Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor

by Charles R. Allen

  14 Gita Mehta, ‘In the Footsteps of the Buddha’, Tricycle: the Buddhist Review, Winter 1998.

  15 Romila Thapar, ‘Propaganda as History Won’t Sell’, Hindustan Times, 9 December 2001.

  16 P. K. Mishra, ‘Deorkother: a Milestone of History’, Govt. of India Press Release, 4 February 2003. See also Mishra, ‘Excavations at the Buddhist Site of Deorkjothar (Barhat) District Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India 1999–2001’, CIAA Newsletter, Issue 13, June 2001.

  17 B. N. Mukherjee, ‘A Fragmentary Inscription Referring to Aoka’, in Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India, forthcoming. Most regrettably, no clear photographs of the two sculptures or their inscriptions have been as yet published.

  Chapter 16. The Rise and Fall of Ashokadharma

  1 The Mahavamsa gloss states that Chanakya was a native of Taxila, where Chandragupta spent several years as his pupil. Although this commentary is comparatively late there seems no reason to doubt its veracity in this context.

  2 Although traditionally dated to earlier centuries, the fact that Panini uses the word yavanani, or ‘Greek script’, in his Ashtadhyayi points to the fourth century BCE. His mention of King Ambhi, who ruled before and after Alexander, narrows him down to that same era. The unreliable Manjusri-mula-tantra specifically links Panini to Nanda: ‘The king Virasena will rule for 70 years and will be succeeded by the king Nanda. The latter’s reign will endure 56 years and his friend will be the Brahman Panini. Then there will appear the king Chandragupta …’

  3 The word gupta is commonly understood to mean ‘preserved’ or ‘protected’, but it is also the name of a clan belonging to the Vaisya caste, such as those who many centuries later established the Gupta dynasty. That matches the detail of Chandragupta being, as Justinus puts it, ‘born in humble life’.

  4 Parisishtaparvan of Hemachandra, trans. P. L. Bhargava.

  5 W. W. Tarn, The Greeks of Bactria and India, 1938.

  6 Within twenty years all but a handful were dead, and so played no decisive role in the final battle of the Wars of the Successors, fought in 281 BCE, in which the elderly Seleukos faced his old friend and rival Lysimachus on the battlefield of Corupedium and saw him slain. The last survivors of these Mauryan war elephants were deployed in 279 BCE by Alexander’s cousin Pyrrhus in his ‘pyrrhic’ victory against the Romans.

  7 Strabo in Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature, trans. J. W. McCrindle, 1901.

  8 These migrants were Digambara, or ‘sky-clad’ (i.e. naked), Jains, who at this time broke away from the less austere Swetambaras to form their own sub-sect.

  9 Taranatha, History of Buddhism in India, trans. Lama Chimpa Alaka Chattopadhyaya, 1970.

  10 Gosala, founder of the Ajivika sect, taught that man’s fate was pre-determined and since nothing could be done to alter the outcome, life should be suffered with indifference. However, what little is known about the Ajivikas comes mainly from Jain and Buddhist sources, and since the founders of both these religions were initially influenced by Gosala but went on to reject his doctrines, those sources must be regarded as suspect.

