, or the tion of the casket was somewhere near the end of the h. In any case, when it was redeposited it came to be r up in the breach, which was then filled up.47

Fig. 10.8: The mud stupa of Vaishali is in the centre, surrounded by later brick constructions

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Relic box from the Vaishali stupa (now in the Patna Museum)

only ash mixed with earth, a punch-marked coin, two conch, and a tiny piece of gold. ourse, invites speculation on whether the event des­ ddhist texts is the one detectable at Vaishali. An in­ ach is clearly discernible but why it was made is not. , there are many possibilities, including mischief by n unsettled times and desecration by a rival religious likelihood, though, is weakened by the casket having red inside the stupa rather than removed from it, aises the plausibility of the hypothesis that the breach n order to remove a portion of the relics, perhaps by e literature asserts. If so, Ashoka was expanding not umentality of these sites but also future perceptions ee of sacredness, an imaginative innovation towards imensions of pre-existing religiosity. The proliferation

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e lion still standing on the capital, the Vaishali specimen ly the heaviest of all Ashoka’s pillars but also one of the essive.48 Though uninscribed (unclear why), its other ics show it as indisputably Ashokan. The stupa in its ontemporary with the pillar. It yielded the fragment of brella and pieces of a relic casket, all bearing the polish monuments and artefacts associated with the emperor.49 pas attributed to Ashoka can be so easily identified. The ric of the Dharmarajika stupa in Taxila, for instance, has d, and the only tangible indication is the name Dharma­ with Ashoka as he who built dharmarajikas, i.e. stupas of the Buddha. The presence of two small mullers of of the kind used in Ashokan pillars, is considered as the vidence for the excavator.50 g, when describing the many structures associated with a, noted that the Vaishali stupa built by ‘Ashoka-raja’ ide a high stone pillar with a lion on top. Ashoka’s presence in Pataliputra is much less in evid­ s perhaps because much of ancient Pataliputra is buried a and most excavations have been in the outskirts. No

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hokan pillar or stupa ruin has appeared, the only major relic that may have had something to do with Ashoka red hall at the Kumrahar locality of Patna.51 Traces nolithic pillar bases and fragments of pillars bearing ish were found here. Access was through a pillared ached by steps constructed on wooden platforms. The emselves stood in the waters of a canal which brought e hall by boat. The pillared hall was possibly open on ce no screen walls of any kind were found) and huge wood were possibly used in making the ceiling, a thick t the site suggesting this. o believe that Ashoka facilitated the meeting of a uncil to give the final touches to sacred Buddhist texts was likely to have been held here. The Mahavamsa s council, presided over by Moggaliputta Tissa. The cture could well have been the religious assembly he discussants gathered,52 though there are no posit­ ns on the matter. At the same time it is worth remem­ this feeling constantly recurs as one wades through ogy of sites showing Ashoka’s patronage—no secular s such as palaces or sculptures that the emperor may ve survived. If he had indeed invested substantial re­ ch structures, it is unlikely that they would have all His building ambitions evidently were an extension of beliefs. It is thus likely that the Pataliputra pillared hall r religious use, even if the specifics of what transpired unknown. Buddhist convert, patron, and pilgrim is inseparable as spiritual regulator and protector of Buddhist unity. mself a spiritual guide in a quite remarkable way on the airat, a Rajasthan town in a narrow valley surround­ concentric ranges of hills, some 85 km from Jaipur.

Fig. 10.11: The circular temple at Bairat. The Ashokan inscription was found below the overhanging rock at the edge of the hill

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mself as the ‘Magadha king’. This is today described as Bairat edict because the stone bearing this record was fter it was discovered in the middle of the nineteenth e Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. dict, after a traditional Buddhist greeting the king e on religious expositions. Even while acknowledging e Buddha had spoken was well spoken, he made it desired ‘many groups of monks and (many) nuns’ to ten to and reflect on particular dhammic expositions.53 ons were several and specific: the epigraph mentions kasa, the Aliya-vasas, the Anagata-bhayas, the MuniMoneya-suta, the Upatisa-pasina, and the Laghulovada. clarity about the exact canonical writings to which cause what is recognizable today as part of the Buddh­ not in the form in which it figures in this epigraph. uddhism, though, maintain that such expositions were tain all kinds of advice on how ‘to conform to their content with their lot, overcome their temptations, itude, enclose themselves in wise silence’, and so on.54 remarkable is the confidence with which the emperor ice to the Buddhist community: it is as though he sees e Buddha’s preacher-successor. also built for the Buddhist community of Bairat. l and impressive is a temple for the community on a he hilltop where his advice is inscribed. This was in the cular chamber with a circumabulatory passage, in turn by an encircling wall. The wall of the inner shrine was els of brickwork alternating with twenty-six wooden The circumambulatory passage was covered by an supported on one side by the outer brick wall and on e by the wooden architraves of the pillars of the central estingly, the outer wall of the temple had Mauryan

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Fig.10.12:  Chunar monolithic railing at Sarnath

which in the Bairat-Calcutta edict, Ashoka had exhorted to listen to and study for the furtherance of the Buddhist Sahni also believed that originally Ashokan pillars had d here. This was what the hundred-odd polished Chunar s and several thousand small fragments that he found ed to suggest. The pieces included a fragment from the e broken from the shaft summit which preserved part of t tapering hole into which a metallic bolt slid to support of the capital that crowned the pillar. Obviously, the battered into tiny bits at some later point in time. ely, the monoliths with a specific message for the Bud­ munity have survived better. The most famous one is the rnath with its superbly carved quadruple lion capital, l symbol of India since Independence. Sarnath, some of Banaras, is where Buddha preached his first ser­mon isciples. The symbol of that first sermon, a wheel flanked

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nel which connected the Ganga river to Sarnath. This monolithic railing made of Chunar sandstone which d from the foundation of a later Gupta period shrine in an unfinished or semi-finished state was also .58 It could have been erected around the top of a stupa surrounded a tree or pillar. If it was on top of a stupa, to have been the stupa that Ashoka built. Known as rajika, this building, enlarged six times after it was being in the twelfth century ce) was largely destroyed part of the eighteenth century. However, inside its core box with a green marble relic casket was found con­ leaves, decayed pearls, and a few human bone pieces. ave been one of the stupas that Ashoka built over the Buddha that he is supposed to have exhumed? No nscription has been found. nscribed on the Sarnath pillar shows a new persona— sed to divisions (‘samghabheda’) among monks and

gha [cannot] be divided by any one. ed that monk or nun who shall break up the Samgha, should o put on white robes and to reside in a non-residence. s edict must be submitted both to the Samgha of monks and gha of nuns. eaks Devanampriya: copy of this (edict) remain with you deposited in (your) deposit ye another copy of this very (edict) with the lays. y-worshippers may come on every fast-day (posatha) in inspired with confidence in this very edict; and invariably ast-day, every Mahamatra (will) come to the fast-day order to be inspired with confidence in this very edict and nd (it).

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0.13: The broken Sarnath pillar with the edict inscribed on it

ects of this unusual edict are worth highlighting. A n and builder speaks now not as a king with Buddhist but as a Buddhist head of government. Sarnath’s kes Ashoka beyond the mere practice of supporting hramanas and that of enlarging and building in the associated with the faith. Fighting dissension within makes him sound for the first time papal. On doctrinal nary issues, as few as nine dissenting monks could be suggesting the high possibility of upheaval even during a’s lifetime.60 Ashoka seems opposed to the ease with onal breakaways have been happening and proposes to idents by forcing them to give up their monastic robes n the white clothes (‘avadatavasana’) of householders. his came to be enforced is not known; the existence and sub-groups within the Buddhist faith in ancient

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on to ensure wide circulation of the proscription: a e submitted to the Sangha, the laity was to be inspired y fast day (every fortnight, most likely), and maha­ ordered to retain a copy so that they too could be pired. h there was a large and influential Buddhist establish­ exhortation was logical. Shorter versions of this edict onoliths at Kaushambi and Sanchi. At Kaushambi this d below after a much longer message issued twenty-six hoka’s reign, making it a late work. The pillar on which bi edict was inscribed stands today inside the Fort area but since it mentions the mahamatras of Kaushambi, l have been its original location. Kaushambi, one of cities of the Buddha’s time, had several monasteries chants for the Buddha.61 Of these the Ghositarama, merchant Ghosita, was identified with the structure of a the north-eastern corner of the city. That Ashoka put dict at the city suggests that it was an important estab­ he Sangha. It was also one which in the time of the known to have witnessed monastic disputes.62 uch direct connection with the Buddha be suggested for e Ashoka also set up his proscription against schisms? kely since the Buddha spent his life in the middle ns. It is, though, possible that Buddhist monks moved work of routes that linked such areas with the Gangetic at, consequently, before the time of Ashoka, Buddhist existed in several places like Vidisha and Ujjayini: the of the former on account of his spouse Devi, we have y. ‘Chetiyagiri’, where Devi took their son Mahinda out on a Buddhist mission to Sri Lanka, may well be Sanchi.63 as already a resident Buddhist community on the hill

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and plateaus to get a pillar of this kind, suggesting the d some special place in his life. Sodanga was probably h: it was where the elephant and lotus capital was found ting pillar was missing). This was close to Ujjayini, with ociations for Ashoka and Devi.64 chi pillar like the monolith at Sarnath has a capital with nd was constructed near a brick stupa. That the brick on the same floor level as the lion pillar near its South ggests that this too can be attributed to Ashoka.65 The selves resemble those used in other structures of Ashoka’s the umbrella that crowned it was made of fine Chunar polished in the manner typical of stone monuments o the emperor. The inscription on the edict is a shorter he one at Sarnath. Its lettering is poor and the lines are zontal. This ‘slovenly character of the engraving’ was, ’s opinion, because it was inscribed after the pillar had .66 It may also be that the scribe was careless in trans­ king’s message to the Sangha. The inscription is greatly what has survived suggests that, unlike at Sarnath and , there is no reference to officials. Provisions for the set forth; Ashoka added a line highlighting the impor­ nastic unity: ‘The Samgha both of monks and of nuns is d as long as (my) sons and great-grandsons (shall reign, g as the moon and the sun (shall shine).’67 icts, focussed as they are on disciplinary punishment for monks and nuns, make the tradition of Ashoka having Buddhist council at Pataliputra for suppressing heresy ical. Whether the council was held before or after these oka appears as a figure whose power to impose disci­ g the Sangha was accepted. It has been suggested that nce of serious schisms made the Buddhist establishment onarch’s intervention of the king in imposing stronger

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h–Kausambi–Sanchi edict leaves no doubt as to the firm on of Asoka to put down all attempt at creating a schism in st Church. The earnest, almost severe tone of the edict and t copies of it are found at all places of important Buddhist stablishments presupposes that in his time the Buddhist s at least threatened with disruption, to prevent which he ng every nerve  .  .  .  The Edict was no doubt intended to ption, but that does not preclude us, it may be contended, osing that the Samgha had already broken up into a num­ ions, and Asoka’s endeavour was directed against further

11

An Ageing Emperor’s Interventions

hen ashoka set down strictures against schismatic monks and nuns, he had been reigning for some thirty years. It appears that as he reached middle fore positioning himself as a regulator of the faith, he mmunicating with his subjects at large in the familiar n a dozen years earlier. Around 243 bce, a set of six edicts his policies and ideas was inscribed. This compilation, jor rock edicts, was put up in multiple places though ural rock: it was engraved on pillars. Speaking in the first hoka picks up from where he had left off. He appears by the need to bring the people of his realm to greater intervening years—from the time when the major rock inscribed to the engraving of these pillar edicts—had perception of the endeavour to promote morality root­ed a. Consequently, he tweaks his policies in line with the ewpoint.

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s possibly originally located at Kaushambi. As their on the Allahabad pillar makes evident, the edicts on ve been engraved before the king’s proscription against long pillar edicts were for his subjects as a whole, not of any specific religious community. Moving along the er west, in the vicinity of Meerut, this set of six edicts t to Delhi by Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq) was put up h; and beyond, at Topra in Haryana (also subsequent­ d to Delhi by the same sultan), another pillar with the e was erected. The Topra pillar was singular because ditional rescript, a seventh edict that has not been entirety anywhere else. A short Aramaic inscription at s drafted in a way suggesting that the engravers were seventh pillar edict, but, unlike at Topra, it is not there Beyond North India is an inscribed sandstone slab illar),  apparently from the Amaravati stupa site in the a valley of Andhra. However, the few lines that have gest that its language and terminology were similar s rather than the expansive message put on pillars.1 possible that the edicts were put up elsewhere too, for ars with messages purportedly by Ashoka were des­ ries later by Chinese pilgrims. However, they have ared. s carry practically identical messages. As with the rock they seem consciously compiled into a kind of antho­ nclude a record of various past Ashokan actions and d so have been described as ‘a compilation of origin­ dent, isolated documents.’2 Ashoka himself makes this ecifying the points in time at which particular policies tiated or implemented, the bulk having been in the year of his anointment. The edicts could only have nated as a connected group after that crucial year, the

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The edicts that formed Ashoka’s fourteen major rock ad, as we saw, been issued over some four years. When r decided to carve them on rock they had, in several been dispatched in batches. The six pillar edicts were ed, being all engraved like a single prearranged bunch ana to Bihar, and all at around the same time. This is o from the edicts at all sites being in the same dialect, om a common exemplar and thus involving no trans­ ges. In the earlier rock edicts, a variety of dialects had 3 Had adverse feedback modified the earlier way of g? Had the variety of dialects suited to each region un­ y altered the meanings of the messages? Only specu­ ssible on the reasons for the new singularity: by the time r edicts Ashoka seems likely to have been an impatient ous old sovereign who wanted his words conveying hat he wanted to say and be done. * * *

where these pillars were set up do not seem to have been ity of important provincial cities or major settlements, case with many of the major rock edicts, which seems h the pillar messages being non-sectarian addresses to ce at large. Pataliputra, Hastinapur, and Mathura, all ettlements of the day, were bypassed and the monoliths ions entirely of a different character. At Rampurva, en­ two Ashokan pillars, one of them inscribed, no vestiges s were found in the vicinity. There does not appear to an ancient town at the location. A couple of mounds tained no structures, only bits of potsherds, bricks, burnt ore. Practically the only structural remnants that

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n for lack of detail about the contexts of the pillar e that some were not found in situ or even close to locations. The Meerut pillar in Uttar Pradesh and the rom Haryana were brought to Delhi in the fourteenth y the medieval sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq and set up Ridge and at Firoz Shah Kotla, respectively.5 The places tood in Meerut and Topra have not been satisfact­ ed, leaving us in the dark about the reasons for those like the fourteenth-century sultan, whose chroniclers bed how these pillars were shifted to Delhi, Ashoka ioned the places where he placed his edicts nor why osition them there. Segments of Ashokan pillars were to Sultanate architecture in the Lat ki Masjid at Hissar ruz Shah column of the Purana Qila at Fatehabad as been suggested that the two segments were part of the column. While large parts of the original polish were the Persian inscriptions, palimpsest traces of earlier till be seen, though not, unfortunately, any Ashokan y characters apart. hese monoliths appear to have been placed close to religious structures. Lauriya-Nandangarh, the only umn bearing these edicts which has survived in its till stands,7 is located in the Gandak valley, not far from e Champaran area of Bihar. Here a series of mounds, d at the base and conical on top, are also in evidence, re-Ashokan burial grounds. In two of them (mounds uman bones and a standing female figure imprinted on leaf were found, while at the bottom of one of them was found the end of a fairly intact wooden post.8 This was given the appellation ‘Prithvi’ or earth goddess by gist Theodor Bloch, who excavated the mounds in the the twentieth century. Bloch believed that that goddess

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Fig. 11.1:  Ashokan pillar at Hissar fort (the lowest part) which was made part of a composite pillar

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Fig. 11.3: Fatehabad segment of Ashokan pillar (the bottom part) 

tupas have also emerged at Lauriya-Nandangarh, but logy is uncertain and they are likely to be later than , it appears that the early burial mounds were not t as the location attracted congregations for rituals and llar in the neighbourhood was thought a good idea. ravellers would in their passage have seen it and thought it was positioned where the two principal routes leading

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of ‘acts of consensual making’, marked out by regular ross them over centuries, sometimes millennia.11 Records rneys have enabled modern observers to make sense of h as ossuaries and relics along them, in this instance the erved being above ground in the shape of pillars. in mind this perspective, the intersection of the pillars unication routes in this part of Bihar was highlighted by ologist N.G. Majumdar. One of the routes, he showed, Lauriya with the area where the modern frontier station Thori, leading to Narkatiaganj, stood; the other passed Gandak river to reach Triveni on the borderland, at the the Gandak with two other streams.12 Along the first ampurva with two of Ashoka’s pillars (one of which had dicts as the one at Lauriya-Nandangarh) while towards t Lauriya-Araraj, was located the site of another similar­ pillar. These were routes that merchants and caravans o use into modern times. Such commercial connections d the sites of the pillar edicts in the Indo-Gangetic Doab. ance of their geographical locations in relation to routes nication has been highlighted in Chakrabarti’s work on n inscriptions. He points out that Meerut was on the te towards the Siwaliks in the area of modern Najibabad, e a road went to Pauri via Kotdwar.13 As for Topra, it to have been on the direct line between Sirsawa and hether the Hissar and Fatehabad pillar segments were monolith that was originally in the Hissar area, which y historic occupation, or from an important ancient htak or Agroha in that area, remains unclear. An arter­ hough, used to pass through this region, to go towards ntually ending up in Afghanistan. This route was used he medieval era. Hissar town, historically known as uza, came to be founded by Firuz Shah partly because

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ating from north Afghanistan are found in the entire e Swat valley of Pakistan till the Burdwan district of aces like Bir Kot Ghundai, Taxila, Sravasti, Rajghat, and Pandu Rajar Dhibi.15 Similarly, artefacts made of m the eastern coast were found in the middle Gangetic r Gangetic plains, at places like Rajghat, Prahladpur, Bangarh. That raw materials of various kinds moved ngetic plains to reach the Nepal terai is evident from, things, the range of beads found at the ancient town t.16 Chalcedony, carnelian, onyx, topaz, shell, garnet, d jasper are among them. One also encounters a simi­ ion in the usage and manufacture of beads from the f stones in cities and settlements of the minerally poor etic plains. To all such imprints of commerce and craft cks, Ashoka added his own in the form of epigraphs, uring wide dissemination of his moral worldview. * * *

s began in a fairly uniform way. Promoting morality to ly and otherworldly happiness would continue as the policy: such happiness was not possible ‘without great lity, careful examination, great obedience, great fear ) great energy.’17 Much remained to be accomplished, quiring encouragement and monitoring. The king’s e said to be practising dhamma, and now publicly s being ‘able to stir up fickle (persons)’; mahama­ ple on the borders were similarly charged.18 Implicit iation seems the acknowledgement that, given an in­ vacillating populace, state vigilance was a perennial

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of spiritual insight has also been bestowed by me in many

peds and quadrupeds, on birds and aquatic animals various ave been conferred by me, (even) to the boon of life. many other virtuous deeds also have been performed by me. e following purpose was this rescript of morality caused to be y me, (viz.) in order that (men) might conform to it, and that e of long duration. e who will act thus will perform good deeds.20

se aspects was then amplified in separate edicts, making dict quoted from above a kind of table of contents listing ways in which the cause of dhamma was sought to be

of precedence, the spiritual well-being of people ap­ e top. The Third Pillar Edict encourages everyone to sibility for their actions, both ‘virtuous deeds’ and evil d he heard Shakespeare’s Antony argue that ‘The evil o lives after them/ The good is oft interred with their would have vehemently disagreed: the human tendency, is to acknowledge good deeds while suppressing the —a peculiarly Ashokan notion elicited almost certainly ction of his post-Kalinga contrition where he had public­ his culpability. The harbouring of negative emotions is ‘These (passions), viz. fierceness, cruelty, anger, pride, alled sinful. Let me not ruin (myself) by (these) very 22 Vincent Smith, while examining this insistence on sibility, was reminded of a passage in the Dhammapada:

ves is evil done, ves we pain endure, ves we cease from wrong, ves become we pure.

