HISTORY Subject : History (For under graduate student) Paper No. : Paper-I History of India Topic No. & Title : Topic-8 Mauryan Empire Lecture No. & Title : Lecture-3 Reign of Asoka Reign of Asoka The history of the Mauryas enters its most significant stage during the reign of the third ruler of the dynasty, Asoka, who has left behind an enormous influence on Indian history. He was indeed the most important and celebrated of the political figures of this dynasty, and his reign spanned nearly four decades (c.273-232 BC.). One of the major advantages of studying the reign of Asoka is the availability of a large number of his lithic records or inscriptions, which Asoka himself caused to be engraved on durable and imperishable surfaces (rocks
and pillars). Apart from the inscriptions, Asoka also figures prominently in later Buddhist texts like the Divyavadana, the Asokavadana, and in the Sri Lankan Buddhist texts the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa. However these texts did not belong to the Maurya age, and they often tried to overemphasize the role of Buddhism in shaping Asoka s life. This makes the inscriptions the mainstay of our knowledge of Asoka. The details of Asoka s early life are not clear, except for the fact that he succeeded his father Bindusara around 273 BC., and that his coronation (abhisheka) took place only in 269 BC. This gap of four years may have been because he was involved in a fratricidal struggle to ensure his accession to the throne. Buddhist texts have referred to Asoka as chandasoka (cruel person) for having killed a hundred of his brothers in order to ascend the throne. In portraying Asoka in such a poor light, the Buddhist texts were actually trying to stress the transformative nature of the Buddhist religion, which was able to change the character of a ruler from chandasoka to dharmasoka (pious one). It is noteworthy however,
that nowhere in his inscriptions has Asoka spoken of any such rivalry for neither capturing power, nor that did he massacre his brothers. On the contrary in his edicts we find that he clearly instructs his officials to take proper care of his brothers (olodhanesu). The possibility of a rivalry however cannot be entirely ruled out, as there were precedents of such feuds in previous Magadhan regimes. Inscriptions of Asoka With Asoka began the tradition of inscribing words on stone or on other imperishable materials. There are eight types of Asokan inscriptions, strewn over a very wide area of the subcontinent. The first category is termed the Major rock edicts, of which there are fourteen. These are called major rock edicts as they were inscribed on rocks or boulders and were long statements. Each edict was separated from the other by a horizontal line drawn where one edict ended and another began, done consciously under the instructions of Asoka.
The next category consists of two Minor rock edicts, also inscribed on rock surfaces or boulders, strewn over a large area. They are so called as the size of the edicts was smaller. There are seven pillar edicts, engraved on the famous Mauryan pillars. Here too horizontal lines were used to demarcate one edict from another. The statements engraved on the surface of the pillar were pretty long. Another category was known as minor pillar edicts, in which the inscriptions engraved on the pillar were shorter in size. There are a few minor pillar inscriptions different from minor pillar edicts, as these do not contain any instructions, but record certain events. There is only one specimen of a sixth type found from Bairat in Rajasthan.