  11 See the appendix in John S. Strong, The Legend of King Aoka, 1983.

  12 The Queen’s Edict appended to Ashoka’s edicts on the Allahabad Pillar Edict names Karuvaki as ‘second queen, mother of Tivara’; the Great Dynastic Chronicle names Ashoka’s chief queen as Asandhimitra, who died in the thirtieth year of Ashoka’s reign; the Divine Stories names queen Padmavati, mother of Dharmavivardhana, also known as Kunala; and the Great Dynastic Chronicle, the Divine Stories and Taranatha’s History are in rare agreement in naming Ashoka’s last ‘chief queen’ as Tissarakkha, or Tishyarakshita. As for offspring, the Ashokan edicts speak of four unnamed kumaras, or ‘princes’, ruling as viceroys in different regions of the Indian subcontinent; Taranatha states that Ashoka had eleven sons, the best being Kunala, and names Ashoka’s successor as his son Virasena; the Legend of King Ashoka names Kunala’s son, who ruled in his father’s place because of his blindness, as Sampadin; Faxian names a son of Ashoka ruling in Taxila as Dharmavivardhana; and Kalhana’s Kashmir chronicle speaks of a son of Ashoka who ruled there after his death as Jalauka. A daughter named Charumati is said to have married Khattiya Devapala in Nepal, the two of them presiding over two monasteries in what is today the town of Patan. Only the Great Dynastic Chronicle mentions Ashoka’s two eldest children by his first wife, Mahinda and Sanghamitta.

  13 Akbar the Great spent most of his five decades as emperor of India waging a succession of campaigns and never conquered the southern tip. Even the ninety-year Pax Britannica from 1857 to 1947 took place with two-fifths of India sub-contracted to several hundred Indian maharajas, rajas and nawabs.

  14 RE 10, as rendered by Ven. S. Dhammika, The Edicts of King Asoka, 2009.

  15 Ven. S. Dhammika, The Edicts of King Asoka, 2009.

  16 John S. Strong, The Legend of King Aoka, 1983.

  17 One intriguing alternative reading of this episode is that Ashoka’s son Kunala was actually sent to Taxila for his education and that the emperor’s message in Brahmi was altered by his son’s enemies, the word adhya, for ‘educate’, being altered by the addition of a dot to read andhya, meaning ‘blind’.

  18 It seems a shame to point out that not a single gold piece from the Mauryan era has been found.

  19 Li Rongxi trans., The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, 1996.

  Index

  Abbott, Major James, 233–4

  Abdullah, Shaikh, 86

  Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre, 200–1, 224

  Abu al-Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 41

  Afghanistan, 40, 60, 131, 211, 233, 328, 337–9, 352, 385; Afghan Wars, 183, 310, 337

  Ahilya Bai Holkar, Rani, 21

  Ahraura MRE site, 349, 351

  Ajatasatru, King, 143

  Ajivika sect, 51, 225, 298, 363, 373, 374, 391, 395, 396

  Akbar, Emperor, 164, 318, 347

  Akram-ul-Haq, Shaikh, 320, 322

  Ala-ud-din Khalji, Sultan, 8

  Al-Biruni, 33

  Alexander, James, 116–18

  Alexander II, King of Epirus, 259, 260

  Alexander the Great, 16, 68, 338, 363, 364, 367, 368; Chandragupta and, 50–1, 53, 55, 57–8, 365–6; Indian mercenaries and, 50, 53, 55, 58, 67, 364, 365–6; invasion of India (started 327–326 BCE), 45, 46–54, 234, 235, 260, 365–6; Macedonian satraps in India, 54, 55, 57, 59–61, 62, 68, 132, 133, 260, 366; return journey from India, 54–6

  Alexandria, royal library at, 5

  Allahabad, 16, 71, 390–1; stone pillar at, 16, 71, 85, 109, 137–8, 140, 159, 163, 244, 294

  Allen, Charles, works by, xv

  Amaravati stupa, 91, 270, 273, 275, 278, 280–1, 288, 336, 353, 397; James Burgess and, 90–2, 304–5; Colin Mackenzie and, 69, 85, 86–9, 110, 280–1; depictions of Wheel-turning Monarch at, 88, 89, 92–5, 94, 274, 305, 398, 398