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ate Rock Edicts of Kalinga too, envy, anger, cruelty, of practice, laziness, and fatigue had been specifically st, the difference being that in the Kalinga version the intended to keep state officials on their toes. ual well-being of individuals is followed in the Fourth takes up how the harshest punishments handed out nistration might be mitigated. The edict is primarily ith making the rajukkas functionally autonomous. ls, as noted in relation to the minor rock edicts, had to disseminate the Ashokan message in the country­ n this edict their authority over rural people is refor they are to be ‘occupied with the people, with eds and thousands’ of people.24 The rajukka is a state the nurse that parents put their faith in when caring For, as one feels confident after having entrusted (his) ntelligent nurse, (thinking): “the intelligent nurse will ep my child well”, so that Rajukas were appointed by elfare and happiness of the country-people.’25 His faith ials is clear for he grants them independence in the their judicial functions: ‘rewards or punishment are iscretion, in order that Lajukas perform (their) duties and) fearlessly, that they should bestow welfare and the people of the country, and that they should confer them).’26 Ashoka is at pains to emphasize that these ardians to whom he is delegating full responsibility mon weal.27 The intent is, for the time, rather amazing bed by a legal scholar as ‘an extraordinarily progressive its time, amounting to a guarantee of due process of jukkas were responsible for justice outside the cities, vour seems to have been to ensure consistency in the ess. aises questions: had the king’s proactive administrat­

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relation to Kalinga been exhorted to be more sensitive, and even-handed. The emperor had not spoken of al independence: on the contrary he had in relation to n place a system of scrutiny. The reasons for taking a ly opposite view in relation to rajukkas is not clear, but ould have been administrative decentralization. views are also here spelt out on the death penalty, and tail; as in virtually every sphere of administration, he here as the prototype of benevolence. If the Arthashastra eved, the penalty was prescribed for a range of offences: human flesh, killing a person (even by accident), sup­ derers and thieves with counsel or nourishment, acts king and the kingdom, stealing weapons, and some es considered heinous.29 Ashoka is silent about the at the condemned prisoners alluded to in this edict d with, but orders that there be an interlude of three he time punishment is pronounced by the rajukkas to emned prisoners are led to the gallows. The respite was e relatives of prisoners on death row to appeal against ons, or, as Ashoka’s edict put it, so that relatives of the uld persuade rajukkas to reconsider. Simultaneously, de might ensure a more dignified death by allowing the d time to prepare: ‘they will bestow gifts or will undergo er to (attain happiness) in the other (world). For my s, that, even when the time (of respite) has expired, they in (happiness) in the other (world).’30 Ashoka appears d very ambivalent feelings about the death sentence get it removed from the state’s judicial provisions. He er, on as many as twenty-five occasions from the time ntment, release prisoners, and some of these were con­ mmutations.31 f substantive injunctions against the killing of animals,

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ecies hierarchy favouring Homo sapiens and for the living beings in general. The persona of Ashoka as a nimals first became evident, as noted, in his major rock outline personal and public measures for animal proto: sacrifices were proscribed, the slaughter of animals tion in the royal kitchen drastically reduced, veteri­ s established, provisions made for pack animals along tion from the slaughter of life was constantly invoked. were now being inscribed in the Gangetic heartland. d wiser man desires an extension in the imperium of ver every species in every area of the kingdom. Here, time, an entire edict is devoted to the subject—even in mind is more pragmatic than the one in the edicts ng vegetarianism to the Afghans. The emperor seems zed that blanket prohibitions on hunting and fishing ceed and a more calibrated policy which designates s inviolable while allowing others to be consumed may are also other measures here concerning the protection t of such living creatures and preventing unnecessary ds them. This early environmentalism is perhaps the able aspect of Ashoka’s philosophy and deserves to be length:

ad been) anointed twenty-six years, the following animals red by me inviolable, viz. parrots, mainas, the aruna, e, wild geese, the nandimukha, the gelata, bats, queen-ants, oneless fish, the vedaveyaka, the Ganga-puputaka, skate-fish, d porcupines, squirrels (?), the srimara, bulls set at liberty, the rhinoceros, white doves, domestic doves, (and) all the s which are neither useful nor edible. she-goats), ewes, sows (which are) either with young or in violable, and also those (of their) young ones (which are) x months old.

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animals must not be fed with (other) living animals. e inviolable, and must not be sold, on the three Chaturmasis the Tishya full-moon during three days, (viz.) the fourteenth, nth, (and) the first (tithi), and invariably on every fast-day. uring these same days also no other classes of animals which elephant-park (and) in the preserves of the fishermen, must

e eighth (tithi) of (every) fortnight, on the fourteenth, on the on Tishya, on Punarvasu, on the three Chaturmasis, (and) ls, bulls must not be castrated, (and) he-goats, rams, boars, ever other (animals) are castrated (otherwise) must not be (then). shya, on Punarvasu, on the Chaturmasis, (and) during the of (every) Chaturmasi, horses (and) bullocks must not be

2

uestion about this massive range of animals needing is whether such care is enjoined in sacred texts. For art, animals in the texts of ancient India are classified o various principles such as anatomical characteristics of procreation, domestication and wildness, suitability or not, edible or inedible.33 In some texts (such as the Brahmana, Aitareya Brahmana, and the Manu Smriti) worthy of sacrifice are considered unfit for human on.34 Ashoka could in theory have had such injunctions en compiling his don’t-hit list. olar K.R. Norman believes parallels are discernible be­ Ashokan list and certain Jaina texts. Ashoka’s list is not t carefully organized to include two talking birds, a quatic birds (the bat mentioned here being a waterne), aquatic animals, reptiles (legged and legless), and of the pigeon/dove family.35 Ashoka, in Norman’s following a division of animal life enumerated in Jaina

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But the influences and rationale of the list are difficult ly establish because it includes birds like geese and re likely to have been widely enjoyed in a way that nd bats were not. If Hultzsch is right and the creature st is a rhinoceros, a general anti-brahmanism could be Manu Smriti suggests that eating rhinos pleases dead ecifically enjoining that its flesh be eaten by the ‘twicee this satisfies ‘the manes for endless times’.36 gist Sunder Lal Hora, who specialized in fish and fish­ out that there are five species of fish in the list that and therefore not worth the killing. These are sharks fish (‘Anathikamachhe’), eels or fish easily eluding Vedaveyake’), the porpoise, or a fish-like animal with y (‘Gamgapuputake’), skate or ray (‘Samkujamchhe’), h or a fish like a porcupine with the ability to feign n danger (‘Kaphatasayake’).37 These five varieties, he consumed even in modern India, because—

s and their allies are poisonous and should not be eaten. perly treated, the flesh of Sharks, Rays, and Skates is bitter d gritty on account of the deposition of uric acid crystals h. The Gangetic Porpoise is revered among the Hindus of angetic Plain and its flesh is not eaten. With the exception parts of South India, eels are not eaten on account of their mblance to snakes. It would thus appear that the present-day of not eating these fishes are as old as the Asoka period.38

its are culturally formed and what Hora shows as un­­­ecies had much to do with the traditional Hindu own time. But over the same period, tribal and fishing may well have had more catholic tastes and not ad­ taboos. Ashoka may well have been addressing fishing in which virtually anything caught was cooked.

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of ‘chaturmasya’ being July to September). Many of are connected with the breeding habits of fish. Several n the rainy season beginning in July and usually lasting ber.39 This is well recognized. What is less known is that o a lunar rhythm to the spawning of some freshwater s carp and the ‘hilsa’, with new-moon and full-moon ng most favourable.40 On the basis of these injunctions, culations have been made about the number of such bition’ days, ranging from fifty-one to seventy-two, not a ber even if the days are spread over the whole year. in the edict the combination of an extraordinary sens­ rotecting the natural breeding patterns of living creat­ accepting that their slaughter will continue. An emperor his people to spare pregnant and lactating she-goats, ows needs to say nothing else to appear extraordinary. of these animals, below the age of six months, were to d when their herds were culled for slaughter. Branding bullocks is frowned upon, with a series of days specified cruelty is prohibited. hibition days relating to Tishya, Punarvasu, and Chatur­ astrologically significant, Tishya and Punarvasu being ellations which may have had some special significance In the Arthashastra the two which were special cons­ ere supposed to be the birth-stars and consecration stars aja-nakshatra’ and ‘desha nakshatra’). Possibly, Tishya hoka’s birth-star and Punarvasu his anointment.41 The is make sense in terms of the breeding season of fish, o not seem to be environmental reasons for forbidding on and branding of animals in that time slot. Basically, ons were instruments of control for reducing animal nd cruelty. The purpose of stipulating days for such pro­ sures endowed moral meaning to what had, till then,

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in Maharashtra, which recorded the command of a prohibiting the capture and slaughter of animals, is nishments being specified for those who dared disobey d.42 Even so, there is no way of ascertaining the impact egetarian predilection. In an archaeological calendar, at can be detected exist as relatively large chunks of within the layers of excavated cities and villages of his mes impossible to specify the archaeological levels that e reign of Ashoka. If coins had been minted that bore of the king or had there been other kinds of artefacts of his time, a reasonably precise archaeological chrois Mauryan emperor would have been reached. So, on of whether the king’s orders modified meat consump­ an do is to look for clues indicating a reduction in the period (which includes but is not limited to the time

pillar edicts are overwhelmingly in North India, we t the fauna at sites excavated there. At several such, he range of meat that was consumed and offer a broad ome sites large quantities of bones have appeared: at -Tila in the Sonabhadra area of Uttar Pradesh, there 600 fragments of animal bones in Period III (the early h Black Polished Ware phase), suggesting there was in meat-eating over this time.43 The overwhelming ere was for cattle and buffalo meat, followed by that and the goat. Wild animals and birds were eaten, ld cattle (‘gaur’ and buffalo), deer, wild pigs, cranes, The early historic phase (North Black Polished Ware wania in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh too shows esticated and wild animals and other fauna—cattle, ig, various varieties of deer, wild boar, three species of t least two species of fish.44 The ancient city of Rajghat

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not in Mauryan times was fish (Teleost). The time ugh, for which the abrupt reduction in species has been ncludes the time of Ashoka but is not limited to it. So way of working out the results of Ashoka’s exhortations mal slaughter. dict is read along with the measures for animal wel­fare er rock edicts, what stands out is the sheer compre­ of Ashoka’s intentions. He lists every variety of cruelty express his abhorrence. The regulation of animal cast­ omes an imperial obsession: this is nothing short of ng. One does not know about methods of animal n ancient India, but if the crude methods followed in are anything to go by, the painful crushing of testicles oval of testicles of animals through the ‘open method’ en practised, the pain being unimaginable.46 Veterinary o become an important part of state activity, as does the f ‘closed seasons’ to protect breeding. Normally, the state una when numbers decline.47 The language and idiom concern is radically different: it is a code of ahimsa, ence. It was as if Ashoka’s own self-image as a morally onarch involved laying down a humane code of conduct living creatures. * * *

, by this time, set down in stone all the measures that he gated in that crucial twenty-sixth year. For some reason, e year, he also put out a kind of summarized account of moral effort. Was this remembrance, where he men­tions romulgated some fourteen years earlier, a sign that he ng the end of his days? We do know that this was close

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ctions, as well as the number of humans and other ht to be uplifted by the new directions. The emperor’s a people’s monarch emerges movingly and powerfully. in the ancient world expresses such deep and abiding the underprivileged, the dispossessed, the suffering, d, both human and animal. No other emperor of the d is heard saying that his principal duty ought to mean le personally.48 exception, on this note the pillar edicts end. The ex­ e Seventh Edict added on the Topra pillar, now in t appeared only at one place is unclear. It seems un­ e officers at Lauriya-Araraj, Kaushambi, and Meerut w the emperor’s instructions, or that the instructions mmunicated properly to them. This Seventh Edict is an of the Sixth. Its importance stems from the fact that ly retrospective statement, the kind of testimony that ave come from an ageing sovereign looking back on his th pride and humility. They are the last words of the ave survived. shoka explores the distinction between him and past r kings too had desired that ‘men might (be made to) he promotion of morality; but men were not made by an adequate promotion of morality.’49 This led der ways of succeeding where his predecessors had y, by issuing public proclamations and instructions, muscle and teeth to his administration. He sees this s being responsible for his success, and presumably ulation by future rulers considers it necessary to ex­came to evolve such a policy:

might men (be made to) conform to (morality)? ght men (be made to) progress by an adequate promotion ?

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ng this, men will conform to (it), will be elevated, and will (be progress considerably by the proclamation of morality. s purpose proclamations of morality were issued by me, (and) instructions in morality were ordered (to be given), [in order e agents] (of mine) too, who are occupied with many people, ) will exhort (them) and will explain (morality to them) in

officials, from rajukkas to dharma-mahamatras, who s earlier messages, are again mentioned; trees that he d wells dug on his orders also figure here—banyan trees o cattle and men, and mango groves. The concern with y is extraordinary. o is the description of the ways in which his officials ied with the delivery of gifts and charities by him and amily. The recipients of charity were in Pataliputra and es, and their ‘dana’ promoted morality. We know that were indeed made by his family, this being suggested by wn as the Queen’s Edict on the Allahabad pillar.

rd of Devanampriya, the Mahamatras everywhere have to be ). gifts (have been made) here by the second queen, (viz.) either oves, or gardens, or alms-houses, or whatever else, these registered (in the name) of that queen. s) [the request] of the second queen, the mother of Tivala, the

51

Karuvaki seems to have been no pushover. She want­ed n as the giver of these gifts; the emperor informs his registration is done as she desires. hilanthropy is not of course sufficient, and Ashoka is at int out that moral restrictions and conversion through have been his main methods for initiating change,

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his edicts Ashoka had tried to communicate the need state governance from a system based on force to one morality. Looking back he acknowledges the futility s imposed from above and the gentler, more effective rsuasion for the achievement of a dharmic life and s what he wanted to say in the end to his people and nd he hoped his views ‘may last as long as (my) sons andsons (shall reign and) as long as the moon and the ne), and in order that (men) may conform to it.’53

12

Of Wifely Woes and the Emperor’s Death

the preceding pages the historical ashoka s emerged over nearly two decades of his reign in many ataras: the remorseful conqueror of Kalinga, the proagandist of non-violence, the imperious king threaten­ e against forest people, the pious Buddhist pil­grim at he supportive spouse implementing his con­sort’s wishes. people in the India of his time have also ap­peared: offi­ s, travellers, neighbouring monarchs, Hindu and Jaina , Afghan meat-eaters, monks and nuns. pillar edicts done, Ashoka’s compelling voice falls silent No more messages appear on rocks and pillars address­ nistrators and the populace. The metaphors that he had iom and language of his edicts, the examples and intent nnections between his own life and that of his subjects— sh. The silence, because of its suddenness, is deafening. is not as if Ashoka suddenly passed away. In fact if the

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new inscriptions will be discovered bearing regnal last decade, but as things stand our knowledge of age comes from the same old chronicles that were nturies after his reign and which were written often ntion of deifying him. The story of Ashoka’s life, then, e it began, embedded in unverifiable tradition. The ue remains: is there a way of making sense of Ashoka’s light years from these sources that are for such pur­ s? or a start know exactly how many years elapsed from t in the twenty-seventh year after his coronation to is death. His end is surmised as having happened less rs after the last edict from ‘dates’ mentioned in the of Sri Lanka, a text dated to the fifth century ce. The apter of this work provides a summary description of years in the form of a kind of regnal calendar:

teenth year (of the reign) of king Dhammasoka, the great was planted in the Mahameghavanarama. In the twelfth ards died the dear consort of the king, Asamdhimitta, the liever) in the Sambuddha. In the fourth year after this the e earth Dhammasoka raised the treacherous Tissarakka to queen. In the third year thereafter this fool, in the pride ty, with the thought: ‘Forsooth, the king worships the great to my cost!’ drawn into the power of hate and working her caused the great Bodhi-tree to perish by means of a manduhe fourth year after did Dhammasoka of high renown fall wer of mortality. These make up thirty seven years.1

are totalled, the events seem to have transpired across one years and not thirty-seven. However, Ananda ts out that a later commentary on this text explains ts account after calculating it twice—as both the pre­

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his consecration).2 Asamdhimitta died, it appears, in ithin a year from the time the emperor issued his lar Edict. If this is what happened, grief and personal ions may have prevented the composing of further

e corroboration of calendrical exactitude in the Maha­ difficult matter, the condensed way in which it provides ation—as a stray departure with no seeming link at e main story—is significant. Six short verses speak of d before the narrative resumes its history of Buddhism a. The Mahavamsa is known to have derived a great deal ipavamsa but the latter text is silent about Ashoka’s last only possible conclusion is that the brief account in the ome version of the popular view about Ashoka’s last s part of South Asia in the fifth century. of the internal logic of the Mahavamsa, it is not fort the account of Ashoka’s later years begins in the year of his rule, with a sapling of the Bodhi tree ght to Sri Lanka: the chapter preceding the passage marily concerns itself with ‘The coming of the BodhiLanka,3 carried there from the eastern Indian port of by Ashoka’s daughter Sanghamitra. She had become appears as the tree’s primary guardian on this voyage, nto submission certain serpents (‘Nagas’) who seemed n acquiring it. The sacred sapling was planted in the avanarama, where ‘the king of trees, the great Bodhia long time on the island of Lanka.’4 This section of the wed almost immediately by six verses which recount the which the ‘great Bodhi-tree’ of Mahabodhi came to be he juxtaposition serving the purpose of underlining the stinies of the two trees, the original in the north and on the island. Ashoka’s end, recounted immediately