The seventh type of rock edicts have been found only in Kalinga (Orissa), from Dhauli (near Bhubaneswar), and from Jaugada (Ganjam district, and thus have been labelled as the Kalinga rock edicts or as Separate rock edicts. The eighth type of inscriptions has been found in cave shelters in the Gaya region, at the Barabar rocks near the Nagarjuna hills. Along with these may be included two inscriptions, of which one is from Mahasthan, a large excavated site in the northern part of Bangladesh; and the other from Sohgaura, close to the Gorakhpur area of Uttar Pradesh. All the inscriptions were written in the Prakrit language, in Brahmi and in Kharoshti script (the earliest known instances of Indian script). Brahmi in fact, written from left to right, is considered the mother of all ancient Indian scripts. Kharoshti on the other hand was written from right to left. It must be noted that Asoka did not use Sanskrit as the choice of his language. The Kharoshti
script was mainly used in the inscriptions found in the north-western part of the sub continent, while inscriptions written in Brahmi script are found over the greater part of the main land of India. Till 1984, Asokan inscriptions implied edicts written in the Prakrit language and engraved in Brahmi and Kharoshti script. But since the publication of the book Studies in the Aramaic edicts of Asoka by Professor B.N. Mukherjee (1984) a completely new world has been revealed to us. We learn that Asoka issued as many as seven inscriptions (from Taxila, and different parts of Afghanistan) written in two non Indian languages with non-indian scripts. The two languages and scripts used were Greek and Aramaic. Aramaic was actually one of the most popular languages and scripts of West Asia and written like Kharoshti from right to left. Asoka himself referred to these inscriptions as Dhammalipi, as they were often engraved for the propagation of Dhamma or his idea of piety. The term edict means promulgation of certain instructions, almost
like laws or present day ordinances. Most of the Asokan inscriptions were in the form of royal proclamations, promulgations, or new directives, although there were two or three which only record certain events. In his inscriptions Asoka is systematically styled as Devanampiya (beloved of the Gods), Piyadasi (of beautiful appearance), and Raja (king). It is indeed interesting to note that Prakrit terms have been correctly transliterated or translated in Asoka s Greek and Aramaic records, like referring to him as Piodasses (Greek records) and PRYDRS (Aramaic records), or the Prakrit word raja appearing as basileos (Greek records) and MLK (Aramaic records), meaning the lord or ruler. Asoka s personal name appears categorically only in a few inscriptions, like those found at Maski in Karnataka, Gujarra in Madhya Pradesh and from Nittur and Udegolam in Karnataka, where it appears as Devanampiya Piyadasi Raja Asoka.
Asoka does not figure in the sculptures of the Mauryan period (most of which belong to the time of Asoka), and so we do not really know how he looked like. However in very recent times a third century AD sculpture from Kaganahali in Karnataka, reveals the figure of what appears to be an eminent personality, with a person holding an umbrella over his head, bearing a label that reads, the figure of King Asoka. Although it was the work of a third century artist, it may provide posterity with the only idea of the appearance of Asoka. The term Devanampiya, could have been a traditional dynastic epithet of the Mauryas, and not a personal epithet of Asoka. The possibility gains ground due to an inscription of one of his successors named Dasaratha, who also bore the title of Devanampiya. Unlike later rulers, Asoka did not use any elaborate Sanskrit titles. The Mauryan rulers were also not known to have performed any Vedic sacrifices to proclaim their super ordinate power.
In his rock edict XIII, Asoka himself says that when eight years had elapsed since his coronation (i.e.269-8=261bc), he defeated Kalinga and annexed it. This rock edict gives a vivid description of the massacre that was perpetrated in this Kalinga war, and the deep impact it left on the emperor s mind. He himself declares that he was full of remorse at having unleashed such terrible misery during the course of war and victory. The annexation of Kalinga was a turning point in Asoka s personal career, as well as in Maurya history. Asoka gave up war for good, and may have converted to Buddhism at this juncture. Thus this victory was a singular and unique event in human history, where a ruler stopped waging war not as an outcome of defeat but of victory. It is noteworthy that Kalinga was considered as avijita or unconquered territory before the war, and the Rock Edict XIII goes on to state that such killing of lives and forcible carrying away of vanquished people became inevitable when a territory was conquered. But that does not indicate that Asoka s remorse was not genuine.