  Ambedkar, Dr Bhimrao Ramji, 357

  Amrita Nanda Bandya, 126

  Andhra (Satavahana) dynasty, 36, 91, 238–9, 247, 288, 304–5, 397–8

  Androkottos, King see Chandragupta, King

  Anglo-Sikh War, Second, 235

  Antigonos, 60, 61

  Antigonos II, 259, 260

  Antiochos II, 62, 179, 259, 260, 296

  Antiochos Soter, 61, 62, 175–6, 178, 179, 259, 374

  Aornos, rock of (Fortress Mountain), 49–50, 51, 53, 55, 234, 235, 364, 365

  Apollodotus Soter, 276

  Appian (Roman historian), 57, 58

  Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), 285, 291–5, 310, 332, 354, 358–9; abolition and revival of (1866-71 period), 263; James Burgess appointed Surveyor General, 304–5; Cunningham as Director, 252–63; Cunningham as Director-General, xvii, 236, 263–78, 291, 294–302, 303, 305, 312, 318–19

  archaeology, 200, 304, 305, 332, 360; Alexander Cunningham and, 136–7, 235–6, 237–40, 243, 244, 245, 246–9, 261, 270–6, 295, 304; Anton Führer and, 310–14; EICo and, 221, 224; local hostility and, 156–7, 339
–40; Pataliputra excavations, 317–26, 325; Sanchi excavation (1851), 236–49, 334, 382, 387; see also Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

  Aristotle, 48, 51, 364

  Arrian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon), 45, 49–50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 61, 62, 234, 272–3

  Arsaces (Parthian chief), 62

  ‘Aryan Invasion theory’, 358

  Asandhimitra (Ashoka’s queen), 150, 296, 298, 376–7, 392

  Ashoka, xv–xvii; absence of sculptures of, 336; administrative system of, 315, 316, 388–9; Ajivika sect and, 225, 298, 373, 374; Ashoka the Wrathful, 198, 374, 376, 377–8, 380; Ashoka’s Hell (prison), 190, 191, 198, 216, 318, 377, 379; Ashokavadana (’Legend of King Ashoka’), 186–200, 296, 313, 328, 330, 342, 359, 374–5, 377–8, 382, 388, 390, 391, 393; birth of, 188, 297, 374; Ceylon and, 147–50, 151, 199, 296, 298, 386, 387, 390; in Chinese Buddhism (as Wuyou Wang), 204–5, 206–9, 210, 212–15, 216–17; collecting/distribution of Buddha relics, 191, 198, 208, 248, 329–30, 340–3, 346, 387; conquest of Kalinga, 176–7, 179, 187, 282–4, 285, 298, 361, 380; conversion to Buddhism, 145, 176–7, 179, 187, 188, 190–1, 198, 266–8, 296, 297–8, 351, 352, 359, 379, 380–1; dating of anointment as ruler, 68, 179, 186, 259–60, 296, 297, 378; death of, 150, 151, 195, 394–5, 396; discoveries since Indian independence, 348–51, 358–61; espousal of non-violence, xi, 177, 180, 262, 283–4, 354, 355–6, 384; evidence of in Nepal, 126–7, 127; final years of, 194–5, 216, 390–4, 395–6; in Great Dynastic Chronicle (as ‘King Darmasoca’), 100–2, 141, 144–52, 164–5, 186, 249, 267–8, 284, 375, 378, 379, 382, 395; Hindutva movement’s rejection of, 358; Indian nationalism and, 347–8; as India’s founding father, xi, 354; mahamatras (special religious officers), 283, 352, 383; missionary programme, xii, 148–9, 152, 179, 186, 247, 248, 290, 298, 386, 387; modern Indian indifference to, 354–5; mother of, 188, 373; pilgrimages of, 187, 191–2, 294, 298, 313, 345, 351, 381, 382; proclaimed Dharmashoka (‘Ashoka of the Moral Law’), 146, 380, 399; religious tolerance and, xii, xiv–xv, 174, 180, 384, 389; revealed as author of Edicts, 168–9, 179–80, 249; in River of Kings, 76–7; scholarly publications on, 330, 346–8; skin condition/physical appearance, 188, 190, 343, 344, 374–5, 378, 398, 398; symbols of modern India and, 355–7; in Taranatha’s, History of Buddhism in India, 197–200; Taxila and, 262, 375–6; triumph/legacy of, 398–9, 400; as viceroy to Ujjain, 101, 144, 296, 351, 376; welfare and, xi, 172, 179, 283, 383–4, 388–9