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e. The underlying logic seems to be to decry the fate of he land of its origin while hailing its reception and anka. ast in the actions of the two women associated with links with the differing histories of Buddhism in the d the island. Sanghamitra is the protector of the plant Tissarakkha its destroyer back home. The chronicle re­ last years of Ashoka in relation to the divergence in the his queens and the differing nature of their engage­ uddhism. Asamdhimitta, his ‘dear consort’, was a faith­ the Buddha and her death is the beginning of Ashoka’s e was taken, after an interregnum, by the beautiful but rakkha whose resentment of Ashoka’s devotion to the ts in a protracted vengeance with the emperor passing ur years. The evil queen’s ability to destroy something he emperor as the Bodhi tree suggests that her hus­band no longer the master of state affairs. wives evidently become either good or bad here de­ n whether they supported or thwarted the emperor’s with the Buddha and his faith.5 At the same time, the ce of his queen in accounts of his later life supplements een Karuvaki in the epigraphs. The image of the latter elf-possessed and strong-willed consort wanting an act py recorded as specifically hers. The king’s later consort figure—via the story of Tissarakkha’s violence against e—is in line with the motif of a king somewhat often his queens to the point of being under their thumbs. al monarch, it might be inferred—if his queens can d as having been allowed so considerable a degree of his life and the realm’s. Such an inference would be in the sentimentality of several of the edicts. Macbeth figure in Ashoka’s life is a character in the

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ddhist traditions of the first millennium ce, from China he Ashokavadana version is far more elaborate though several of its details. It shows the jealousy of Tishya­ stemming from her ignorance about who this ‘Bodhi’ Apparently, because Ashoka offered his most precious odhi, she thought Bodhi was a woman and thus a rival. censed because ‘although the king pursues his pleasure e sends all the best jewels to Bodhi’s place.’6 She paid sorceress to destroy Bodhi. The sorceress chanted ‘some d tied a thread around the Bodhi tree.’ The tree began nd Ashoka fainted when the news reached him. Upon onsciousness the heartbroken monarch said he would odhi tree perished. When Tishyarakshita consoled the Ashoka by saying that if Bodhi died she would pleasure ized how ignorant she was: ‘Bodhi is not a woman’, said ut a tree; it is where the Blessed One attained unsurpass­ nment.’7 Realizing her mistake, the queen summoned ss to revive the tree and the dying tree was restored to ueen’s vengeance and violence are leitmotifs in both ut the outcomes of their actions differ radically, the e story in the Mahavamsa being doom laden in relation m in India after Ashoka, while the Ashokavadana suggests subsequent continuity. kshita figures again and more powerfully some chapters nection with Kunala, Ashoka’s son by Queen Padmavati. r a variety of avifauna called ‘Kunala’—his bright and yes were similar to those of the bird—the infant grew de-loving prince. During one of his meditative sojourns hita is consumed by a burning desire for this handsome ding him alone, she embraces him and declares: ‘I get a ling inside as though a forest fire were consuming a dry nala says she is akin to his mother and spurns her ‘non-

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ht of his impending end Ashoka expresses a desire to return and succeed him on the throne. Tishyarakshita, consequences to her life if this transpires, is now de­ cure the emperor. She first asks Ashoka to forbid all tending to him. She next instructs his doctors to bring ring from the same disease to her; in fact, her modus finding a cure for Ashoka is the most compelling part

a said to the doctors: ‘If any man or woman should come to ng from a disease similar to that of the king, I would like to mediately.’ ong, it happened that a certain Abhira man was stricken with disease. His wife went to see a doctor and described the ill­ . ‘Bring him in’, said the doctor, ‘I will examine him and then ome medicine.’ However, as soon as the Abhira was brought took him straight to Tisyaraksita. She, in secret, had him when he was dead, she split open his belly and examined the he found inside it a large worm; when it moved, excrement out of the man’s mouth, and when it went down, it would wn below. en then ground some peppercorns and gave them to the he did not die. She tried long peppers and ginger, but again ccess. Finally, she gave some onion to the worm; imme­ed and passed through the intestinal tract. n went to Asoka and prescribed this treatment. ‘My lord, eat nd you will recover.’ the king objected, ‘I am a ksatriya; how can I eat an onion?’ ’, she replied, ‘this is medicine; take it for the sake of life!’ hen ate it; the worm died, and passed out through his nd he fully recovered.10

her woman’s ill husband to cure her own is not very as we have seen in relation to Kunala this was not a kept at bay by minor dharmic considerations when

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evolence of his intelligent queen is expanded upon at h Ashoka’s recovery, the grateful monarch granting hita a boon. She asks to be made the monarch for seven the wish granted, shows she has lost none of the old s by moving quickly to destroy Kunala. A letter addressed le of Taxila orders them to put out his eyes. After some able hesitation by the letter’s recipients, they do as nd gouge the eyes out. The blinded Kunala and his wife ataliputra where they learn of Tishyarakshita’s villainy. Ashoka disowns her in a very un-Ashokan manner, to tear her eyes out and ‘rip open her body with sharp le her alive on a spit, cut off her nose with a saw, cut gue with a razor, and fill her with poison and kill her.’11 ew of the matter, luckily, is less un-Buddhist than his he pleads forgiveness for her. This magnanimity results sight returning but does not lead to absolution for the Ashoka’s orders, Tishyarakshita is burned to death in a use’; for good measure, we are told, he ‘had the citizens executed as well.’12 clearly a recurrence of elements ascribed in the Ashoka­ Ashoka’s last years which formed part of his life as a e Kunala, he had as a young man been sent to Taxila to a provincial revolt, this being followed at once by his ng very ill. Court intrigue—by ministers in Bindusara’s r, by the chief queen at Ashoka’s end—is the calculation o play among power-brokers of state who seek to en­ ition favourable to themselves. The recurrence of such f departure, illness, and intrigue to indicate the condi­ ime change is essentially a literary trope for signalling ion of a monarchical tenure. But Ashoka’s story does e. t episodes of his life remain to be recounted. The blood

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as hoping to equal what a celebrated householder, ka, had donated to the Buddha, namely one hundred d pieces. Ashoka’s donations, as he neared his end, o only ninety-six kotis. When he became ill he felt ake up the balance soon and had begun sending gold Kukkutarama monastery. int Ashoka’s heir apparent Sampadin (Kunala’s son) counsellers stepped in, issuing an order prohibiting ement from the treasury. The emperor subverted ding other routes for donation, first giving away the n which his food was served, then his silver plates, and pper. His powers clipped, he is depicted as stating in dana: ‘Who now could deny the saying of the Blessed fortune is the cause of misfortune?” Truth-speaking erted that, and indeed he was right! Today, I am no d; no matter how many commands I think of issuing, countermanded just like a river that is turned back es against a mountain cliff.’ and reduced, his sole possession now is only half (myrobalan). And yet he summons a man to take it at Kukkutarama, instructing him to say to them that offering, should be ‘distributed in such a way that it is d enjoyed by the whole community.’ The half-fruit is put into a soup distributed to the whole community. s even as the Elder of the Sangha tells the monks ure of the emotions that come into play at the sight of emperor shorn of all that distinguished his rule:

or, the lord of men, t Maurya Asoka, om being lord of Jambudvipa d of half a myrobalan. ord of the earth,

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mbellishment given to the image of Ashoka is that of onor. On the eve of his death, thanks to this last gift, gn powers are restored to him—whereupon the dying romptly proceeds to donate the whole earth to the luding only the state treasury (what the earth was worth tate treasury is conjectural). The donation of the earth ha was inscribed with his teeth. This act of using his a bequest asserted royal authority in the most unambi­ The composer of the Ashokavadana would no doubt surprised had he known that, many centuries later in he gift of lands to Paulyn de Rawdon was said to have lized in an identical way by William the Conqueror:

, king, the third of my reign, aulyn Rawdon, Hope and Hopetowne, he bounds both up and downe, ven to yerthe, from yerthe to hel, nd thyne there to dwell. s this kingright is mine, sbow and an arrow. al come to hunt on yarrow; ken that this thing is sooth, whyt wax with my tooth, eg, Mawd, and Margery, hird son Henry.14

upposed to have died after sealing the document con­ donation. It was said that eventually a new king could d Ashoka after the whole earth had been bought back sters of the Maurya court, who agreed to give four kotis es to complete Ashoka’s shortfall. is poignant, dramatic, and ironic all at once. His dying hasize that his last act was not to seek the rewards of the glories of kingship but mastery over the mind:

Epilogue The Emperor’s Afterlife

en ashoka’s communications to his people ased, his historical persona, for all practical pur­oses, ceased as well; and some years later, around assed away. Yet in the centuries after his death his mem­ and in ways that go well beyond the events and drama s afterlife is in fact a configuration of diverse and fasci­ ds made up of material relics and writings stretching than two millennia. In ancient and medieval India remembered in legendary accounts, court chronicles, nd epigraphs. To this one may add what more con­ mes have contributed to that memorialization: he n film and fiction, on public architecture, in the lives India’s national heroes, and through Indian national desire to deploy remembrances and memorializations ror is practically irresistible among Indians. A con­ this has been that in reconstructions of the life and hoka the line which divides history and memory is urred.

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hing remotely contemporary—the core of my narrative ound Ashoka’s own voice and the archaeological hist­landscapes where it resonated. Now, I return to recall fterlife, or some of the meanderings that have not ace in my narrative, through which the memory of rdinary emperor survived before modern scholarship him.1 While a monograph is waiting to be written on e of stories and images around him, here I look only in the remembrance of things Ashokan. I do this to he fact that he was a sovereign around whom a long f memorialization came to be consolidated, as also to oad brushstrokes what was retained of his historical life orgotten. ssary, first, to keep in mind that, even though a great deal n about them, the Maurya dynasty’s kings continued to eral decades after Ashoka’s death. While narratives of nhappy last days are entangled within legends, historical e lives of the emperor’s successors are not even known d the dearth of contemporary chronicles and accounts of years persists into those of his successors. No Mauryan Ashoka set down a substantial body of epigraphs on e was visited by a chronicler-ambassador from a foreign andragupta was by Megasthenes. Even when these years on in traditions that were put together several cen­elementary information, such as the names and number the succession line of the later Mauryas, remains in

successors do not figure in the Pali chronicles of ither. Those texts lose interest in the Maurya dynastic he emperor’s death, presumably because by then his rogeny were firmly ensconced on the island. There are, discrepancies in the list of successors that figure in texts

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nic litany of names of Mauryan rulers, depending on tion anything between four and seven as the number hoka, while the variations in the Buddhist tradition umber of monarchs after Ashoka range between two dently, those who ruled in the decades after Ashoka did to emulate the long reigns of the first three emperors The Puranas are unanimous that Maurya dynastic ed for some 137 years. So if the first three—Chandra­ usara, and Ashoka—account for some 85 years, the s will have ruled for only 52. Whether there were three rs who shared this half century from circa 232 bce to h will have followed his predecessor far more quickly big three.3 ancient Indian kings seem to have managed to do a be remembered by in their short reigns of eight to lumavi, the last king of the later Andhra Satavahana d for only seven years (c. 226–232 ce) but is known that he struck, from inscriptions issued in his time uilder, and as a monarch who ruled over large parts tra and Karnataka.4 Naturally, one imagines that the cceeded Ashoka made a range of interventions as they their patrimony. But what these interventions were patronized, and whether Ashoka’s legacy of humane was followed or jettisoned by them, are issues that n contemporaneous sources. Most of the later Mauryas names, unknown in the sources of the late centuries y rarely appearing as rounded historical subjects in

kavadana’s list typically underlines this when the succeeding Ashoka are mentioned thus: ‘Sampadin’s aspati who, in turn, had a son named Vrsasena, and d a son named Pusyadharman, and Pusyadharman 5

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arly everything that Ashoka did for Buddhism such as mples and spreading the faith.’6 So, different traditions ferent versions of Samprati. Strangely, the last Maurya e Ashokavadana, Pushyamitra, is also the name of the o is said to have killed the last ruler—an event which, ded the Maurya dynastic line.7 Pushyamitra, according anas and the Harshacarita, was a general in the army ha, from whom he usurped the throne and founded sty—that of the Shungas.8 So, one is not even sure of ty of the names that make up the Maurya line in the na. What one can gather is that this text considered Pushyamitra anti-Buddhist. Apparently he became so ce of a mean-minded Brahman priest and undertook e the religion by destroying the very monasteries and very monks Ashoka had so zealously nurtured. It was ong with his future son-in-law who eventually rescued and ensured Pushyamitra’s death. With this, we are told, an lineage came to an end.’9 Is it possible that this is a p remembrance of how the Maurya line ended? That dropped off the horizon of ancient India because its unsuccessfully sought to overturn Ashoka’s legacy is a story, especially for Buddhist admirers of the emperor, rical accuracy is impossible to determine. g is certain. Of the later kings that figure in the Puranic ist traditions, there is only one Maurya, namely Dash­ o appears as a historical figure in the sense that he hapature in a source contemporary with his reign. This was a grandson of Ashoka, and, following in his grand­ tsteps, he made himself known through engravings on uctures that he caused to be built. Ashoka’s imprint on fact be seen in more ways than one. Calling himself priya’, Dasharatha put up dedicatory inscriptions at

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epigraph on the Vahiyaka cave tells us that it ‘has y Dasalatha, dear to the gods, to the venerable Ajivikas, on his accession, to be a place of abode during the as long as the moon and sun shall endure.’ t know why Dasharatha chose to follow his grand­ronizing the Ajivikas, but his hope that the shelters for them ‘as long as the moon and sun endure’ re­ lfilled. Subsequently, ‘Ajivikehi’ was the one expression defaced from Maurya epigraphs in the Barabar and ves, and this selective removal very likely means that re taken over by other religious groups.11 Since those o so carefully cut out the name of the Ajivikas would miliar with the Brahmi script, it is likely that they did the demise of the Mauryas. In the ensuing centuries, North India is known to have provided any kind of the Ajivikas. There are no inscriptions of any king ew of dynasties that followed—the Shungas, Kushanas, to name a few—alluding either to the Ajivikas or to them. ther hand Buddhism continued to consolidate and it was within its religious iconography and texts that oka’s life came to be vividly imaged. The spectacular religion was visible in the construction and expansion ntal stupas, viharas, and chaityas. Interestingly, these e depended no longer on the patronage of proact­ rulers. Instead, common folk from diverse walks of de this possible. Sanchi in Central India was one of o which Ashoka had been partial, possibly because ation with Devi: as we saw, he had had a brick stupa and a sandstone pillar put up adjacent to it. This stupa reconstruction in the second century bce, following he Maurya dynasty. Not only did it expand visibly in

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articular teachers, lay worshippers, bankers, merchants, ousewives, monks, and nuns. The donors came from r, from cities associated with the early life of Ashoka such and Ujjayini, and from more distant ones like Prathis­ and Pokhara.12 the same time there becomes visible the start of a tra­ culptural art marked by strikingly carved Buddhist vents and individuals, real and legendary. Within this e now see, for the first time, the imaging of elements ure and artefacts that Ashoka had set up at places of worship. Among the earliest of these Ashoka-centred are features that Ashoka had added to the Mahabodhi —such as the throne that he had donated and the ch he had had built. Less than a hundred years after ntions, these additions were represented on a massive g at Bharhut near Rewa in Central India. The railing a stupa and, like the Sanchi specimen, was built with by pilgrims from distant places like Vidisha, Kaushambi, utra.13 Unlike Sanchi’s relatively plain railing, though, Bharhut was luxuriantly carved with bas reliefs devoted ubjects ranging from life scenes of the Buddha to Jataka ut the Buddha’s previous births.14 Naturally, Mahabodhi, Buddha attained enlightenment, appears graphically . Ashoka’s embellishments to the scene of supreme holi­ y themselves gain concrete embellishment. point in time the Great Sage was not represented in m, his presence being indicated by a series of symbols. hese—a Bodhi tree, a wheel, and a stupa, for instance— ally associated with his enlightenment, his first sermon, termath of his demise. A symbol that now gained to denote the Buddha was what Ashoka had donated at —the majestic stone throne known as the vajrasana.15

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ilasters making it look somewhat similar to how it y. The relief also shows a pillar with a bell-shaped ng the figure of an elephant, which could well be the membrance of an Ashokan specimen.16 Similarly, the ous sanctuary depicted here—the building mentioned ption—was possibly the temple that Ashoka is said to cted at Mahabodhi. ror himself is absent from the Buddhist iconography This is not because rulers do not figure in such icono­ do: rulers such as Pasenadi of Kosala and Ajatashatru do appear, but these were monarchs who happened mporaries of the Buddha.17 It would take a couple of Ashoka to be similarly imaged. Eventually, he came bered in this form in the early part of the first century ed columns and lintels of the remarkable gateways set up at the four entrances to the stupas at Sanchi. owever, one major difference. Unlike Bharhut, where y the kings, no identifying epigraphs accompany the ted at Sanchi—neither those relating to incidents in Buddha nor to those of his patron Ashoka nor even to racters from old tales and legends. Identifications have uent, worked out on the basis of the subject matter of follow the textual narratives of Buddhist stories. So, sence on them is based on correlations made between d story. Scholars centrally involved in the conservation ntation of the wonderful narrative friezes at Sanchi ubt that some of Ashoka’s visits to Buddhist places e were interwoven with the various stories carved on Sanchi monuments, and it is on their judgement that

ern gateway (or torana) of the great stupa, for ins­ Ashoka’s visit to the Ramagrama stupa.18 In the

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including elephants and arms-bearing troops. The rrative—dominated by hooded Nagas and Nagis wor­ e stupa—also tells us that the Nagas resisted Ashoka fully circumvented his quest to dig out the relics. The ateway’s western pillar shows the same royal personage, ifferently: this time on his visit to the Bodhi tree.19 The was, as we saw in the Ashokavadana’s account of the st years, dying out because of the jealous ignorance of yarakshita. So Ashoka is not here a king leading a regal but a figure of sorrow evoking sympathy. He is sup­­two queens and seems about to swoon with grief ue 1). Above this, another panel shows the Bodhi tree, with streamers and a crowning umbrella and surround­ mple—presumably the one Ashoka built. The same sort tation, and of the same period, can be seen on another nchi (Stupa 2). This is halfway down the hill on which upa stands, its railing adorned by many carvings. One of Ashoka supported by his two queens and surrounded by carrying the insignias of royalty.20 mblems associated with the emperor also figure. Wheelars, monoliths crowned with capitals of four lions, the t Mahabodhi—all clearly recognizable as Ashokan— antly and conspicuously carved into the gateways of eral pillars of Shunga and Gupta times also imitated n monoliths. The Shunga period pillar at Sanchi, with of lotus leaves, and the four lions capital of the Gupta have elements modelled on the Ashokan pillar.21 These ations in stone help preserve memory of the emperor, ce Ashoka himself starts being engraved as a figure in eliefs he assumes an even clearer historical shape which into his best-known avatara. Interestingly, in modern he connection between the Bodhi tree and the women

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Epilogue 2: Depiction of wheel-bearing pillar at Sanchi

pendra Maharathi drew Sanghamitra carrying the Sri Lanka. undred years after the Sanchi depictions, in the second variation of their version of Ashoka came to be carved in Kanagana­halli in Karnataka. This stupa stood, rlier, in the vicinity of the location where Ashoka’s were inscribed on both faces of a stone slab. The (or Medhi) of the stupa here, unlike at Sanchi, was h large sculpted panels that depicted events in the life

