With This Article An Indian Dark Age of Ignorance Ends……….
EMPEROR ASHOKA – THE GREAT*
By Hon. Dr. S.K. Biswas
Part I – Introduction
About two thousand three hundred years ago, in India, there was an emperor called Ashoka Maurya who did great works for his country and especially for Buddhism. But the recording of history is faulty and his name was forgotten for tens of hundreds of years. His great name was rediscovered only about one hundred and fifty years ago. But his name was never forgotten by some educated people in other lands – lands where Buddhism was practiced, such as in South-Eastern countries and China. Europe had no records of him, of course. But that was only until European explorers re-discovered his enormous monuments and relics and published their astonishing findings. Today, the name of Ashoka the Great has become very familiar amongst the better educated in India, and South-Eastern countries and China and elsewhere. The famous English writer H.G.Wells has recorded with his golden pen: “Amidst the tens of thousands of columns of names of monarchs, the name of Ashoka shines, alone like a bright star in the night. From the Volga to Japan his name is still honoured”. Emperor Ashoka introduced some very good, progressive ideas for the development of India and for the benefit of the Indian population.
But you should understand that the regard and esteem that the people from Sumatra to Ceylon; from the Volga to Japan; from Nepal to Burma, possess in the depths of their hearts for this great Indian emperor is not just because they learned of Ashoka as students of history. In great contrast to Indian society, the people of Japan to Java, Ceylon to China know well about this innovating, missionary king of India from learning their own history, culture and civilization, all of which gives them a distinct and palpable feel for the deeds of Ashoka the Great.
But the people of India learn the name of Ashoka Maurya and his noble deeds only from the pages of history. In India, Emperor Ashoka is regarded as just one of the great potentates from history that ruled this large country of unique cultures and tribes. And even now, those in Government and the Indian administration have hardly any respect for the name of Emperor Ashoka at all.
Concerning development, in all spheres of human activity, the western world now dominates the whole world and its politics with un-challengeable supremacy, using its prosperity and power. This dynamic development has only revealed itself over the last few years. In contrast to the ancient civilization of India, the land of the Americas was discovered in 1492ce – some nine hundred years after India was ruled by the Buddhist ruler Harsh Vardhan. In this short period of time America has developed economically and scientifically in so many ways, to emerge and dominate us. Similarly the United Kingdom went through the trauma of successive invasions by the barbaric Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and later, the Catholic Normans with their conquest – the first and un-declared Christian crusade of 1066. After the Reformation of the Catholic Church and the Renaissance of Culture in Europe, the people created powerful Great Britain. In the nineteenth century it was Britannia that ruled the waves. Today, the rest of Europe is not far behind.
But for India time has stood still. For example, the Buddhist king, Harsha Vardhan of Kanauj ascended a peaceful throne in 606ce at a time when Great Britain was still in turmoil and savagery. And for an even greater contrast, Ashoka the Great ascended the throne of Pataliputra (modern Patna) in 269bce, as the emperor of the whole of India. So where is a powerful innovating India to provide world leadership?
The glorious part of human civilization today rests on the diplomatic platform called the international community. There is an international culture of global care and support. The Internet has linked the world and provides instant communication. Internationalism is the pivotal point of world civilization which has become international, just as trade. There seems to be a process of breaking the cocoon shells of individual interests, of ‘coming out’ of nationalism and entering into a global village dominated by America and its interests.
We can be proud of the fact that Emperor Ashoka was among the first to put India diplomatically on the world’s map. He initiated the practice of sending diplomats to foreign countries and in return regularly received envoys at Pataliputra from friendly countries. Ashoka was the glorious forerunner in forming the world’s first “international community.” But soon after Ashoka’s reign no foreign diplomats visited the Indian capital nor did India send any, but to the contrary, ‘crossing blue seas’ was made a taboo.
The Maurya Dynasty and the efforts to debunk it
Chandragupta, was the famous, turbulent ruler and founder of the Maurya dynasty, but, it is said, someone who came from a low status. Having been triggered by quenchless flaming ambition, by dint of his personal courage, ready wit, super skill in arms and extra ordinary diligence, Chandragupta conquered his father Dhana Nanda and his empire, and went on to capture the throne of Pataliputra in 322 BC. He consolidated an empire of enormous strength and with an extraordinarily long border.