  Ashokarama monastic complex (Kukkutarama, ‘Cock’ monastery), 145–6, 151, 191, 194, 216, 317, 393; last gift to (cherry plum fruit), 195, 216, 346, 394; Pushyamitra destroys, 196; Third Buddhist Council at, 147, 186, 187, 216, 248, 296, 326, 386–7; Yashah as abbot of, 191, 194, 197, 382

  Asiatic Society of Bengal, 37–8, 126, 128–9, 137, 138, 224, 264, 265, 268, 291; Colebrooke as President, 73, 74–5; Cunningham on, 285–6; founding of, 29–30; Jones as President, 30, 41, 67–8, 70–1, 77; Mauryan Sohgaura plate and, 315, 315, 316–17; membership opened to Indians, 75; museum of, 87, 129, 285, 318–19; opposition to Anglicisation, 114–15; Prinsep as Secretary, 130–2, 138, 139, 141–2, 154, 159–65; RAS and, 114; Turnour’s translation of Great Dynastic Chronicle and, 141–2; Wilson as Secretary, 74–5, 77–8, 110–13, 119, 124, 127, 128–30, 138; see also Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (JASB)

  Asiatick Researches, 30, 42, 68, 71, 127, 129, 130, 137, 140

  Assakenoi and Aspasioi mountain tribes, 48–9, 50, 53, 364, 365

  Assaye, battle of (23 September 1803), 72

  Athenaios (Greek philosopher), 58, 61

  Auckland, Lord, 183

  Aurangzeb, Emperor (died 1707), 19–20, 21, 22, 125

  Ayodhya, xiii, 34, 253–4, 354

  Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala, xiii–xiv

  Babur (Mughal emperor), xiii, 74, 232–3

  Babylon, 46, 56, 57, 68, 229, 250, 367

  Bactria, 57, 163, 209, 230, 290; Bessos as satrap, 46–7, 50, 365; coinage, 133, 134, 163, 229, 234, 262; Graeco-Bactrians, 62–3, 131–2, 133, 134, 163, 234, 260, 262, 289, 335, 396; Indo-Bactrians, 163, 234

  Badrinath shrine in Garhwal Himal, xiii

  Bagnold, John, 107

  Bakhra (Vaishali), 85, 151, 215, 343

  Bamiyan (Afghanistan), 131, 211

  Banerjee, R.D., 332

  Banks, Joseph, 25

  Basantapala, King of Gaur, 44

  Beglar, Joseph, 263–4, 265, 268, 291, 295, 300, 302, 304; photographs by, 1, 39, 227, 251, 256, 271, 273

  Begram (Kapisha), 47, 211, 338

  Bellew, Dr Henry, 234–5

  Bengal, 5, 7, 21, 28, 32, 44, 64, 114, 218, 300, 320; King Sasanka of, 218, 254, 399; native Indian scholars, 290–1; Renaissance, 73, 121; reputation as land of nabobs, 30; Supreme Court in Calcutta, 25–6, 29, 30; see also Bihar; Calcutta (now Kolkata)

  Bentinck, Lord, 128, 154

  Bessos (satrap of Bactria), 47, 50, 365

  Bhadrabahu (Jain saint), 84, 372

  Bhagavad Gita, 19, 33

  Bhandarkar, Dr Ramakrishna Gopal, 285, 286–8, 287, 295, 405

  Bharhut stupa, 206, 271, 272, 273, 274, 300, 301, 336, 358, 397; Alexander Cunningham and, xvii, 269–78, 319, 377; gateways and railings, 251, 276, 277, 278, 291, 362, 397