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graphic label designating them ‘Raya Matalako’, ‘Raya takarni’, and so on. It is at Ashoka, or ‘Raya Asoko’ as bed here, that we need to pause. re two panels whose subject matter is Ashoka, with ptions identifying him by name. One of these is like the portraits. By this I mean that, unlike Sanchi, Ashoka ature on the panel as part of a narrative scene. Instead, and he dominate the register. Apart from the queen, emale ‘chauri’ bearers and a female umbrella bearer.24 ouple seems to be sharing a tender moment: Ashoka’s ed towards his queen while she looks at him with adora­ubject matter of the second panel’s lower register, also five-lettered label ‘Raya Asoko’, is qualitatively different ortrait depiction. Ashoka stands to the left of the Bodhi veral others who are shown worshipping in a similar way. tor of Kanaganahalli believed one of these was Prince nd the woman behind the king his daughter Sangha­ hether this was so or not, the frieze is a powerful re­ t in the imagination of ancient India the presence of the s frequently evoked in relation to Mahabodhi, snap­shots n be seen all the way from Bharhut to Kanaganahalli. ngth of this association—between the place where a attained enlightenment and where India’s Buddhist uilt a shrine in his memory—is evident from its spread territories over which Ashoka had ruled. Bodh Gaya eptionally important place for pilgrims and patrons nmar.26 The historian Upinder Singh points out that ance attached to the Mahabodhi temple is manifest in rom epigraphs, as also from its representation in the mple models, and depictions on seals and plaques. The s which record Myanmarese ‘repair missions’ to Maha­ ging from the medieval to the modern, are those in

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ple there by Ashoka. ‘When 218 years of the Buddha’s had elapsed, one of the 84,000 caityas built by Siri a (i.e. the Maurya emperor Asoka), king of Jambud­ place where the milk rice offering had been made ence to Sujata’s offering of payasa to Siddhartha at ll into ruin due to the stress of age and time.’ 27 A simi­ n was made more than five hundred years later when, don, king of Burma, sought permission to renovate dhi complex: he too invoked Ashoka. Two millennia since the Mauryan emperor was active there, with of renovation since, and yet the Burmese king said he ndertake the ‘repair of the sacred chaitya built by the asoka over the site of the Aparajita throne.’28 t kind of remembrance which also stretched across anse appeared in the accounts of another group of ms, the Buddhist Chinese monks who travelled to India. n around the fifth century ce, before the Burmese at Bodh Gaya, when Faxian came from Changan city oss a northern route that traversed Central Asia. He ensively in India and then moved to Sri Lanka. His ndia was to obtain the correct rules and regulations of itaka texts. His travels were simultaneously a variant logical fieldwork, a kind of ethnographic document­ he noticed, ranging from the topography of the lands ch he passed to the sorts of clothes that people wore, nd tales around places and people, the nature of shrines d Brahmanic) and monasteries, and a great deal else. highlights the fact that, some six hundred years after th, his memory was alive and well and had wormed its es stretching from the hilly ranges of north-west India etic plains in the east. The Chinese monk mentions the place where Ashoka’s son had governed; Sankisa as

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escribed practically every place in relation to legends hoka. Some of these he would have known from the rsion of the Ashokavadana, others would have been by local people. Sometimes there is a mixture of both. gested by his description of a message that he believed d in Ashoka’s epigraph at Pataliputra. The inscription tone pillar and, in the words of Faxian, recorded that a presented the whole of Jambudvipa to the priests of arters, and redeemed it again with money, and this he mes.’30 This story, as the poignant end to Ashoka’s life hted, figures in the Ashokavadana and Faxian would have ar with it. However, there was no allusion in that text to of the emperor being engraved on a pillar. Possibly, this d to him by the local folk at Pataliputra who, like him, seen the surface of a pillar ascribed to Ashoka as bear­ ecipherable inscribed message. Evidently, by this time, script in which the Ashokan epigraphs were written, ger understood, allowing the writing to be ‘read’ in ways fied the beliefs and expectations of local antiquarians travellers. k memory around Ashokan relics seems in this instance en uncommonly long lived. Some two hundred years evidence of Ashoka’s long afterlife in popular memory a story around the Pataliputra pillar told by that other inese pilgrim, Xuanzang, who came to India in the tury. The principal part of the ‘mutilated inscription’ on n his words, stated that ‘Asoka-raja with a firm principle thrice bestowed Jambudvipa as a religious offering on e Dharma and the assembly, and thrice he has redeem­ his jewels and treasure; and this is the record thereof.’31 had a remarkable appetite for antiquarian detail, noting bout many other places to which he travelled or where

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is also described. The Lumbini pillar was broken in This was because it fell to the ground, we are told, ‘by nce of a wicked dragon’.32 The glittering veneer of an umn near Varanasi is admired, ‘bright and shining as a rface is glistening and smooth as ice.’33 memory of Ashoka having set up stone pillars per­ his epigraphs recorded was entirely forgotten. The ihawa, while recognized as Ashokan, is said to have ed with ‘a record connected with the nirvana’ of an ha.34 Later, even the connection of such pillars with forgotten. One sees, from an absence in chronicles urteenth-century ruler Firuz Shah Tughlaq, that when he Topra and Meerut pillars of Ashoka to Delhi their name does not feature, suggesting it was not known. t connections of some of the pillars may have sur­viv­ me. In Nepal, as we saw, Ripumalla, also a fourteenth, inscribed his name and the message ‘Om Mani Padme mantra common among Tibetan Buddhists—on the ars at Lumbini and Nigali Sagar. This suggests that ns continued to be important places of pilgrimage, royalty. Ripumalla’s decision to inscribe his message pillars may well mean that he saw these monoliths as th an important Buddhist king of past times. ng back to Xuanzang: in addition to Ashokan pillars preserves vivid memories and graphic stories about ructed by ‘Ashoka Raja’. Stupas that he believes were oka are among the shrines he documents, all the way ara to the Gangetic plains. Almost inevitably, from this gress through India it would seem that most stupas ted places relating to incidents in the Buddha’s life. an example of this. Here a carved stone stupa ‘built aja’ was said to stand, marking the place where ‘Sakya, 35

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have chopped up his own body into pieces so as ‘to re­ e from the power of a hawk’.36 Then there are the stupas ang describes as having been opened up by Ashoka to redistribute the relics they contained. The Vaishali stupa ch, and to authenticate the event he cites Indian texts d that ‘In this stupa there was first a quantity of relics hoh” (ten pecks). Asoka-raja opening it, took away ninehe whole, leaving only one-tenth behind.’37 He tells us s something only Ashoka could have done. Apparently, a ‘there was a king of the country who wished again to upa, but at the moment when he began to do so, the bled, and he dared not proceed to open (the stupa).’38 here were those rare spots where Asoka appears to have ated people and incidents in his own lifetime. Outside instance, Xuanzang believes he built a stupa which place where Kunala was blinded on the orders of his d stepmother; and ‘when the blind pray to it (or before ent faith, many of them recover their sight.’39 How many upas had actually been constructed by Ashoka? Stone e unlikely to have been built on his orders, Ashokan eing mainly of brick. But evidently, in the seventh cen­ had come to be regarded by many Buddhist believers as auryan antiquity. Interestingly, Xuanzang drew atten­ ruined condition of several such shrines. North-west of ula, and at Prayaga, for instance, the stupas seem to have ns. The traveller has a typical way of alluding to their are described as possessing a reduced height, invariably ft, and the reduction is thought to be a consequence of g sunk.40 association with many of the places to which Xuanzang rsisted well into the medieval centuries. A good exam­ is Sarnath. Here, in the twelfth century the queen of

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in the time of Ashoka: ‘This Lord of the Turning of s restored by her in accordance with the way in which the days of Dharmasoka, the ruler of men, and even rfully, and this vihara for that sthavira was elaborately r, and might he, placed there, stay there as long as the un (endure).’41 Fourteen hundred years after Ashoka’s ’s donation chooses to evoke what he built at Sarnath. werful reminder of the stamp of the emperor having ecially in connection with Buddhist sacred places. from Ashoka’s own epigraph that he had a close with Sarnath’s monastic community; later sources g’s account and Govindachandra’s inscription show ociation was never forgotten. There are, on the other instances of places where Ashoka’s presence came to hat are not specifically associated with the emperor etime. The kingdom of Kashmir is an example of this. d by Xuanzang in ways that strike a resonance with has visited it—surrounded by high mountains, with tern’ climate, people ‘handsome in appearance’ who g and were ‘well instructed’.42 It also happened to be a had its own history, and from this the pilgrim quotes ka’s connection with the kingdom. Ashoka is said to ur stupas there. The Chinese visitor believes ‘each of ut a pint measure of relics of the Tathagata.’43 Ashoka s a king of Magadha who ‘extended his power over the as honoured even by the most distant people. He deeply he three gems, and had a loving regard for all living the priests whom the king honoured, though, was a ecame schismatic, and this group Ashoka intended to Ganga. They, ‘having seen the danger threatening their cise of their spiritual power flew away’, and arriving in cealed themselves.45 When Ashoka-raja heard of this he

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ical persona—as ruling a large empire; and in his reli­ —as the builder of stupas and monasteries. Some five ars later Ashoka was again invoked, now in Kashmir’s tury chronicle, the Rajatarangini of Kalhana. A learned oet, Kalhana had put together this chronicle replete ical detail, causing it to be described by its modern M.A. Stein, as a text that came ‘nearest in character to cles of Mediaeval Europe and of the Muhammad[an] arding the possibility that the Chinese pilgrim used tory of Kashmir, Stein noted that Kalhana had got the n on Ashoka in the Rajatarangini from an earlier author illakara.47 In Chavillakara’s list, Ashoka figures first in —as he does in Xuanzang’s account of Kashmir. d, there are similarities as well as differences in how remembered in the twelfth-century chronicle as against account. Kalhana, like Xuanzang, drew attention to olitical prowess, clear from the statement that he reigned rth’.48 Kalhana drew attention to his religious persona s king had ‘freed himself from sins’ and ‘embraced the Jina’.49 The reference to Jina is exactly how the twelfthrnath inscription of Govindachandra had referred to a. While we are uncertain about how this should be zed, what seems certain is that the emperor’s personal hosis is what the text appears to be hinting at, and this be based on the memory of a reliable older tradition. also chronicled here as a builder. For the first time, e hear of him as the founder of a town, Srinagari, not far nt-day Srinagar. This is described with uncharacteristic s ‘most important on account of its ninety-six lakhs of lendent with wealth.’50 As for religious structures, there laces where he built stupas, Suskaletra and Vitastatra; r he also built a chaitya. He is even said to have built

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by his austerities’, that Ashoka obtained a son—who nated the Mlecchas from Kashmir.52 account of Ashoka is followed by his description of the he son, Jalauka, who succeeded him. No such son is n any other textual source, not even in the list of kings as. The family name ‘Maurya’, which figures in other mention the dynasty, is missing too. The point which m all these reminiscences is that there were genuine ns that kept the memory of Ashoka alive, and within his son were seen as having been among Kashmir’s

of Ashoka’s association with Kashmir does not end nues into the sixteenth century because the Rajata­ entioned in Abu’l Fazl’s famous Ain-i Akbari. When standards were carried into Kashmir, Akbar was pre­a copy of this history of Kashmir. Abu’l Fazl says: ‘a Raj Tarangini written in the Sanskrit tongue contain­ nt of the princes of Kashmir during a period of some d years, was presented to His Majesty. It had been n that country for its rulers to employ certain learned ng its annals. His Majesty who was desirous of extend­ nds of knowledge appointed capable interpreters in n which in a short time was happily accomplished.’53 kings narrated as having ruled Kashmir is Ashoka, ed the Brahmanical religion and established the Jaina ably ‘Jaina’ is a mistranslation of ‘Jina’—the word in jatarangini now repeated in Abu’l Fazl’s account. Two escendants, Jalauka and Damodar (II), also figure here. ould have been known in Akbar’s court and possibly exts that used the Rajatarangini.55 al mnemonic ways in which Ashoka’s religion and from his death in the third century bce to Akbar’s

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Throughout, my own analysis of the historical Ashoka he fashioned his image has highlighted the centrality sentation as a Buddhist. His image as royal convert via stupas and pillars, his stern proscriptions against the lly inclined, his prescriptions to the Sangha—all rein­ mage of the monarch as virtually a Buddhist zealot. Sure­ mage of Ashoka as Buddhist sovereign is so obvious to so likely to have been the way in which his own subjects seen him. The archetypal Buddhist king that so often s clear evidence of how he had fashioned his image. was another pivotal image, also nurtured in Ashoka’s e and through his own edicts: of a compulsively commu­ d accessible emperor seeking to reach out to his people, th them of his atonement for the carnage at Kalinga, a vernor benevolently engaged with all living beings. In st chronicles and texts there was no recollection of this r even the real reason for Ashoka’s rethink on rulership of Kalinga. A similar amnesia marks the representations lating to his rulership in the art of ancient India. Story­ artists, instead of being attentive to the complexities and ects of Ashoka’s own words, appear anxious to see him hrough a Buddhist lens. Thus it was that the political Ashoka faded away, just as knowledge of the scripts in words of the emperor were inscribed shrivelled into the ally, even when those words came to be recovered and in the nineteenth century, artistic representations, as h Tagore and Bose, continued to be anchored in Bud­s. our own time, in the 1960s the artist Meera Mukherjee a more nuanced historical Ashoka in the form of a tal sculpture. She is said to have cast Ashoka in this form against the violence of the Naxalite movement in Bengal 56

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know, if knowledge of Ashoka’s words had survived nuances—as did the memory of Ashoka’s Buddhist may have been remembered as the founder of a unique del of humane governance, one which would have o the historical emperor. But in this respect the afterlife ke his real life, remains poised between legend and

Appendix The Inscriptions of Ashoka

Year of Discovery

Location

1822 Junagadh district k Gujarat

Substance

Fourteen edicts which concern diverse subjects: protection of animals from mindless sacrifice; reduction in royal meat consumption; centrality of dhamma; inauguration of dhamma yatras; Kalinga war and its atonement; denuncia­tion of social rituals regarded as superficial; proper courtesy to all kinds of people ranging

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d.) Year of Discovery

Location

Substance



sect honours every other; king’s power to punish forest dwellers; spread of dhammic message to borders and states beyond borders; a foreign policy based on welfare measures; creation of senior officials called dharma-mahamatras. Below 13th rock edict, a surviving line which mentions a ‘white elephant’ bringing happiness to the world

1834 Allahabad city (could have come from Kaushambi) Uttar Pradesh

Six edicts which concern various subjects: promoting morality to secure worldly and otherworldly happiness; state vigilance in encouraging people to practice dhamma; insistence on self-responsibility for virtuous and evil deeds; granting functional autonomy to rajukkas; recording the release of prisoners and respite for death row

endix: the inscriptions of ashoka

ntd.) Year of Discovery

Location

Substance



mitigating cruelty towards them

dict 1834 On Allahabad pillar

Records donation of Queen Karuvaki: mango groves, gardens, almshouses which on her request were registered in her name

1834 lar

Champaran district Bihar

Similar to AllahabadKosam edicts

1834 arh ts

Champaran district Bihar

Similar to AllahabadKosam edicts

arhi 1836 k

Mardan district Pakistan

Similar to Girnar edicts

ajor 1837 Puri district s Orissa

Edicts 1 to 10 and 14 similar to Girnar edicts. Nos. 11–13 here replaced by two separate edicts specifically addressed to Tosali Mahamatras whose affective mould underlines Ashoka’s attempt at building bridges with the people of Kalinga. Separate

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d.) Year of Discovery

ut 1837

Location

Substance

Meerut district (original pillar brought to Delhi) Uttar Pradesh

Similar to AllahabadKosam edicts

a 1837 Ambala district (original pillar brought to Delhi) Haryana

1838 Hissar district Haryana

1839 Shahbad district Bihar

Six edicts similar to Allahabad-Kosam edicts with the addition of a seventh edict, a retrospective statement where Ashoka sums up the work he had done and points out that while moral restrictions and conversion through persuasion have been his main methods for initiating change, the second of these has been more meaningful Fragments of a few letters that have survived, insufficient to understand message Edict speaks of Ashoka becoming a Buddhist, the greater morality he created in Jambudvipa, the availability of this path for everyone, and instructions about

endix: the inscriptions of ashoka

ntd.) Year of Discovery

Location

Substance



specific dhammic expositions

ave 1847 Jahanabad district ns Bihar

Three epigraphs about donation of caves to ascetics, with Ajivikas mentioned by name

— 1850 Ganjam district k Orissa

Same as Dhauli edicts (with Samapa Mahamatras being addressed)

ajor 1860 Dehradun district s Uttarakhand

Similar in content to Girnar edicts. Figure of elephant on north face of the rock has the word ‘gajatame’ (‘the best elephant’) inscribed below it

1863 Raisen district dict Madhya Pradesh

Commands against breaking the Sangha and prescribes punishment in case that was to happen

— 1871 ck

Jabalpur district Madhya Pradesh

Similar in content to Sasaram edict

1872 ck

Jaipur district Rajasthan

Similar in content to Sasaram edict

n d i x : t h e i n s c r i p t i o n s o f a s h o k a 313

d.) Year of Discovery

Location

1877 On Allahabad sm pillar

Substance Similar to Sanchi edict with the mahamatras of Kosambi mentioned (they were being commanded)

1882

Thana district Maharashtra

Two fragments contain­ing 8th and 9th edicts

— 1888-9

Hazara district Pakistan

Similar in content to Girnar edicts

— 1892 Chitaldrug district Karnataka

mi- 1892 icts

First segment similar to Sasaram. Second segment speaks about the ancient rule which must be acted upon: obedience to parents, elders, compassion to animals, importance of speaking the truth and reverence that students must show to elders and relatives

Chitaldrug district Similar to Brahmagiri Karnataka edicts

1892 Chitaldrug district Similar to Brahmagiri a Karnataka edicts

lar 1896

Rupandehi district Records Ashoka’s

endix: the inscriptions of ashoka

ntd.) Year of Discovery

Location

Substance



Mentions that he set up a pillar and reduced taxes of Lumbini village

gar 1895 Kapilavastu district Nepal

Records two events: enlargement of stupa of Buddha Konakamana by Ashoka and his pilgrimage there when he set up a pillar

a 1902 ts

Champaran district Similar to Allahabad- Bihar Kosam edicts

1904 Varanasi district Uttar Pradesh

Similar to Allahabad- Kosam Schism edict, but with instructions that it was to be submitted to the sangha of monks and nuns as also those pertaining to dissemination

ne 1914–15 Rawalpindi district Pakistan

Concerns avoidance of killing of living beings, respect for elders, parents, Brahmans, monks, and relatives

nor 1915

Raichur district Karnataka

Similar to Sasaram edict

1928

Kurnool district

Similar to Brahmagiri

n d i x : t h e i n s c r i p t i o n s o f a s h o k a 315

d.) Year of Discovery

Location



1929

Kurnool district Andhra Pradesh

Substance

morality to be propagated by officials, the manner in which this is to be done is outlined in an overly officious tone Similar in content to Girnar edicts