The victory over Kalinga and its annexation to the Mauryan realm, resulted in the maximum expansion of the empire, which for the first time was given a distinct designation. Rock Edicts II, III, XIII, and XIV used the term vijita to denote the conquered territories of the Mauryas. The term rajavishaya (royal domain) also appears in rock edicts as a synonym of vijita. Asoka put the two terms together and perceived that his realm was carved out of military conquests or vijita rajavishaya. In another inscription (MRE I), Asoka states that his energetic exertions or pakama (parakrama), resulted in significant changes in spiritual life in Jambudvipa. It is thus reasonable to assume that he could exert his authority and efforts over the area under his jurisdiction which is labelled as Jambudvipa. The term Jambudvipa as it appears in the Puranas was applicable not only to the subcontinent, but also to some areas beyond it. Asoka however used this term as a distinct geo-political entity under his authority, or in other words, his empire. He also uses the term pathivi or prithvi to denote his realm (in MRE I from Nittur). The Prakrit word pathivi denotes
the whole world, but the Arthasashtra defines prithvi as the area lying between the Himalayas (Himavat) and the sea, thus using it in relation to the subcontinent. Asoka possibly used this term to denote the territory under his jurisdiction. Rock Edict XIV, indicates that Asoka was aware of the vastness of his realm, by declaring Mahalake hi vijitam. We thus get four designations for his realm, - vijita, rajavishaya, jambudvipa, and prithvi. The best way to determine the extent of Asoka s empire is to follow the geographical distribution of the findspots of Asokan edicts. His pillar edicts from Lauriya Nandangarh, Lauriya Araraj, Rampurva (all in north Bihar), cave inscriptions from Barabar (near Gaya), Nigali Sagar and Rummindei (Lumbini), Sarnath, and Kosam (near Varanasi and Allahabad), Pangurariya, Rupnath, and Sanchi (all in Madhya Pradesh), Meerut, Bahapur (Delhi), Topra (Haryana), Kalsi (near Dehradun), Mansher and Shahbazgarhi (Pakistan), Taxila, Laghman, Pul-i-Darunto
(Afghanistan), Shar-i-kuna, Bairat, Junagarh, Girnar, Sopara, Maski, Udegolam, Nittur, Siddhapura, Jatinga- Rameshwar, Palkigundu, Sannathi, Yerraguddi, Dhauli, Jaugara, Ahraura, Rupnath, Gujara. The areas to the south of Karnataka and to the east of the northern part of undivided Bengal have not yielded any Asokan records. The findspots of these inscriptions offers an image of the vastness of the Asokan realm, stretching from Afghanistan in the north to Karnataka in the south, and from Kathiawad in the west to Kalinga in the east, if not as far as north Bengal. Asoka categorically states that the Yona (yavanas in the northwestern borderlands), Kambojas (Hazara district of Pakistan), Nabhaka-Nabhapamtikas (Maharashtra and Karnataka), Petenikas (location uncertain), Bhojas (Vidarbha-Nagpur region), Amdhas (Andhras in the eastern Deccan) and the Pulindas (area between the Narmada and the Vindhyas), were all under his jurisdiction, and resided within the vijita or rajavishaya.
Asoka was not only aware of the extent of his jurisdiction, but also of the unconquered (avijita) areas that lay beyond the frontiers or the amta/prachanta of his realm. Enlisted as avijita and prachanta areas were the Cholas (Kaveri Basin), Pada or Pandyas (Madurai), Satyaputa (Northern Tamil nadu), Keralaputa (Kerala), and Tambapanni (Tamraparni or Sri Lanka). Interestingly not a single record of Asoka has been found from these areas marked as unconquered territories. Five Greek or Yavana rulers with their dates, who were contemporaries of Asoka, have also been explicitly mentioned in Rock Edict XIII. They were Amtiyoka (Antiochus Theos of Syria 261-246 BC), Turamaya (Ptolemy Philadelphos of Egypt, 285-247 BC), Antekina (Antigonus Gonatus of Macedonia), Maga (Megas of Cyrene, death in 258 BC), and Alikasudara (Alexander of Epirus, 272-235 BC). The reference to these rulers as contemporaries of Asoka have been of immense help to scholars in determining the possible date of Asoka s reign.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Mauryan realm under Asoka assumed nearly pan-indian proportions, except the far south and the north-east of Bengal. No other power in the history of early India held sway over a more extensive territory than the Mauryas. But this mighty and vast empire collapsed in 187 BC., rather dramatically within less than half a century after the death of Asoka in 234 BC.