  Bhau Daji, Dr, 288–9

  Bhubaneshwar (Hindu holy city), 108, 109, 112, 155, 156

  Bihar, 37, 38, 80, 214–15, 218, 253, 291, 292–4; ancient Nalanda, xvi, 1, 3–5, 81, 218–19, 254, 400; Buchanan’s EICo survey of, 78–81, 292; discoveries during 1890s, 314–22, 326–8; fortress of, 4, 80, 254; Kittoe’s ‘rambles through’, 224–5; Muhammad Bakhtiyar’s invasion of, 3–5, 7; Nepalese surrender of North Bihar (1816), 106; royal highway of Ashokan pillars, 387; see also Magadha, kingdom of

  Bimbisara, King, 80

  Bindusara, King (also Allitrochades or Amitrochates), 61, 168, 178, 196, 200, 369, 372, 375; Ajivika sect and, 373, 374; birth of, 368; in Cunningham’s and Kern’s chronology, 296, 297; death of, 144, 189, 296, 377; in the Great Dynastic Chronicle, 101, 143–4, 145, 368; in the Puranas, 35, 36, 68, 373; rejection of Ashoka, 188–9, 374

  Bird, William, 21

  Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford, 129, 249

  Bodhgaya, great temple at (now Mahabodhi Temple), 43, 78–80, 79, 163, 191, 207, 216–18, 224–5, 300–2, 302; Cunningham’s excavations at, 236, 254–5, 300–2, 301; see also Bodhi tree: at Bodhgaya

  Bodhi tree, 88, 105, 240–2, 274–5, 342, 378, 391, 393, 398; at Bodhgaya, 79, 173, 208, 216–18, 241, 254–5, 300–1, 399; at Bodhgaya, Ashoka’s worship of, 149, 192, 217, 343–5, 375, 385–6, 387, 390; king of Lanka and, 149–50; Queen Tishyarakshita and, 151, 192, 217, 297, 344, 390, 392

  Bombay University, 285–7

  Boria, Cavelli Venkata, 82

  Brahman caste, xv, xviii, 51, 67, 209, 363, 370; Ashoka and, 145, 173, 179, 180, 188, 193, 217, 262, 352, 378, 379, 384, 391; kingship and, 35, 76, 307, 308; pandits, 11, 28, 32–3, 34, 40–1, 82, 84, 121, 126, 222, 305

  Brahmanism, xviii, 92, 211–12, 234, 397, 399–400; aversion to Buddhism, xiii, xiv–xv, 43, 77, 195–6, 218, 359, 397; cult of blood sacrifice, 180, 399; Maurya dynasty and, 370, 371, 372–3, 378, 379, 384–5, 391, 396; Vedas (ancient texts), 11, 41–2, 76, 92, 180, 399–400; see also Puranas

  Brahmi No. 1 script (Brahmi Lipi), xviii, 40–1, 187, 275, 299, 329, 351; Kharosthi and, 133, 229–30, 353–4, 370–1; Prinsep and, 138–41, 153, 158–68, 169–78, 179–80