1931 Raichur district Similar to Maski edict Karnataka

1931

Raichur district Karnataka

Pre-1932 Jalalabad district Afghanistan

1953

Kurnool district Andhra Pradesh

Similar to Maski edict

Aramaic edict concerned with prevention of killing living beings Similar to Erragudi edicts



nor 1953

Datia district Madhya Pradesh

a 1957 Kandahar district Afghanistan

Similar to Sasaram edict Greek and Aramaic edict which says that the doctrine of piety,

endix: the inscriptions of ashoka

ntd.) Year of Discovery

1961

Location

Substance

Mirzapur district Uttar Pradesh

Similar to Sasaram edict

1963 Kandahar district Afghanistan

Fragmentary edict which deals with parts of Rock Edicts XII and XIII

1963 Kandahar district Afghanistan t

Aramaic-Magadhi edict about obedience to parents and teachers; respect for Brahmans and Shramanas; respect for the humble and slaves

1966 ck

East of Kailash Similar to Bairat edict New Delhi

I 1969 Jalalabad district Afghanistan

II 1973

Jalalabad district Afghanistan

a 1975 Sehore district ck Madhya Pradesh

Mentions the king’s success in pushing out hunting and fishing Similar to Laghman I

Similar to Sasaram edict with one addition: the first line mentions that the king was addressing a ‘Kumara’ from his march to ‘Upunitha- vihara’ in Manema-desha

n d i x : t h e i n s c r i p t i o n s o f a s h o k a 317

d.) Year of Discovery

Location

1978 Bellary district Karnataka

1989 Gulbarga district Karnataka

a 2009

Substance

Two separate rocks with edicts similar to Nittur (Minor Rock Edict I on one of the rocks can barely be seen) Stone with 12th, 14th and two separate edicts, as at Jaugada and Dhauli

Bhabua district Similar to Sasaram edict Bihar



Notes

elude

cent overview of these political units, Sarao (2014). ne monarchs of the Nanda dynasty were Mahapadma, the , who was followed—according to a Buddhist text, the dhivamsa—by Panduka, Pandugati, Bhutapala, Rashtrapala, hanaka, Dassiddhaka, Kaivarta, and Dhana. The Puranas say hapadma was succeeded by his eight sons, probably kings in on. Raychaudhuri (1953): 208. avamsa 12.5–6 says Ashoka sent the following message to the uler: ‘I have taken my refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, Samgha; I have avowed myself a lay pupil of the Doctrine akyaputta. Imbue your mind also with the faith in this triad, highest religion of the Jina, take your refuge in the Teacher.’ erg (1879): 167. h (1976): 5. 009): 128–9. Also see Deeg (2012): 370–1. 920): 394. (1946): 52. Nehru also wrote about his emotional apprecia­ India through key historical figures, ‘men who seemed to

n o t e s t o p r e lu d e

319

ussion of these authors, Edde (2011): 4–7. mparison between Achaemenid and Ashokan epigraphs, (2009): 45–7. statement on the differences between the West and Asia is on ‘Characteristics of Asian Rhetoric’ in Oliver (1971):

other references have been discussed by Robert J. Connors in on Greek rhetoric. Connors (1986): 42–3.

971): 101.

. nd memorization continue to be part of priestly culture in orary India. See Fuller (2001). 95): 38. ere is a debate on the date of the Buddha’s death—or his ana’ as it is called in Buddhist tradition—with the dates om the fifth to the fourth centuries bce, it is c. 480 bce that ere as the date of his death. Since he is said to have lived for hty years, his birth would have been around 540 bce. For a of the various dates, Singh (2009): 257. e I heard’ is how the Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta (The Book of Decease), I.1, begins. See Rhys Davids (1881): 1. In the same while recounting the Buddha’s interaction with bhikkhus t monks), the Buddha is on more than one occasion shown sing the monks thus: ‘Listen well, and attend, and I will aha-Parinibbana-Sutta 1.6 and 1.7. See Rhys Davids (1881):

tra (AS hereafter) 1.5.14. Kane (1972): 11. ‘Itihasa’, in the f the text, was made up of the Puranas, Itivrtta, Akhyayika, na, Dharmashastra, and Arthashastra. the title of Chakrabarti’s (2011) book on Ashoka is Royal by the Wayside. r tetradrachm of Ptolemy I of Egypt, for instance, showed r with an elephant headdress and the horns of the Egyptian

n o t e s t o p r e lu d e

ime.’ No specific details are provided: see Allen (2012): 47. ntly, this medallion was issued in very small numbers after le of the Hydaspes (the name of the Jhelum river in classical ). Romm (2012): 216. (2007): 295. ans of the ancient world, such as Plutarch and Cassius Dio nus, wrote about Cleopatra. While Plutarch saw her as mani­ , Dio’s Cleopatra had insatiable passion and avarice. In the al world, the traveller and historian Al-Masudi introduced version of the queen—as a philosopher and author. Among st popular depictions has been Shakespeare’s, which saw the s a heroine ruined by passion. For a brief overview of the of Cleopatra, Tyldesley (2008): 205–17. –8. Joyce Tyldesley’s very readable account of Cleopatra’s times is upfront about the lack of primary material: ‘Given mitations of evidence it is clearly never going to be possible a conventional biography of Cleopatra; there are simply too mportant details missing’ (p. 7). (2007): 7. mes of prominent historical figures, ranging from Cleopatra atma Gandhi, frequently figure in the titles of books on them. me holds true for Ashoka: scores of books carry his name on le pages: Asoka (Bhandarkar, 1925), Asoka, the Righteous: A ve Biography (Guruge, 1993), Asoka (Mookerji, 1928), Asoka Decline of the Mauryas (Thapar, 1961), Asoka – The King Man (Thaplyal, 2012), Ashoka (Allen, 2012), and Asoka as d in his Edicts (Hazra, 2007) are a few such. For a detailed aphy on Ashoka, Falk (2006). evident from the handful of books on them, as compared to es of writings on Ashoka. For Samudragupta, Gokhale (1962); ndragupta, Mookerji (1952); for a recent study of Didda, relevant chapters in Rangachari (2009). usen (1966), Mookerji (1926), Devahuti (1970), Sharma S.R. Goyal (1986), and S. Goyal (2006).

n o t e s t o p r e lu d e

321

rian of Buddhism T.W. Rhys Davids describes Ashoka as e most striking and interesting personalities in world history f his simple, sane, and tolerant view of conduct and life, a was ‘free from all the superstitions that dominated so many en as now, in East and West alike.’ See Rhys Davids (1903):

cholars Romila Thapar, more than fifty years ago, stated this ter clarity than most. It was widely felt, she said, that ‘a long radition beginning with Asoka, of conscious non-violence eration of all beliefs political and religious, continued un­ rough the centuries culminating in the political philosophy i’. Thapar (1961): 214. e’s invocation of Ashoka, see Sen (1997): 9. ajpeyi argues that Nehru may well have seen himself as ‘the a’. For this and various elements which made Ashoka a major Nehru’s quest as a political leader, Vajpeyi (2012): 194–200. xt of the resolution moved by Nehru, see Agrawala (1964). 12); Kejariwal (1988): 202–9; Chakrabarti (1988): 33–4. been discussed at length in the epilogue of the present

ham (1877). me Hultzsch’s Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum was pub­­1925, several minor rock edicts in Karnataka had been d and their texts were, thus, included in it. For a chronology coveries of the edicts and inscriptions, see the appendix of nt book. as also the discoverer of some of the Sopara edicts. Virchand ey’s book (2012) is essential reading for an understanding of kable life of this pioneering archaeologist. . ppendix of the present book. yal (2009). 09).

wn to have said that ‘the best elements in the plastic, pict­

notes to chapter 1

1. ji (1928). 1946): 329–30. (1961). 38–40.

14–15. 15. 06): 13–54. the reason why all the finer points pertaining to the sources have been explored and analysed in hundreds of scholarly and books are not discussed in exacting detail. Where they have tried to write about such points in a way that will be ble to the general reader.

hapter 1:  An Apocryphal Early Life

rshacarita of Bana (IV.142) describes the birth of Harsha thus: th in the month of Jyaistha, on the twelfth day of the dark ht, the Pleiads being in the ascendant, just after the twilight when the young night had begun to climb, a sudden cry of arose in the harem. Hurriedly, issuing forth, Suyatra, daughter vati’s nurse and herself dearly beloved, fell at the king’s feet, “Good news! your majesty, you are blessed with the birth of d son.”’ Cowell and Thomas (1968): 109. Also see Devahuti 65. ge (1902): vol. I, 43. 2014: 57. tailed and learned exposition of the date of Ashoka, see Egger­ 956). This examines all sources which preserved the chronicle ka and arrives at the date, mentioned here, by comparing a of his inscriptions with those that can be gleaned from the traditions. ems of dating used in the inscriptions of ancient India, see

notes to chapter 1

323

pect of a particular tradition relied upon. Compare Thapar 4–16 with, for instance, Mookerji (1957): 9–10. 3): 4. l and other ‘dates’ in ancient Indian inscriptions, Salomon 70–98. tone inscription of Kumaragupta II, verse 1. Chhabra and ): 179, 321–2. rian Beni Madhab Barua had this to say about his reticence: is more striking and more disappointing to the students s inscriptions than that nowhere in them he has either d or referred to his father and grandfather, his mother rnal relations, as well as relations of his queens. He has not d anywhere to introduce himself as a scion of the Maurya arua (1946): 5. yaswal and Banerji (1933): 86. ct 9 makes this evident. See Girnar version in Hultzsch 6. , Kangle (1972): pt II, 92. bliography on the life of the Buddha, Nakamura (1989): or a popular account of the life of the Buddha, Strong

1997): 4. Ashokavadana, Strong (1989). While there may have been erary versions of the story of Ashoka, this is chronologically st text to have survived. ana literature, Winternitz (1933): vol. II, 277–94. 1997): x. ory, aptly called ‘The Gift of Dirt’, Strong (1989): 200–4. on, including the quotations, is based on Strong (1989):

ussion of this ‘inaccuracy’, Strong (1989): 21–2. e (1921): 102. hokavadana, Ashoka’s mother is not named. For the vari­s of Ashoka’s mother, Guruge (1993): 26–9.

notes to chapter 1

r, good-looking, and gracious daughter who would become ra’s wife and Ashoka’s mother is in the Ashokavadana men­ s being the daughter of a Brahman from Champa. See Strong 204. 18–19. Kangle (1972): pt II, 39–41. 1989): 204.

ms the subtitle of the book written by Basham (1951). –9. 35.

i.284, cited in Basham (1951): 136. Also see ‘Maha Parinibbana a’, Digha Nikaya ii.162, in Rhys Davids (1910): vol. II, 183–4. oo, the same story, about the encounter between Mahawith monks and an Ajivika along the high road to Pava, is ned. (1951): 140–1. happakasini is cited on this point by Guruge (1993): 26 54): 8–9. texts of the epigraphs, Hultzsch (1925): 181–2. scription of the Barabar caves, Gupta (1980): 189–221. 1989: 27), draws our attention to the presence of some Ashoka being represented on the second–first centuries bce bas-reliefs reat stupa at Sanchi. 1989): 174. VI of the Mahavamsa. See Geiger (1912): 51. The text tells on seeing the tiger she ‘bethought of the prophesy of the yers which she had heard, and without fear she caressed oking his limbs.’ Twins, a son and a daughter, were born of on. All the following references to Geiger (1912) refer to his ion of the Mahavamsa. 1912): 65.

notes to chapter 2

325

mentioned are: Jyestha or Vicrt (i.e. Mula nakshatra) or a d tiger-like (on an evil or terrible nakshatra). Kane (1994): I, 524. . . 1956): 7–8. 002): 22. e (1921): 110. 94): vol. V, pt I, 527. A similar disdain is evident in a Buddhist tly called Nakkhata Jataka. In this, a town family loses out ntry girl whom they want wedded to their son because the avoured ascetic maintains out of pique that the stars are not e on that particular day. The family of the girl, having made quired arrangements, then marry her off to someone else. e of a wise man in the town at the end of the tale, sums up s attitude to ‘lucky days’ and planetary dispositions:

may watch for ‘‘days,’’ hall always miss; itself is luck’s own star mere stars achieve?’ ll (1990 reprint): I, 124–6.

Kangle (1972): pt II, 18. tta’, Sutta Nipata 11, in Chalmers (1931): 165–73. ata 11.690. See Chalmers (1931): 167. (2001): 99–105. d Thomas (1968): 109–10.

pter 2:  Pataliputra and the Prince

4): vol. III, 332–3. rising that Xuanzang got this basic fact wrong. One wond­ Chinese translations of the Ashokavadana, with which he e been familiar, had omitted the section on Ashoka’s birth in conception is described in some detail.

notes to chapter 2

1989): 7. ere two Chinese translations of versions of the Ashokavadana, ng back to c. 300 ce and another compiled in 512 ce. See 1989): 16, n.46. minar held in 1971, the issue of whether the designation of the Black Polished Ware should be changed was discussed. This se such pottery was found in western India and the Deccan, now know that it is found in the peninsular South as well. er, there are shades other than black, ranging from golden to and also because the term ‘polished’ can be misleading since ace lustre was not produced through polishing. Archaeologists with the existing designation because the material is found in rger quantity in the North than elsewhere. Additionally, more per cent of the specimens of this pottery are black. As for m ‘polished’, it accurately described what the pottery surface ike and thus was taken to be a reference to the resultant effect s created. See Sinha (1971–2): 29–33. overview of the archaeology of Pataliputra, Sinha (2000): and Kumar (1987). Kumar has summarized the issue of the of the NBP phase on the basis of the excavations of B.P. Sinha . Narain (p. 220): ‘The NBP level in Pataliputra as based upon avations at Sadargali and Mahavirghata has been ascribed to d ranging from 6th century bc to 2nd century ad. The NBP continued right from the earliest occupation levels but in its evel the NBP was found associated with coins of the lanky e of Kausambi prevalent before circa 100 bc. The coins were d in fairly good number but immediately after this level the erds disappear completely, hence, the upper limit of this ware n placed somewhere towards the end of 150 bc or later. The mit of the NBP ware was mainly fixed on the basis of the nts of couchant bull and other polished stone pieces of the n period which came from the mid level of Period I. Right he level the 5’ deposit must have taken 2 or 3 centuries to set te. Punch-marked and cast coins generally belonging to the between 5th century bc to 2nd century bc were also found in

notes to chapter 2

327

upto the natural soil. This indicated an earlier time span of ypes at Pataliputra.’ For the prediction of the Buddha, ‘Maha na Suttanta’, Digha Nikaya ii.86, in Rhys Davids (1910):

rinibbana Suttanta’, Digha Nikaya ii.86, in Rhys Davids ol. 2, 92. 989): vol. 2, 362–5. ems that, contrary to received wisdom, Megasthenes was e entourage of Sibyrtius (as stated by Arrian) rather than of See Bosworth (1996): 117. For an alternative view, Kosmin ppendix. (1996). 957): 15. r (1958) and (1960); Sethna (1960). e (1877): 80 and 114.

1995): 202. orge Erdosy’s estimate on the basis of Megasthenes’ ac­count.

s of the palisade have been traced at Lohanipura, Bulandi­ hadurpur, Kumrahar, Maharajakhand, Sevai Tank, and ank. Altekar and Mishra (1959): 7. 1995): 202. e (1877): 72–3. and I.21.13. Kangle (1972): pt II, 51, 53. 963): 118–19. 00): 127–8. nd Mishra (1959): 7. 6–7): 135. 878): 27. 1903):15.

count of how this hall was discovered, Lahiri (2005): 134–8.

notes to chapter 2

bce. For the excavations of Chirand, Verma (2007), and Singh (2003). kar (1977): 21. 1980): 157–8. 1951). 1980): 55–9. sources Kautilya is sometimes known by other names: gupta and Chanakya. The Arthashastra’s first chapter men­ wards the end that the ‘shastta’ was composed by Kautilya. olophons at the end of the various books as well, that is was ed by Kautilya is also mentioned. astry cites several such sources such as the Vishnupurana, daka’s Nitisara, Dandin’s Dasakumaracarita and the Pancha­ Importantly, as he pointed out, these mention the Mauryas nature of this text when they allude to the author of the astra. The Vishupurana, for instance, noted that ‘(First) dma; then his sons, only nine in number, will be the lords arth for a hundred years. Those Nandas Kautilya, a Brahman, . On their death, the Mauryas will enjoy the earth. Kautilya will install Chandragupta on their throne. His son will be ra, and his son Asokavardhana.’ The author of the Pancha­scribed the text to the author in this way: ‘Then the Dharma ­are those of Manu and others, the Arthasastras of Chanakya ers, the Kama Sutras of Vatsyayana and others’. See Shama­ 1915): vii–viii. masastry (1915). ails, see Kangle (1969): pt I, xi–xviii. hashastra has been used for writing on different aspects of n times by Sastri (1967), Thapar (1961), and Singh (2009), others. Even Trautmann, who has pointed out the possibility ple authors for different parts of the text, has no hesitation in as a source for his work on elephants and the Mauryas (1982). early discussion on the controversy, Kangle (1965): pt III, (2013): 9–25.

notes to chapter 2

329

st date for Kautilya to mention coral. Actually, if we look haeological evidence for coral in India, it is present much e first century bce. Coral, in fact, has a long history of usage k to the time of the Indus civilization when it is present, ce, at Harappa.  Again, in the second millennium bce, coral found at the neolithic-chalcolithic sites of Navdatoli in ndia, Prakash in Maharashtra, and Maski in Karnataka.  In oric India, much before c. 200 bce, coral beads are found , Rajghat, Ganwaria-Piprahwa, and Vaishali. They are also Nevasa and Paunar in Maharashtra, and at T. Kallupati Nadu. This long history of usage may be one reason why it dered sacred by Buddhists and Hindus. The references to m part of the data that I had compiled for my PhD thesis ly 1990s; there is no clarity on whether these were from the anean or Indian seas. In fact, the early presence of coral from Tamil Nadu is evidence of the possibility of the Arthashastra’s g Mauryan, and not later, as argued by Olivelle. See Olivelle 7 for the argument relating to coral. For references to coral auryan and Mauryan times, Lahiri (1992). Kangle (1972): pt II, 68. . Kangle (1972): pt II, 48. –8. Kangle (1972): pt II, 49. ussion of this, Guruge (1993): 29–31. –24. Kangle (1972): pt II, 46. (2008): 33. s training has been described in the AS (all citations in the footnotes pertaining to it are from Kangle (1972), pt II, –12). For the age of tonsure (called ‘Chaula karma’ in and initiation (or Upanayana in AS 1.5.7), Asvalayana-grhya s that the first should be performed in the third year after ccording to family usage, and the second according to caste, brahmana, kshatriya, or vaisya boy the proper ages are 8th, 12th from conception. See Kane (1994): vol. V, pt I, 606–7. states that the ‘Puranas, Itivrtta, Akhyayika, Udaharana, astra and Arthshastra—these constitute Itihasa.’ See Kangle

notes to chapter 3

.12. Kangle (1972): pt II, 50. The term used is ‘kumara­a­sthanam’. .23 says that ‘like a piece of wood eaten by worms, the royal with its princes undisciplined, would break the moment it is d.’ See Kangle (1972): pt II, 41. 1.17. Kangle (1972): pt II, 39–43. The section’s heading is ng against Princes’. 42. Kangle (1972): pt II, 42.

hapter 3:  Mauryan Taxila

1989): 208.