Chandragupta was followed by his son Bindusar, who took the title “Amirtaghat” (The Slayer of Enemies). He ruled India for about 25 years and fathered Asoka as a son and heir. Emperor Ashoka became the third and the greatest ruler of the Maurya dynasty. The adventurous prince, Ashoka, first functioned as Viceroy of Taxila and Ujjain before he ascended the imperial throne of Pataliputra. As Viceroy, he served a sort of apprenticeship for the job by gathering knowledge and experience before he became ruler of India.
But Chandragupta, despite all his bravery and derring-do had a weak-spot; an Achilles heel. He was vulnerable, it is said, due to his low birth. It is said that his mother Mura, was a slave girl to Emperor Dhana Nanda. Her son Chandragupta, was by Dhana Nanda. (Mura belonged to the tribe of north Bihar, who traditionally used to rear Mayur or peacocks.) Tradition goes that Chandragupta with his upright and patriotic attitude incurred the wrath of the invincible Macedonian king, Alexander the Great who invaded India in 323 BC in the course of his mission for world conquest. The young Chandragupta, is reported to have gone to Alexander and asked him for military help in order to fulfill his mission and capture the throne to which he had some legitimate claim. Feeling angry for some reason, the furious Alexander, instead of rendering help, ordered his Generals to punish Chandragupta. But the ever-ready young equestrian Chandragupta, the brave-heart, was equal to the situation and successfully avoided Alexander’s dark plans.
But, in contrast to this glorious derring-do, Brahmanic literature of a much later age, denigrates and belittles the glory and meritorious caliber of this low-born man who rose to the rank of emperor. Two Sanskrit books, Artha Shastra and Mudra Rakshasa, are the only sources available for a description of the personal life of Emperor Chandragupta, and which also give an insight to contemporary socio-economic and politico-religious life of India. In the drama, Mudra Rakshasa, written by Vishakhdutta in the 5th century, Chadragupa is repeatedly addressed by his Chief Minister Chanakya, as Vrisal even in the presence of the ordinary subjects. Vrisal means Sudra, the lowest of the castes in Varnashram. Sudras are regarded worthlessly low, devoid of any praiseworthy human qualities.
These Sanskrit works of literature, written around eight hundred years after Chandragupta, are clearly intended to satisfy and uphold Brahminic pride and power. The descriptions as given in these books do not give a reliable character description of Chandragupta. They also fail to explain how he could arouse the wrath of Alexander and then escape it. And why should such a feeble Vrisal be tolerated at all, by the worthy Chief Minister Chanakya when this tolerance was in total contravention to the Hindu scriptural dictum? How was it that to punish and top root the Sudra Nanda dynasty, as the tradition claims, the Brahmin of high caliber took up the very low born Sudra Chandragupta? Was there no Kshatriya or Brahmin or Vaishya of merit available to be groomed by the worthy Chanakya!! Besides, we know that Chandragupta was not a Hindu, he was a Jain by religious faith. It is not convincing that a low-born ‘Vrisal’ and a Jain, too, was appointed by the all powerful minister Chanakya willingly, if at all. As the story goes, he would have made a great contribution himself, to Chandragupta becoming emperor. How come the Sudra Chandragupta with his Jain culture was not repudiated and sent out by the Brahmins of those days?
Despite all of these contradictions to realistic narrative history given in these stories, hard evidence shows that this supposed Sudra dynasty continued with, and accelerated their efforts against the caste-ridden religion Hinduism with all its inhumanities, and propagated humanistic Buddhism. It has also been widely accepted by historians that the famous book, “Artha Shastra” authored by Chanakya alias Vishnugupta was if fact, written much later than the declared date.
These two books reveal a concerted attempt to detract from, and even expunge from history this glorious Buddha-Jain epoch. It was an attempt to distort at a minimum or totally destroy this history and its source materials -an organized attempt to Aryanize or hijack these chapters of Indian history.