  Brihadratha, King (founder of dynasty), 34

  Brihadratha, King (last Mauryan king), 36,

  396–7 British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), 29

  British Library, 87

  British Museum, 19, 20, 69, 93–5, 302

  Buchanan, Francis, 42, 78–81, 254, 292, 316

  Buddha, Sakyamuni or Gautama: as ‘African conqueror’, 37, 41; alms bowl of, 149, 204, 208, 212; animals as symbols of, 93, 258, 334–5; Ashoka’s collecting of relics, 341–2, 346, 387; birth of and early years (as Prince Sidhhartha), 207, 214–15, 312–13, 326; Bodh
gaya as place of Enlightenment, 173, 207; body of teachings (Dharma), xix, 78, 165, 335, 386, 387; cremation ashes of, 208, 215; descent from heaven by stairway/ladder, 206, 206, 213, 220, 255; in Great Dynastic Chronicle, 143, 144; ‘Great Final Extinguishing’, 18–19, 43, 78, 143, 168, 186, 191, 207, 215, 294, 296, 297; handful of dirt gift from Ashoka, 188, 208, 374; in Hindu texts, 37; Indian origins of, 42–3, 78; Jetavana monastery and, 214, 274; as ninth avatar of Vishnu, 41–2, 399–400; prophesies on Ashoka, 188, 190–1; relics of, 149, 191, 198, 204, 207–8, 328, 329, 340, 341–2, 346, 387; resides at Bodhgaya, 80; sermon to the devas, 253–4; specific references to in Edicts, 222–4; Tripitaka or ‘Three Baskets’, 187; ‘War of the Relics’, 341, 345–6; Wheel-turning sermon, 207, 215, 226

  Buddha-Gaya, great temple at see Bodhgaya, great temple at

  Buddhism: Ashoka’s children and, 146, 379, 391; Ashoka’s conversion to, 145, 176–7, 179, 187, 188, 190–1, 198, 266–8, 296, 297–8, 351, 352, 359, 379, 380–1; Ashoka’s legacy, 398–9, 400; Ashoka’s obsession with, 194, 388, 390, 391, 393, 394; Ashokavadana (’Legend of King Ashoka’), 186–200, 296, 313, 328, 330, 342, 359, 374–5, 377–8, 382, 388, 390, 391, 393; Bairat-Calcutta inscription and, 222–3; Brahmanical aversion to, xiii, xiv–xv, 43, 77, 195–6, 218, 359, 397; Buddha Konagamana, 311–12; cave temples of western India, 304; in Ceylon, 98–105, 116, 164–5, 199; Chakravartin (’Wheel-turning monarch’), 89, 90, 92–5, 191, 205, 208–9, 210, 214, 305, 335, 354, 398, 398, 399; Chinese, 201, 202, 203–9, 210–20, 235, 253, 317, 318; Dalit underclass and, 357; ‘Deer Park’ at Sarnath, 207, 215, 226, 334; Dharmachakra (Wheel of the Moral Law), 88, 90, 207, 274, 274, 331, 334, 335, 345, 355–6, 359, 385, 386, 393; Dipavamsa (’Island Chronicle’), 104, 143, 168, 379, 395; Divyavadana or ‘Divine Stories’, 78, 186, 197, 296, 310; eclipse of in India, xii–xiii, 3–5, 211–15, 216–18, 234; evidence at Sarnath, 44, 136–7; evidence for origins in India, 42–3, 78–81, 95, 132; Hindutva movement rejection of, 358; Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme Indien (Burnouf, 1844), 128; Jataka Tales, 237–8, 274, 275–6, 310; Kanjur (Tibetan literature), 127; in Kashmir, 76–7, 213, 228; Muslim conquests and, xii–xiii, 3–5; in Nepal, 126–8, 127, 216; northern Mahayana tradition, 185–6, 187, 197, 373, 374, 377–8, 379, 382–3, 386, 387–8, 391, 392, 394; origins of Hindu temples and, xiii–xiv, 126, 359; pancavarsika (quinquennial festival), 390–1, 393, 395; in post-Ashoka period, 396, 397; relic inscriptions, 327, 327–30; reliquaries at Sanchi, 247–8, 382, 387; Schism Edicts and, 244, 257, 334, 352, 382; Second Buddhist Council, 143; southern Theravada tradition, 185, 186–7, 373, 379, 382, 385, 386, 387–8, 392, 395; tantric ritual, 264, 399; Taranatha’s, History of Buddhism in India, 197–200, 373, 382, 391; Third Buddhist Council, 147, 186, 187, 216, 248, 296, 326, 386–7; Tripitaka ‘Three Baskets’ scriptures, 187; Vajrasana (Diamond Throne), 88, 241, 255, 274, 274, 300–1, 301, 302, 345; see also Bodhi tree; Mahavamsa (’Great Dynastic Chronicle’)