2–3. jee (1984): 56; Dani (1986): 56. Marshall (1951): vol. I, 165, provided an entirely different reading. An official of Taxila, ote by name, he noted was mentioned here and the fact that d his advancement to the patronage of ‘Priyadarshi’. jee, for this reason, noted that the epigraph could be compared ka’s rock edict IV. See Mukherjee (1984): 26. ila, Sir John Marshall’s three-volume excavation report is available publication: Marshall (1951). For later excavations hosh (1948) and Sharif (1969). excellent analysis of this disjunction in the case of ancient Snodgrass (1985). sts in the Gangetic plains, Lal (1986): 84. There were, however, here, much before the time of the Mauryas, land seems to en cleared. The widely occurring ‘woody’ monocotyledon emerged out of the wood charcoal analysis of Alamgirpur clearing of tracts of forest there for agricultural purposes. gh, et al. (2013): 52–3. a (1977): 12; Lahiri (1992): 367–77. gga VIII. I, 5–7. Rhys Davids and Oldenberg (1882): 174–6. distribution of lapis lazuli and other raw materials in the

notes to chapter 3

331

ccount of the campaign of Alexander mentions his sojourn mm (2012): 208. (1951): vol. I, 20.

9. 2, 477. streets are narrower and vary between some 3 and 6 m. 1, 90.

iption of Mohenjodaro in Marshall (1931), especially of the ern sector, is peppered with such details. (1951): vol. 1, 89–90. For a graphic sense of the alignment of s and lanes, Plate I in ibid.: vol. 3. 1): vol. 1, 89.

The streets and lanes mentioned here all belong to the ratum. (1951): vol. 1, 90. The bin measures 2.7 m. by 1.5 m. own as square 29.33” in the plan. (1951): vol. 1, 94. Marshall’s suggestion that the well was with pottery vessels so as to prevent the sides from collapsing be true for unlined wells. However, in this instance, the well with stone to a considerable depth. ed hall measures 17.9 x 7.3 m. (1951): vol. 1, 98. 2, 449. . . 1, 92. Rooms 3 and 4 had a drain below and room 17 was the one d subterranean jars. (1911–12): 31. ): 98, 133–7. (1951): vol. 1, 95.

notes to chapter 4

no. 7 in ibid.: 677. l (1951): vol. 1, 109. ol. 2, 425, 501.

hapter 4:  Affairs of the Heart and State

th Asian discourses on love, Orsini (2007). s how the Mahavagga (V.13.7) described it. Rhys Davids and erg (1882): 34. 1996): 1. e (1989): 448. eliefs bear identifying labels that mention the names of the ‘King Pasenaji, the Kosala’ and ‘Ajatsatu worships the Holy e Luders (1963 ): 113, 118. .1–3. Kangle (1972): pt II, 435. Here, the preparations for a march are described: ‘After calculating the halts on the way ges and in forests, in accordance with the supply of fodder, d water, and (calculating) the time for camping, halting and ng, he should start on the expedition. He should cause food uipment to be transported in double the quantity required the case. Or, if unable to do so, he should assign it to the or should store them at intervals on the route.’ It is unlikely ilar preparations were not undertaken when a viceroy-prince d to take charge in a distant province. a (1977): 54. gga (VIII.I.23). Rhys Davids and Oldenberg (1882b): 186. 24. Kangle (1972): pt II, 360. 947): 143–67. gga (V.13.13). Rhys Davids and Oldenberg (1882b): 39. ief description of the Ujjayini road, Banerjee (1989): 448. e (1993): 272. significance of Sasaram, especially in relation to the Rajgirhabua alignment, Chakrabarti (2011): 17. barti (2005): 26. Chakrabarti points to the presence of early North Black Polished Ware on the mound of thirty acres at

notes to chapter 5

333

ry of the later evidence in the form of Gupta gold coins, l remains, and temples is available in Chakrabarti (2005):

xcavations at Eran, Sharma and Mishra (2003): 102–6. a VI.16. Oldenberg (1879): 147. sa XIII.10–11. Geiger (1912): 88–9. 1973): 22–3. Lankan texts, for example, do not mention the battle a that Ashoka himself refers to at great length in Rock . mmary of the arguments, Guruge (1993): 44. e argument of Thapar (1973): 23. 1993): 40. li Separate Rock Edict I. Hultzsch (1925): 94 and 97. Vidisha is also known as modern Besnagar. For excavations, nd Sharma (2003): 90–4. Foucher, and Majumdar, The Monuments of Sanchi (1940):

tte (1988): 56. sa V.40. Geiger (1912): 29. a VI.21–2. Oldenberg (1879): 148. ahinda was ten years old, his father put his brothers to en he passed four years reigning over Jambudvipa. Having hundred brothers, along continuing his race, Ashoka was king in Mahinda’s fourteenth year. Dipavamsa VI.21–2. g (1879): 148. 989): 208–9. . a VI.22. Oldenberg (1879): 148. This is unlikely to be true we shall see later, Ashoka does mention the households of gs in his epigraphs.

pter 5:  The End and the Beginning

989): 210–13. The ensuing discussion and quotations are

notes to chapter 5

otations are from Strong (1989): 211–12. havamsa, V.189–90. Geiger (1912): 42. avamsa 6.24–28. Oldenberg (1879): 148. what Ashoka said to his minister when asking him to bring ha to him. The Dipavamsa 6.45. Oldenberg (1879): 150. has provisions on the various aspects mentioned here. See (1972): pt II, 55–9. otation about the Rod is from AS 1.4.11. Kangle, (1972): . ; Kangle (1972): 390. 0; Kangle (1972): pt II, 322. d (2001): 53–9. campaigns of Alexander, Romm (2012). 1996): 60. 1995): 2. d (2001): 42. tzsch (1925): xxxv. 37 and 9.1.45. Kangle (1972): pt II, 408–9. ntly, Chandragupta’s army according to Megasthenes, had oot-soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 9000 elephants. Megasthenes ovides a vivid description of the governing body which military affairs in the time of Chandragupta. This consisted ivisions, with five members each: ‘One division is appointed erate with the admiral of the fleet, another with the superin­ of the bullock-trains which were used for transporting of war, food for the soldiers, provender for the cattle, and military requisites. They supply servants who beat the drum, ers who carry gongs; grooms also for the horses, and mechan­ their assistants. To the sound of the gong they send out foragers in grass, and by a system of rewards and punishments ensure k being done with dispatch and safety. The Third division rge of the foot-soldiers, the fourth of the horses, the fifth of -chariots, and the sixth of the elephants  .  .  .  The chariots are on the march oxen but the horses are led along by a halter, that s may not be galled and inflamed, nor their spirits damped by

notes to chapter 6

335

Rock Edict XIII at Kalsi. See Hultzsch (1925): 47–8. K of Rock Edict XIII, Kalsi version. Hultzsch (1925): 47. 8, and 12 of the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela. and Banerji (1933): 87–8. of the Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman; Kielhorn 47.

pter 6: The Emperor’s Voice

ocation and distribution of Ashoka’s edicts, Allchin and (1985); Mukherjee (1997); Falk (2006). or rock edicts are brief as compared to the more expansive k edicts. There is also a basic difference in the subject matter, or rock edict 1 being overtly Buddhist in character. 8–46; Kangle (1972): pt II, 94–5. –4; Kangle (1972): pt II, 92. verview of writing materials and the oldest documents to ived in those materials, Buhler (1904): 112–18. the findings of the palaeobotanist K.S. Saraswat. See Bose 2. (2012): xv. very of the edicts is not something I get into as it has al­en described at length in many monographs, most n Allen (2012). But it is worth mentioning that they were ted and discovered under very diverse circumstances. The andagiri inscription, for instance, was first copied by Colin e in the nineteenth century, although its significance was overed in the middle of the twentieth century. Sircar (1960): Delhi epigraph, on the other hand, was discovered in 1966 Sri Jang Bahadur Singh noticed the inscribed rock before be blasted—a residential colony was under construction at ee Joshi and Pande (1967): 96. xts of these inscriptions, Sircar (1942): 79–80 and 82–3. at Conqueror’ (‘maha-vijayo’) is how Kharavela described The conquests included the sack of Goradhagiri, the seige of

notes to chapter 6

n (2012): 49. As he has pointed out, the mahamatras at Isila edict inscribed as they received it, incorrectly retaining the at the beginning. in Brahmagiri inscription, Hultzsch (1925): 178; Line 22 in ura edict, Hultzsch (1925): 179; as for the Jatinga-Rameshwara ion, it has not survived well, and the name is missing. There doubt that it was originally inscribed since the end of the last e—which mentions Capada and alludes to the writer, has y survived. 06): 58. 1979): 4. on (1991): 268. lity and textuality in Europe, Ong (1984) and Connors

and translation, Hultzsch (1925): 166–9. n (2012): 51. are Brahmagiri, Erragudi, Gavimath, Jatinga-Rameshwara, Nittur, Palkigundu, Rajula-Mandagiri, Siddapura, and Udego­­

e (1988): 76. used association to describe Ashoka’s relationship with the because it subsumes the various ways in which the term mana’ has been interpreted: as an attachment to the Sangha, as o it, even as a stay with the Sangha. See Sircar (2000): 64–5. e (1988): 77. 2012): 349–57. cholarly account of the life of the Buddha, Lamotte (1988): so see Reynolds (1976). 06): 55. -P of Brahmagiri edict. Hultzsch (1925): 178. (2012): 172.

06): 58. e II of the Nittur version of Minor Rock Edict II, for ins­ircar (1979):128. This paragraph is based on that version and

notes to chapter 6

337

Period II, the megalithic culture, as he designated it, was to the last three quarters of the first millennium bce. For see Ghosh (1989): 282. Thus, it was likely to have existed me of Ashoka. For an earlier assessment of Maski, Gordon on (1943). 1957): 103. 24. (1925): xxvi refers to the inscriptional references to Maski. efield of Musangi is referred to in the Tirumalai rock n of Rajendra Chola I. See Hultzsch (1907–8): 233. 1957): 119. hat K. Rajan’s work has revealed. His unpublished work has nsively cited in Chakrabarti (2006): 312–13. d Yatheeskumar (2010–12): 290. 1947–8): 186. ortimer Wheeler believed that the Polished Stone Axe ast phase was coterminous with the time of Ashoka, much tes have been suggested for it subsequently, as also for the . See Ghosh (1989): 84. 6): 65. 1947–8): 186–7. (1925): xxvii.

Indian Archaeology—A Review (1976–7: 60) says the in­ was in the Prakrit language and Brahmi characters of e second century bce, the accompanying plate (LVIII C) at the Brahmi characters could well be Mauryan. The shaft mbrella have a Mauryan polish on them. ur/Ratanpurwa in Bhabua district (Bihar), not far from is the other place where an Ashokan minor rock edict has nd amidst painted rock shelters. This was reported in 2009 shed by K.K. Thaplyal. There has been some controversy e genuineness of the edict, although archaeologists like wari (personal conversation) and Dilip Chakrabarti believe fake. See Chakrabarti (2011): 19–22.

notes to chapter 7

hapter 7:  Extending the Arc of Communication stan

geographic zones of Afghanistan, Dupree (1997): 3–31. (1997): 19–21. For routes of communication, Channing

1992): 64. (1978): 172. 1981): 57. For ceramics that are commonly found in this the Indo-Iranian borderland, Biscione (1984). barti (2006): 147. (2005): 16–17. wall and Taddei (1978): 188–9; also Stoneman (2010): 365. (2014): 33.

ng (1885): 360. jee (1984): 35–42. –22. 8–32. ng (1985): 55. 1982): 1. ng (1985): 64; also see Ball and Gardin (1982): 145. 1979): 4. o (1958): 4. nd Krishnan (1957–8). nd Drorp (1997): 43. mides (1984): 145–7. 1979): 11. r (1996): 255–9. li and Garbini (1964): 32. (2005): 19. r (1968): 69. erword in the 2008 impression of Thapar (1961): 276. Here,

notes to chapter 8

339

14, and 30. cent statement see Afterword in the 13th impression of 1961): 317. . mentioned by Ashoka in the thirteenth rock edict. 1961–2): 5. (1984): 4. Here, the commonalities and differences between tun inscription and those of Ashoka have been dealt with at

1997): 224–35. 978): 74–5. .

pter 8:  An Expansive Imperial Articulation

rmation about Kalinga is absent at Dhauli, Jaugada, and and the reasons for this will be discussed in the next

Rock Edict XIII at Kalsi. Hultzsch (1925): 47. dhamma occurs about 111 times in Ashoka’s edicts. See l (2011). Rock Edict VIII at Kalsi. Hultzsch (1925): 37. rata, Vanaparva, chapter 238, shloka 5 and shloka 20. Cited 1998): 114–15. of Erragudi Rock Edict III, in Sircar (1979): 17. otte (1988): 230–3 for the similarities between the advice ka gave and that of the Buddha. So, for instance, he points he field of domestic virtues, Asoka unceasingly counselled e to one’s father and mother, obedience to one’s teachers, hable courtesy towards one’s friends, acquaintances, com­ and family, kindness to the poor, the old and the weak as o slaves and servants, generosity towards brahmins and . The Buddha gave exactly the same advice to the young der Singalaka: “How does the noble disciple protect the six f space? These six regions are composed as follows: father

notes to chapter 8

ibid. bid. V, Erragudi Rock Edict V, in Sircar (1979): 24. various classes of people whose welfare and happiness was the of this class of officials, Lines X–XIII, ibid. –VIII of Erragudi Edict VI, ibid.: 18–19. 28. Kangle (1972): pt II, 47. 22. Kangle (1972): pt II, 51. 34–5. Kangle (1972): pt II, 47. a different view from that of scholars who see the genesis of s welfare measures in his Buddhist faith. S.J. Tambiah, for e, argued that ‘Asokan political Buddhism and social ethics ted kingship and state to the creation of welfare facilities and erous society as the precondition for the support of monastic ons, and for the escape from suffering and the realization al law (the Dhamma) in the society as a whole.’ Tambiah 5. scription of the engraved rocks, Hultzsch (1925): xii. 06): 111. ree engraved boulders are described in Hultzsch (1925):

excellent analysis of the dispatch pattern of the rock edicts, 06): 111–12. ase of the major rock edict fragments at Kandahar, it seems se were actually on a stone slab. he translation of Lines II–V of the first rock edict at Erragudi ded by Sircar (1979): 14. That the sort of festive gathering— —where animals were sacrificed is what Ashoka did not want implied here since it is an adjunct of the earlier sentence living being should be killed for sacrifice. See Bose (1998):

06): 111. barti (2011): 52. s and Joglekar (1994): 196–8. 997): 781 notes this statement from Vanaparva 208.11–12 of

notes to chapter 8

341

of Erragudi Edict V, in Sircar (1979): 24. s excavations at Kodumanal in this regard have been most he excavator and his team have obtained three AMS dates— 30 bce, and 408 bce (all uncalibrated)—from well-stratified hese come from layers which have yielded a considerable of potsherds bearing inscriptions in the Tamil-Brahmi ound 100 such potsherds have been found in 2012 alone, the whole, the excavations have yielded 500 Tamil-Brahmi sherds. The names on these potsherds, in several instances, ations with names from the North. The excavations have ed a couple of sherds of North Black Polished Ware which ted with the first phase of the early historical period in d Central India. Considering that in earlier seasons at Kodu­ ver punch-marked coins were found, there is now excellent to argue that this commercial centre had well-established cultural contacts with the middle Gangetic plains in the ury bce. Rajan and Yatheeskumar (2010–12). Also see lvakumar, Ramesh, and Balamurugan (2013) for scientific m Porunthal. rragudi Edict IV. See Sircar (1979): 27. II, Erragudi Edict VII, ibid.: 25 Erragudi Edict V, ibid.: 24. IV, Erragudi edict IX, ibid.: 40. ibid. (2008): 166. translated the word ‘samavaya’ as ‘restrained speech’ where­ enerally understood as ‘concord’. See Hultzsch (1925): 21, eya (1965): 16, for the later interpretation. Erragudi Edict XIII. Sircar (1979): 85. . Kangle (1972): pt. II, 400. III–XIX, Erragudi Edict XIII. Sircar (1979): 85. e impact of such measures in the various independent must have depended on a variety of issues, scholars like ids read this part of the rock edict with an element of bordering on disdain: ‘It is difficult to say how much of

notes to chapter 9

have been much disturbed. Asoka’s estimate of the results d is better evidence of his own vanity than it is of Greek We may imagine the Greek amusement at the absurd idea of arian” teaching them their duty; but we can scarcely imagine scarding their gods and their superstitions at the bidding of king.’ See Rhys Davids (1903): 298–9. Possibly, this disdain ve been partly a consequence of Rhys Davids being a colonial vant: he served as one in Sri Lanka. g political connotation of the term ‘dharmavijaya’ has been ed by Dikshitar (1944): 81–3. rman (1997–8): 483. Norman also states, quite rightly, that ny elements of dhamma that are mentioned in this edict as g what was presumably preached abroad cannot be considered st doctrine. Therefore, Ashoka cannot be seen in his edicts as ting Buddhism among contemporary rulers. n (1997–8): 483. of Erragudi Edict XIV, in Sircar (1979): 20.

hapter 9:  The Message in the Landscape

39): 370–1. he need to understand Ashokan epigraphs as integrated wholes derlined by Upinder Singh, who spoke of them as epigraphents: Singh 1997–8: 1–3. in Kielhorn (1905–6): 47.The epigraph provides an excepvivid account of the lake and bund and its destruction in n a storm: ‘the clouds pouring with rain the earth had been ed as it were into one ocean.’ Consequently, the swollen ters simply ‘tore down hill-tops, trees, banks, turrets, upper gates and raised places of shelter’ (lines 5–7). The dam, built the time of Chandragupta, suffered a huge breach and the ana lake drained out. Rudradaman’s minister Suvishaka rried out repairs, creating a dam three times larger than the . etails and those pertaining to what was added in the time of

notes to chapter 9

343

989): 350. 1974): 450. (1951): 95. was identified is described in Jamsedjee (1890–4): 47–55. (1890–4): 54. 011). A great deal mentioned here formed part of my field 2011 in Junagadh and its surrounding area. s used for the stupa measure 45.7 x 38.1 x 7.62 cm. (1891): 21. 009): 99–100. 989): 219. In the words of the Ashokavadana: ‘Asoka had ur thousand boxes made of gold, silver, cat’s eye, and crystal, em were placed the relics. Also, eighty-four thousand urns y-four thousand inscription plates were prepared. All of this to the yaksas for distribution in the (eighty-four thousand) jikas he ordered built throughout the earth as far as the ing ocean, in the small, great, and middle-sized towns, ever there was a (population of) one hundred thousand .’ nd the observations that follow, Lahiri (2011). k (2004–5): 181. (1949–50): 174–5. our surviving Ashokan edicts at Sannathi, Sarma and Rao –56. (2013): 1. Sannathi has also been called Sannati and

auryan finds were recovered from two excavations, those d by the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Mysore, 5 and the Archaeological Survey excavations in 2001–2 and ee Devraj and Talwar (1996): 9–17 and Poonacha (2013): stupa mound was excavated by the Society for South Asian long with the Archaeological Survey of India between 1989. However, no Mauryan remains were found in that n. See Howell (1995). (2013): 14.

notes to chapter 9

h (1925): xiii. 006): 50. 1980): 85. y and Tripathy (1997–8): 87. barti (2011): 71. B) of Separate Rock Edict I at Jaugada. Hultzsch (1925): 111. analysis of the references to Tosali, Chakrabarti (2011):

, the excavator of Sisupalgarh, was of the view that there was cumstantial evidence of this which could not be considered ive. See Lal (1949): 66. Allchin, in 1995, however, had no on in identifying it with the ancient city of Tosali. Allchin 142. y and Tripathy (1997–8): 88–9. 0. barti (2011): 82. nterestingly, if at Sannathi there is a mound known as andala, it has been pointed out by Chakrabarti that between lam and Vizianagaram, there is a place called Ranasthalam means ‘the place of battle’. mbering of the Orissa edicts—Separate Rock Edicts 1 and ows the arrangement that Prinsep first used in the case of although there is unanimity that what is called the first e edict was actually engraved after the second separate edict. the case at Jaugada as well where No. 2 is actually placed No. 1. h (1925): 113. Lines E and F of Jaugada Separate Rock

h (1925): 118. Line J of Jaugada Separate Rock Edict 2. n (1997): 83. e (1966): 21. h (1925): 116. Line 4 (G) of Separate Rock Edict 2 of . h (1925): 117. -P of Separate Rock Edict 1. Hultzsch (1925): 96.

notes to chapter 10

345

Separate Rock Edict I of Dhauli. Hultzsch (1925): 97. B of Separate Rock Edict I of Dhauli. Hultzsch (1925): 97. (2012): 61.

pter 10:  Building Beliefs into Edifices

909): 35. Ashoka himself never mentions becoming a any of his edicts. Still, the links with the Buddhist Sangha strong and he exercised an unusually powerful influence

1925): 11. This contains the journal of Buchanan Hamilton among the most evocative accounts of the Barabar hill and ns. caves and their architecture, Gupta (1980): 189–92 and or the inscriptions, Hultzsch (1925): 181–2. First Cave Inscription. Hultzsch (1925): 181. nd 2 of Second Cave Inscription, ibid. ve Inscription, ibid.: 182. 924): 198. 8): 246. a (1980): 206–9 for an excellent reconstruction of the pro­ summary here presented is based on his description and bservations. 1981): 135–7. (2013): 447, 466. sa X.96–102; Geiger (1912): 75. ham (1892): 4. swamy (1927): 33. 00): 9. 1904–5): 115. ham (1892): 76. 007): 83–5 cites such episodes from the life of Konakamana. , for instance, wrote about it in the seventh century ce: ‘To -east of the town of Krakuchchhanda Buddha, going about come to an old capital (or, great city) in which there is a

notes to chapter 10

ed with his Nirvana; this was built by Ashoka-raja.’ Beal vol. III, 272. barti (2001): 191. There is a very useful section in Chakra­ ook on the archaeological geography of this stretch. ji (1901): 1. ng time after Cunningham’s survey, the location of Kapila­emained uncertain. This is why Vincent Smith, in his ions to P.C. Mukherji—who undertook a tour of the Nepal sked him to ‘first try and fix the position of Kapilavastu, hole, accurately as possible.’ Smith (1901): 1. The location lavastu, though, still remains controversial with academics about whether it was Tilaurakot in Nepal and Piprahwaia in India that was known by this name. ji (1901): 19. ently published results of the excavations conducted there in d 2012, by a team directed by Robin Coningham and Kosh Acharya, have provided radiocarbon dates that go back to the ntury bce. For details, Coningham and Acharya, et al. (2013). 1996): 2–3. Also Rai (2010): 93–4. This marker stone and other logical remains were revealed in archaeological excavations ed jointly by the Japan Buddhist Federation and Lumbini pment Trust between 1993 and 1996. 06): 139. scussion of Indradhvajas and their intrinsic difference in re­ o Ashokan pillars, Gupta (1980): 318–20. Gupta also sees the s an Ashokan innovation. d Jayaswal (1990–1): 49. Also see Jayaswal (1998). ham and Acharya, et al. (2013). based on what was reported in Tiwari (1996): 5–10. ndei pillar inscription in Hultzsch (1925): 164–5. mary of these interpretations is available in Falk (2006): 179. (2012): 206. ieves this is a more likely explanation. In this context, he has attention to an inscription from Kanaganahalli which bears iption which in translation reads: ‘Above (you see) the stupa

notes to chapter 10

347

msi king to a small Buddhist monastery at Taradamshaka, e Santa-Bommali plates of Indravarman in Singh (1994):

): 96. rly description of Gotihawa, Mukherji (1901): 31.

nd Coccia (2008): 255–6. 72): 228. 2002). and B of Nigali Sagar pillar inscription. Hultzsch (1925):

al references to Vaishali have been cited in detail by Sarao 06–7. Mishra (1961). For a summary of the 1950 excavations of Mishra, Sinha (2000): 211. d Roy (1969): 21.

olith stands 14.6 m. rti (2011): 109–10. (1951): vol. I, 234–5. r was excavated twice, first by D.B. Spooner as part of n Tata’s excavations at Pataliputra’, and then in 1951–5 by ar and V. Mishra. See Spooner (1912–13) and Altekar and 959). avamsa XII.1–2. Geiger (1912): 82. Calcutta-Bairat inscription, Hultzsch (1925): 174. 1988): 236. ple and the archaeological remains on Bijak-ki-Pahari bed at length in the excavation report. See Sahni (1937):

71): 66–7. 2009): 14. dict in Hultzsch (1925): 162–5.

notes to chapter 11

l, Foucher, and Majumdar (1940): vol. I, 14. edi, and Solanki (2004): 113–15. l, Foucher, and Majumdar (1940): vol. I, 20. 7. of Sanchi pillar edict, Hultzsch (1925): 161. rkar 1925: 85–6.

hapter 11:  An Ageing Emperor’s Interventions

what Sircar (1979): 121 noted: ‘the language of the inscription es that of the Girnar version of Asoka’s Rock Edicts and also RE texts of the south.’ MRE means Minor Rock Edict. (2012): 185. n (2012): 56. 1907–8): 181–2. evocative account of the medieval and modern histories of ncient Ashokan pillars in Delhi, see Singh (2006): xxx–xxxii. hy and Shokoohy (1988): 32, 118. barti (2011): 111. 1906–7): 123. covery was made by W.C. Peppe in the late nineteenth century. mmary, Srivastava (1996): 5–6. dar (1935–6). s of consensual making’—by which paths become habits of a pe—Macfarlane (2012): 17. dar (1935–6): 55. barti (2011): 145–7. hy and Shokoohy (1988): 6. anding the pattern of routes on the basis of artefacts of al origin formed the core methodology of my PhD thesis. ally for lapis lazuli in early historic India, Lahiri (1992): 371. xtensive description of the beads, Mitra (1972): 123–40. of the 1st Delhi-Topra pillar edict, Hultzsch (1925): 120. and F of the 1st Delhi-Topra pillar edict, ibid.

notes to chapter 11

349

09): 34. 4th Delhi-Topra pillar edict, Hultzsch (1925): 124. 4th Delhi-Topra pillar edict, ibid. 4th Delhi-Topra pillar edict, ibid. 4th Delhi-Topra pillar edict, ibid. 8): 175. –26. The death penalty is also mentioned in other chapters, ance in 4.12.1 where a woman who has not attained puberty use she has been violated by a man of the same ‘varna’, the ent being death. Kangle (1972): pt. II, 282–5. nd N of 4th Delhi-Topra pillar edict, Hultzsch (1925): 125. the 5th Delhi-Topra pillar edict states that ‘Until (I had been) twenty-six years, in this period the release of prisoners was y me twenty-five (times).’ Ibid.: 128. Topra pillar edict, ibid.: 127–8. 91): 527–8. . (1967): 31. 4). 50): 49.

3. 46): 132. 1960): 111. 2013): 247–51. 3): 144–5. . cription of these methods, Report of the Committee for the n of Cruelty to Animals (1957): 126. ests over Game’, in Rangarajan (2001): 46–59. 6th Delhi-Topra edict, Hultzsch (1925): 130. 7th Delhi-Topra edict, ibid.: 133.

notes to chapter 12

hapter 12:  Of Wifely Woes and the Death

msa XX.1–6. Geiger (1912): 136. The name of this queen n three forms in this chapter, depending upon the source—as kha in the Mahavamsa, Tishyarakshita in the Ashokavadana, sarakshita in Abanindranath Tagore. (1993): 260. He refers to the Vamsatthappakasini. msa XIX. Geiger (1912): 128–35. msa XIX.85, ibid.: 135. ssay on the ambiguities of Buddhist kingship as seen through rocosm of Ashoka’s wives, Strong (2002). 1989): 257. 58. 70. 73. 73–4. 84. 85. tire section is based on that chapter. See Strong (1989):

80): 86.

ilogue:  The Emperor’s Afterlife

memory of Ashoka, see the collection of articles in Olivelle especially Deeg (2009). Also see Strong (1989) and Ray (2012). historical traditions of ancient India, Thapar (2013). he Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana mention Kunala, palita, Indrapalita, Devavarma, Shatadhanus, and Brhad­ he Matsya Purana list is made up of four names—Dasharatha, ti, Shatadhanvan, and Brhadratha. A list of seven is provided Vishnu Purana—Kulala, Bandhupalita, Dashona, Dasharatha, ti, Shalisuka, Devadharman, Shatadhanvan, and Brhadratha. Buddhist texts, the Ashokavadana’s list is made up of several

notes to epilo gue

351

1913): 29. Satavahanas and their successors, Chattopadhyay (2014):

989): 292. 67): 245. e dynasty is said to have come to an end around 180 bce, occasional references to later rulers related to the Mauryas. ar, for instance, draws attention to Xuanzang’s allusion to man, a king of Magadha who ruled some time before the raveller’s visit. Purnavarman is said to have restored the e destroyed by Sashanka, king of Karnasuvarna (Bengal). He ed by the Chinese pilgrim as the ‘last of the race of Asokandarkar (1957): 49. huri (1953): 328. 989): 294. s of the caves at Nagarjuni hill and Dasharatha’s epigraphs, 1951): 151–2,154–6. The Gopika cave is a single rectangular with a vaulted roof; the Vahiyaka cave is similarly shaped; hika cave is smaller and less imposing than the other two. ma cave and the Vishvamitra cave at Barabar, as also the and Vadathika caves at Nagarjuni, show such defacement. 1951): 157. anapura is modern Paithan in Maharashtra while Pokhara r in Rajasthan. Many other place-names figure as well. See Foucher, and Majumdar (1940): vol. 1, 297–362. There are n 600 inscriptions on Stupa 1, of which nearly 350 are on d balustrade. ions where the domicile of donors is mentioned at Bharhut, Waldschmidt, and Mehendale (1963): 16–35. The railing and viving elements of the Bharhut stupa were dismantled on the of Alexander Cunningham in the nineteenth century and o the Indian Museum, Calcutta where they are on display. –178. 6. scription of the sculptural relief and the epigraph, ibid.:

notes to epilo gue

l, Foucher, and Majumdar (1940): vol. 1, 215–16; vol. 2, . This is on the middle lintel. ol. 2, Plate 18. ol. 3, Plate 79. 1992): 58–9, 88–9. nel was divided into two or three registers with as many as sters in 16 panels devoted to narratives in the life of the . For the dimensions and details of the drum slabs and their matter, Poonacha (2011): 86–90, 262–304. ames being Chhimuka, Satkarni, Pulumavi, and Sundara ni. 93–4. 96–7. ection most recently highlighted in all its spatial and tem­ sonances in Singh (2014 forthcoming). Also see Singh (un­ ed). the purport of the relevant (from our perspective) part of ription as presented by Singh from the translation offered by H. Luce. For an early translation of this inscription, Sein Ko 12): 119. ured in the text of the proposals sent by the foreign minister overnment of Burma when he wrote to the governor general. in Ahir (1994): 86. 84): vol. I, 17, 22–3, 30, 34–6. 5. ol. 3, 327. 77. 92. 72. 84): vol. 2, 145. 70. 08. 9. 81. 46, 251.

notes to epilo gue

353

00): vol. I, 4.

gini I.101. Ibid.: 19. gini I.104. Ibid. gini I.104. Ibid. gini I.105–6 for Shiva shrines. Ibid.:20. gini I.107. Ibid. 896 ): vol. 2, 375–6. . eface states: ‘As early as the seventeenth century Dr. Bernier, visit to Kashmir in the summer of 1664 we owe the first account of the Valley, and one as accurate as it is attractive, ed his attention to the “histories of the ancient Kings of e.” The Chronicle, of which he possessed a copy, and of he tells us, he was preparing a French translation, was, not Kalhana’s work, but a Persian compilation, by Haidar dura, prepared in Jahangir’s time avowedly with the help ajatarangini. Also the summary of Kasmir rulers which effenthaler a century later reproduced in his “Description de as still derived from that abridged rendering.’ Stein (1900):

akurta (1996): 54.

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08. Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt. New York: Basic Books. 12. Righteous Republic—The Political Foundation of Modern mbridge and London: Harvard University Press. 000. ‘The Sannathi Inscriptions and the Questions they oceedings of the Indian History Congress. Golden Jubilee 99, Calicut, pp. 1081–6. 002. Excavations at Gotihawa and a Territorial Survey in u District of Nepal. Lumbini: Lumbini International nstitute. Coccia. 2008. ‘Further Excavations at Gotihawa (1998–99)’, Raven, South Asian Archaeology 1999. Groningen: Egbert p. 254–63. 007. Chirand Excavations Report 1961–64 and 1967–1970. rectorate of Archaeology, Dept. of Youth, Art and Culture Bihar). 1985. ‘Early Historical Arachosia in South-East Afghanistan: place between East and West’, Iranica Antiqua XX: 55–99. 1903 (rpntd 1975). Report on the Excavations at Pataliputra he Palibothra of the Greeks. Delhi: Sanskaran Prakashak. 04–5 (rpntd 2012). On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India 45. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 27. The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and London: Macmillan. M. 1947–8. ‘Brahmagiri and Chandravalli 1947: Megalithic r Cultures in the Chitaldrug District, Mysore State’, Ancient 80–310. Flames over Persepolis. New York: Reynal. 1933 (rpntd 1972). A History of Indian Literature Volume II. Literature and Jaina Literature. New Delhi: Oriental Books orporation.

Index Note: ‘n’ stands for notes; ‘f ’ for figures

ala 87 71, 133, 162–3 167 7 nscriptions of 166 75 120, 162, 163f, 266,

aphs in 10, 164. See har edict; Laghman -i-Darunta stone

rading connections 61–2, 164 uryan empire 5, 161,

heritage of 173 osia, Kandahar 5



and Barabar caves 37, 229, 230, 233 Buddha and 35 and Buddhists 35–6, 235 Dasharatha’s patronage of 292, 293 and doctrine of predestination 35 and Jainas 36, 235 and Nagarjuni caves 292–3, 351n.10 prophecy regarding Ashoka 34–5, 36–7, 38 Akbar, emperor 6, 206 Akbar Nama 24 Alexander of Macedon 4, 51, 163, 114 expansion of empire 112 narrative accounts of 11, 121, 319n.22 Taxila, capture of 66, 71 Allahabad pillar 257, 260–1 and Queen Karuvaki’s edict 278 Allen, Charles 14, 15

index

a 134, 287 cal records, lack of 3–4

n in ancient texts 272 1–2, 193, 271 s 192–3 sures 271, 274–5, 276 Gonatas of Macedon 25 Theos of the Seleucid m 25 161, 163–4. See also r

dict and 166, 167, 168,

s source material 7, 10, 2 Kautilya) 9, 19, 59–60 miliarity with 187–8 scription in 198 d empire-building 111,

tha, description of 91 ty in 270 d sons and 64, 65 f princes in 63 ions in 186, 188 gship in 110–12 layout in 76 61–3, 186–7 ur sons and 64 s for military march in

n for royal purohit 41 unications and 120 s in 60–1 Mauryan times 19,

als’ integrity in 105, 106 ing’s trusted helpers and



ancient chronicles on 6–7 appeal of 4–5, 12 archaeology and 7, 10, 12, 21–2 birth of 24, 25 birth prophecies and 28–9, 31, 32–3 bordering states and 185–6 and Buddhism 108–10, 132–6, 181, 209–10, 236, 305–6 Buddhist literary sources 87 consecration of 103, 107–8 death of 288 early life, legends on 27–9, 30, 31–3 early years as emperor 104–5, 106 extent of empire 5 historians’ interest in 13 image as sovereign 105–7, 305–6 link with modern India 195 memorialization 289, 293–305 mother, legends regarding 31–4 nationalist interest in 13–14 Orientalist discovery of 15 regnal dates 25–6 scholarly texts on 18–22 siblings 62 spiritual quest of 108–10 state affairs and 110 successors 290–1 training of 63–4 Ashokavadana 6, 38 Ashoka’s accession 102–3, 105 Ashoka’s arrival in Taxila 67–9, 71 Ashoka’s birth 28–30, 31–4 Ashoka’s cruelty 105–7 Ashoka’s donations 286–8 Ashoka’s future 34–5, 36–7, 38 Ashoka’s last years 286–8, 296 Ashoka’s successors 291–2 Ashoka as supreme donor 288

index

about Buddha 41 226–7. See also Caves; pas mud Mookerji) 18–19 scriptions (Beni Madhab

cline of the Mauryas Thapar) 19–20, 97 Artefacts (Harry Falk)

dhist Emperor of India mith) 17–18

literature 28 8, 172 h to 90–1, 92, 93–5 trol over 89–90

e at 252f, 253–4 dict 16, 121 55

28f, 229–32, 236 37, 229, 230, 233 293 nstruction of 232–3 mony and 235 9 hab 19 gical excavations at 246 5 i 91

haeological account of 57 ion of Darius 166, 174 69

375

Bhoria stupa 210f, 211, 212, 213 Bhurjapatra 120, 121 Bijak-ki-Pahari (‘inscription hill’) 251–2 Bimbisara 64, 89 Bindusara 4, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 61, 62, 65, 67, 70, 89, 101, 102–3 Birds, as omens 39 Bloch, Theodor 263 Bodh Gaya 289 Mahabodhi temple. See Mahabodhi temple Bodhi tree 296, 297 destruction by Tishyarakshita 282, 283, 284 reception in Sri Lanka 282–3 Bodhigrihas 241 Borderers, Ashoka’s message for 138 in separate rock edicts 222 Bose, Manindra Mohan 181 Bose, Nandlal 296, 306 Boustrophedonic form of writing 128 Brahmagiri 149, 152, 153 Buddhist connection 153 location of 152–3, 155 minor rock edict 127, 141, 142, 149, 151f tradition (porana pakiti), emphasis on 141, 142 Brahmi script 1, 15, 126, 147, 167 Buddha 5, 13, 28, 30 Ajivikas and 35 and Ashoka 139, 339n.7 Ashoka’s birth and 28–9, 31 Asita’s prophecy and 41 communication through oral dis­ course 8–9 Pataliputra, prophecy on 28, 45, 46–7, 49–50

index

nversion to 108–10, 181, 209 e in 5, 19, 246 ves’ reaction to 283. See yarakshita 293 a and 98, 282, 283 a 5, 98, 109, 318n.3

1, 258 y 107 uit 238–46 5–6, 227, 251, 253, 287, 288, 289 rt 294–6, 297–8 Ajivikas 35–6, 235 rchaeological excavations 9 12, 213–14

t edict 251, 253, 254 . 211 ver) 127–8 9 es 228f, 229–32, 236 e 292 ha cave 123 upar cave 231, 233 shi cave 229, 230, 234, 235 aves for Ajivikas 292–3,

cave 157 e 229–30 ave 292 ve 292, 293 pri cave 230 Dilip 94, 220, 266 32–3, 72 cient Mauryan town at

China, oral tradition in 8 Chitradurga cluster 127–8, 141–2, 149. See also Brahmagiri minor edict; Siddapura minor edict; JatingaRameshwara minor edict Cholas 25, 186, 194 Chunar sandstone 241, 254, 258 Cleopatra 11–12, 63, 320n.24 Confucius 8 Conquest and empire-building 111, 112–14 Constantine, emperor 18, 136 Coomaraswamy, Ananda 236 Coral 328–9n.44 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum (A. Cunningham) 16 Cunningham, Alexander 15–16 Dakshinapatha 91 Damoh 95 Dani, Ahmad Hassan 84 Darius I 166 Dasharatha (Ashoka’s grandson) 292–3 patronage of Ajivikas 292, 293, 351n.10 Delhi epigraph 121, 335n.8 Deloche, Jean 92 Deo Markandeya 94 Deotek epigraph 274–5 Devi 87, 95, 97–8, 99, 100, 108, 293 Buddhist connection of 99–101 Dhamma core principle of edicts and 196 description in pillar edicts 267–8 Greek ‘eusebeia’ and 170 idea of 19–20, 181, 182, 191, 193, 195 influence over rulers and 198–9 local officials’ role in 182, 197 religious tolerance and 196, 197

index

ng 298 atras 184–5, 278 50 th 212, 255 a 68, 85–6, 250 9, 220 icts 180, 192, 215, 224 ate rock edicts Kashmir 12–13 7, 282 sion to throne and 102 ual quest and 109–10 of 97 a, The 5, 14 40, 41 6 phs 123 idea of 136–7, 138 75

, 9, 12, 121, 123, 176, 280–1 mode and 176 of 10, 126–7, 129,

103, 104 127–8, 129 Ashoka’s ideas and 22 style of 9 script of 126 s to texts and 129 distribution of 119–20, 202–3 dicts. See Major rock

l communication 120 dicts. See Minor edicts ee Pillar edicts 9–10

377

variety of dialects in 166, 262. See also Kandahar edict variety of surfaces and 121, 123 See also Epigraphs Epigraphs 17, 26, 27, 110 discovery of 14–16 donative 123, 126. See also Hathi­ gumpha epigraph language of 126 local additions to texts and 129 as means of royal communication 7 medium of inscription 123, 126 multilingual 166. See also Kandahar edict official 123, 126 personal affairs and 26, 27, 323n.9 as sources of Ashoka 18–19, 26 See also edicts Erragudi 1–3 altered royal culinary practice and 193 Atavikas, warning to 197–8 conversion to Buddhism and 209–10 dhamma, emphasis on 191, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198–9 engraving style of 128, 232 Kalinga war and 197–8, 200 layout of 121, 177, 205 major rock edicts 142, 182–5, 186–201, 205, 209 morality and 182–3 past and present in 194–5 prohibitions in 191–2, 193 religious tolerance and 195, 196, 197 social rituals and 195, 197 variation in 199–200 Yavanas and 199

index

00 , 305 hips, in early Buddhism

f Aztecs 113 231

9 tma 13, 14, 321n.32 emple 166 or rock edict 17 anjan 57 in Mahabharata 181–2 monastery 257 06, 207, 209 lgrim circuit 213–14 edicts 177, 192, 203, 9, 211 attern 190f, 191 221 92 khali 35, 36 , 244 5

nd 40 7 andra 13 rock edict 129, 134 da 98, 281 Sanchi 296

brick complex 213,

13 na 13, 24, 42, 322n.1

of Kharavela 26–7,

Hultzsch 272, 273 Indica (Megasthenes) 52–3, 54–5, 56–7, 60, 119 Inscriptions of Asoka (A. Cunningham) 15 Intawa, Buddhist monastic site 213, 214 Iran, links with Afghanistan 162 Indraji, Bhagwanlal 16, 17 Isila 152, 153 Jainas, and Ajivikas 36 Jainism 108 influence on Ashoka 272 Jalauka 305 Jambudvipa 37, 45, 136, 299, 300 Jamsedjee, Khan Bahadur Ardeseer 208 Janasana, prediction of Ashoka’s future 37 Jatinga-Rameshwara minor rock edicts 127, 141, 154–6 Jatinga-Rameshwara hill 149, 150, 154–5 Jaugada 219 major rock edicts 180, 192, 215, 217, 218, 219, 224. See also Separate rock edicts Jayaswal, Vidula 241 Jetavana monastery 134 Jina Baba ki Samadhi 213, 214 Jivaka, physician of Rajagriha 70, 91 Junagadh 203 Buddhist connection 211–12. See also Bhoria stupa Mauryan dam in 116, 204f, 205–6, 207–8, 209 as provincial capital 206–7 Rudradaman’s rock inscription

index

te 115, 220 –9, 215, 217, 218 ip and 118 20 or 114–15 er 115–16, 117, 118, 0 , 180–1, 218

icts 178f, 180, 189 nga war 115–16, 117

upa 216, 217, 235, 297 nce 298 162, 165 onquest of 162–3 in 167, 170, 173 osia 161, 165–6, 168–9, 4, 175, 180 tent 168–9 amaic language 166, 170–1 ity 169–70

100 200 , 346n.22 ave 231, 233 278, 283 Allahabad pillar 283 ’s connection with 305 count of 303–4 , 257 57, 259 328n.38 335n.10 inscription of 26–7, 126

379

Kukkutarama monastery 286–8 Kumaragupta II 26 Kunala, prince 284–5, 286 commemorative stupa of 302 Laghman edicts 164, 171 Lakha Medi stupa. See Bhoria stupa Lalitavistara, Asita’s prophecy in 41 Lapis lazuli 162, 266–7 Lauriya-Araraj pillar edicts 260, 266 Lauriya-Nandangarh pillar edicts 260, 263 Lichchavis. See Vajjis Life of Antony 11 Lomasha Rishi cave 229, 230, 232–3, 234f, 235 Lumbini 237, 238, 239, 277 Ashoka’s epigraph and 242–3 Maya Devi Temple at 239, 240f, 241–2 pillar 239, 240f, 241, 243, 245 Ripumalla’s inscription and 243, 301 Xuanzang’s description of 301 Magadha 4, 29, 34, 36, 44, 45, 47, 49, 51f, 89, 98, 102, 172 Pataliputra as capital of. See Pataliputra Magas of Cyrene 25 Mahabharata, prophecies in 39 Mahabodhi temple 135, 181 Ashoka’s connection to 237, 345n.19 Burmese repair missions 298–9 sculptural representation 294 stone throne at 236, 237, 294 Mahamatras 123, 142, 197 Maharathi, Upendra 296 Mahavamsa 6, 17, 38, 107, 251

index

cts 176–80, 188–9, 201,

ection in 271. See also major rock edicts d 196. See also Dhamma,

ahamatras and 184–5 or rock edicts. See Dhauli ck edicts ck major edicts. See rock major edicts or rock edicts 177, 1, 192, 203, 205, 209,

in 176 omposition of 188–9,

or rock edicts 180, 5, 217, 218, 219,

200 rock edicts. See Kalsi ck edicts 188 major rock edicts 177,

edicts and 176, 177 re and 184, 185–6 d 185–6 nduct in 176 186, 187 esent in 183–4 engraving in 188–91 lity in 182–3 ajor edicts 179f, 180, 5, 217, 224 hi major rock edicts 177, 9 n 200 G. 266

Maski archaeological excavations 143–5, 146, 336n.34 graffiti 146–7 location of 143–4, 147–9 minor rock edict 17, 121, 129, 130f, 146, 152, 154 significance of location 145–6 Maurya, Chandragupta 4, 51, 52, 53 114, 161, 163, 206, 290 army of, Megasthenes’ account 334n.19 and Junagadh dam 205 regnal dates 25 Taxila, conquest of 70, 71 Maya Devi Temple, at Lumbini 239, 240f, 241–2 Meat eating, prohibition of 191–2, 193 Meerut pillar 263, 301 Megasthenes 4, 51–3, 290 Chandragupta’s army, account of 334n.19 emperor’s security and 55 Pataliputra, account of 52, 53, 54–5, 56, 57 royal hunt and 55 Mindon, king of Burma 299 Minor rock edicts 118–19, 121, 123, 126, 132–5, 136, 143, 147–8, 177, 200, 335n.2 Bairat minor rock edict 16, 121 Brahmagiri minor rock edicts. See Brahmagiri minor rock edicts Buddhist content of 132–4, 135, 200, 209 dissemination of morality through 200 Erragudi minor rock edicts 177. See also Erragudi major rock edicts Gavimath minor rock edict 17

index

icts and 176, 177 rock edict. See Maski k edict rock edicts 121, 142,

inor rock edict 123,

nor rock edict 157–60 121, 123 agiri minor rock edicts 123f, 335n.8 minor rock edict 17,

or rock edict. See minor rock edict r rock edict 123 nor rock edicts 127, 141, 153–4 nor rock edicts 154 5, 85, 145 kumud 13, 18–19 7, 18, 135, 136, 181, 200, 222 pire 184, 185–6 tion of 182–3 185–6, 267–8, 277–9 ion 141, 200 , 140–1 mma, idea of ra 306 175 1–2

Xuanzang and 301 for Ajivikas 292–3,

18n.2 al 5–6, 14, 318n.7 oka’s pilgrimage route 5–6. See also Nigali

381

Niglihawa pillar. See Nigali Sagar pillar Nigrodha, role in Ashoka’s conversion 109–10 Nittur minor rock edicts 121, 142, 154 Norman, K.R. 272 Odyssey 30 Oedipus Rex 30 Official epigraphs 123, 126 Olivelle, Patrick 60, 141 Orality, as form of communication 7–9 Orissa edicts 192, 217–18. See also Dhauli major rock edicts; Jaugada major rock edicts Outline of History, The (H.G. Wells) 5 Palas 25 Palkigundu minor rock edict 123, 124f, 125f Panguraria painted rock shelters 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 337n.47 minor rock edict 157–60 Pant, P.C. 241 Parantapa Jataka 39 Pasandas 109 Pasenadi, king of Kosala 64 Passage to India, A (E.M. Forster) 231–2 Pataliputra 29, 42, 47, 49–50, 51, 52, 54, 299 Ashoka’s association with 44–5, 101, 250–1 Buddha’s prophecy regarding 28, 45, 46–7, 49–50 Buddhist council at 258 defence of 57, 58 drainage system 57, 75 early settlements 46, 326n.9 J.D. Beglar’s account of 57 Maurayan court art and 59

index

d 57, 58 ological assessment 53–4 description of 43–5 6, 49. See also Pataliputra , extent of 112 60–2, 263, 276–80 ghter in 270–6 are measures in 271–4 ty and 270 escription in 267–8 raj pillar edicts 260, 266 ndangarh pillar edicts 3 262–3, 265–6 state policy in 267–8,

days in 273–4 269–70 pillar edicts 260, 262,

r edict 257–8, 259 ar edict 255–7, 259 ibility, insistence on 268 edicts 261, 263, 301 ars Pataliputra 58, 226, 251 27, 239, 241, 301 illar segment 263, 265f,

illar 243–5 r at Sanchi 296 segment 263, 264f, 266 lar 239, 240f, 241, 243,

ar 263, 301 pillar 245, 301 ar 245, 254–5, 256,

ar at Sanchi 296 68

Political authority in Mauryan empire 172 royal symbols of 200–1 Poonacha, K.P. 217 Prabhas Patan, Mauryan settlement at 206, 207 Pradyota, ruler of Avanti 4, 89, 91 Prakrit 126, 167, 168 Predestination, Ajivika doctrine of 35 Prinsep, James 15 Prophecy and prognostications 38, 39–42 as narrative technique 30–1, 38 Proto-secularism 195, 196 Ptolemies 113 Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt 25 Pul-i-Darunta stone inscription 164, 171 Pulumavi, king, record of 291 Punic wars 112 Puranas 4 Ashoka’s successors, details of 290–1, 350n.2 Pushyamitra 292 Radhanagar, historic site of 219, 220 Raja Nala-ka Tila, evidence of meat eating 275 Rajagriha 29, 49 fortification of 89 as Magadhan capital 46, 47– 9, 51, 52 Rajatarangini, account of Ashoka in 304–5 Rajendra Chola I 145 Rajukkas 142, 269–70, 278 Rajula-Mandagiri minor edicts 121, 122f, 123f, 335n.8 Ramagrama relic stupa 242, 295, 299 Ramayana 35, 90, 154–5

index

or rock edict 17, 134

ce, espousal of 195, 9 94 e of communication 7 ptions on Ashokan 3, 301

radition 24–5 ons 120, 121. See also edicts 0 2n.6 nagadh rock inscription 7, 205–6, 207, 208 3 rock edict 94, 132–40 34–5, 136–40 of humans and gods 8 Buddhism 132–4,

e utopia 136–7, 138 cial inclusiveness 137,

ent 138–9 tween Buddha and 39 meaning 139–40

m 253, 254 urban architecture 57,

6 0, 221 la’s son) 287, 291–2 mpadin ing 12, 13, 15, 220

383

Shunga pillar at 296 stupa 257, 258, 293–4, 295–6, 297f Sanghamitra 98, 101, 282, 283, 297 Sankisa 299 Sannathi 143, 192 Mauryan occupation 215–17 Sannathi major rock edicts 179f, 180, 192, 215, 224 omission of Kalinga edict 215, 217 Sariputra 134 Sarnath 237, 254 Buddhist community and 303 Dharmarajika stupa at 212, 255 Govindachandra’s inscription 302–3, 304 Kumaradevi’s vihara at 302–3 Kumaragupta II epigraph at 25–6 Sarnath pillar 245, 254– 5, 255–7, 256, 259 Saru-Maru cave 157 Sasaram minor rock edict 123 Satapatha Brahmana 192 Satavahanas 25, 217, 291, 297–8 Saurashtra, Mauryan control over 206 Seleucus I Nicator 161, 163–4 Separate rock edicts 215, 218, 219, 269 address to Borderers 222 message to Kalinga administrators 221–4 Shahbazgarhi major rock edicts 177, 180, 189, 192 Shahr-i Sokhta 162 Shamasastry, R. 59–60 Shortughai, Harappan connection 162 Shramanas 180, 181, 183 Shunga dynasty 292, 293, 296 Sibi Jataka 301–2 Siddapura minor rock edicts 127, 129,

index

rly historic site of 219,

t 17–18, 268 eness, idea of 137, 138 Ashoka’s opinion of 195,

ues 7

r 207, 208 le in ancient India 40–1 92 edicts 180, 192 dhism in 5, 98, 109,

2–13, 226, 343n.17 pa 90, 236, 294–5, 351n.13 a 210f, 211, 212, 213 ka stupa at Sarnath 212,

ka stupa at Taxila 68, 50 lli stupa. See ahalli stupa upa 100 a (or Niglihawa) stupa 5 ick stupas 211–12 tupa, Xuanzang’s account relic stupa 242, 295,

a 257, 258, 293–4 pa 246–9, 250, 302 229–30 e 205, 208–9, 214 ck well at 213, 214 2, 103 41 27, 152

Ashoka’s arrival in 65, 66–7, 68–70, 71 Ashokavadana’s account of 67–9, 71 city plan 74 conquest by Alexander 71 Dharmarajika stupa at 68, 85–6, 250 drainage system of 73, 75 houses and public buildings 72 houses, layout of 80–3 importance of 70–1 pillar at 68 refuse disposal system 77–8 seals 83, 84–5 size of 72 soak wells 82–3 street and lane layout 73–7 stupa 301 temple at 78–80 Thapar, Romila 19 Ashoka’s marriage to Devi, views on 97–8 Dhamma, views on 19–20 Mauryan administration, description of 172, 173 Tilaurakot 238–9 Tissa, Devanampiya, conversion to Buddhism 5, 109 Tishyarakshita, queen 296 Ashokavadana’s account of 283–6 destruction of Bodhi tree 282, 283 Tissarakkha. See Tishyarakshita, queen Tod, James 206 Girnar rock edicts, description of 203, 205 Topra pillar edict 261, 263, 301 addition of Seventh Edict 277–9 analysis of 267–8, 269–72, 277 location 266 Tosali 219, 220

index

Ashoka’s journey to

thern road) 70

292 92, 293 2, 246 r at 249–50 212, 249, 250 246–9 tecture of 246 ng’s description of

246, 247 sini, prediction of estiny 38 7 of 89 93, 98–9, 143, 294 th Devi 87, 95, 97–8,

385

Wells, H.G. 5 Wheeler, Mortimer 170 William the Conqueror 288 Wu Zetian, empress 5 Wu, emperor 5 Xuanzang 13, 47 Ashokan pillars and 239, 241, 300–1 Ashoka’s Kashmir and 303–4 Ashoka’s Mahabodhi, reference to 237, 345n.19 Pataliputra, account of 43–5 Pataliputra pillar epigraph and 300 stupas, account of 301–2 Vaishali stupa, description of 250, 302

1 ve 230

Yatra 182 dhamma yatra 181, 182 ghosha yatra 181–2 vihara yatra 181 Yavanas 185, 198, 199

ce Austin 58

Zheng, king 113