The Extent of Ashoka’s Empire
Eight years after his becoming the paramount ruler, Ashok, in the year 261bce (314?) launched his first wars against the neighboring State of Kalinga. Kalinga was a powerful Kingdom which has retained her sovereignty and independence until this battle. And for the Emperor Ashoka, his first war became his last war. The records say, “Kalinga was conquered by His sacred and Gracious majesty the King when he has been in power eight years. One hundred and fifty thousand were there slain, and many times that number died of their wounds and starvation”. With the conquest of Kalinga, the boundary of his empire touched in the west the Hindu Kush mountains and included the greater part of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Makran and the entire Kashmir region. In the north it was up to the very feet of the Himalayan Ranges and included the entire Nepal Tarai. In the east the boundary reached up to Burma. In the south, “ The frontier like may be drawn with practical accuracy from Nallore (14.27’ N.) on the east coast at the mouth of the Penner river to the mouth of the Kalynpuri river (13.15.N) on the west coast. There remained only four or five independent small kingdoms at the tip of the Indian peninsula. No other rulers ever controlled such a vast kingdom in all Indian history right up to the time when the British came and ruled the Indian landmass.
Ashoka became the paramount ruler of his own Empire, it was a huge territory – an empire. In all of history only he was the sole monarch of so vast a part of the continent of India and particularly of her peninsular parts. No Indian sovereign, including Muslims, possessed sovereignty over the territories beyond the Vindhya. The Hindu rulers of the Gupta dynasty, during the 4th to 6th Century CE, ruled north India only. The most powerful of the great Mughals, emperor Akabar too, at the zenith of his power held a territory confined to the north India only. Only the territorial expanse of the British colonial power could compare with Ashoka’s empire. After the conquest, Ashoka consolidated and govern his mother land with exceptional filial piety and treated his subjects with profound paternal care, for many years until his natural death.
With the end of the Kalinga state, one may say, his necessity for further conquest was over. But history gives testimony that a powerful imperialist fire can never have too many logs burning, just as the ocean can never have too many rivers. But the emperor Ashoka was not led by his imperialist passion only. He had not only abandoned warfare, but turned to the wisdom the Buddha and his teaching ‘Conquest of the Three Fires of Self: Conquest of Desire, Anger (and Hate), and Ignorance’ – a philosophy never before propagated by any monarch for his subjects to put into practice. He declared, “Asu putra, prapoutra me navam vijoyam ma vijitavyam,” – my sons and grandsons, whoso ever may it be, do not think it their (greedy) duty to conquer a weaker target. “Because His Sacred Majesty desires for all animate beings ‘to live in security, self control, peace of mind and joyousness.’ This requires the conquest of ‘self’ which is the greatest conquest of all (the Buddhist Law of Self-Conquest or the Law of Piety) in the opinion of His Sacred Majesty. But by setting the good example in the conquest of self – the law of self-piety, His Sacred Majesty himself, sets an example for all to follow, both here (in the hundred leagues where the Greek king named Antiochos dwells) … in the south, the Cholas and Pandayas as far as the Tamraparni river … everywhere they follow the instruction of His Sacred Majesty on the Law of Piety.”
Impact of Buddhism on the Kalinga War
After the Kalinga war, emperor Ashoka ruled India for around 37 years. During this lengthy period, he did not spend his time idly or by merry-making. He on the contrary, put his entire imperial resources and power to establish the most ancient of all “Welfare States” of the world. He blew the trumpet for the triumph of harmlessness and knowledge, compassion and fellow feeling and to bring forth a cultural revolution. He disbanded “Verighosa”.
Most historians have told that as a result of the Kalinga war, emperor Ashoka embraced Buddhism. Rock Edict XIII reveals : “Directly after the Kalinga had been annexed “began His Sacred Majesty’s zealous propagation of the Law of Piety, his love of that Law, and his establishment of that Law. Thence arises the remorse of His Sacred Majesty for having conquered the Kalinga, because the conquest of the country previously unconquered, involved the slaughter, death, and carrying away of captive slaves of the people. That is a matter of profound regret to His Sacred Majesty.” This edict, if taken in letters and spirits lead us to conclude that with a view to getting relief from this agony of remorse, Ashoka took refuge to the religion of Gautam Buddha.”
However, if we accept this single event, as a cause of conversion then we have to ignore many other – more important historical documents regarding the influence of Buddhism on Ashoka and his contribution to the propagation and practice of Buddhism.
But it can be admitted that there is an oddity here – an unusual psychological reaction can be observed in the emperor after Kalinga War was over.
Oddly, Prince Ashoka, the son of the emperor Bindusar or “Amirtaghat” (The Slayer of Enemies) was well experienced of the destructive and cruelty of warfare. As a Viceroy of Taxila and Ujjain, he ordered and supervised many royal executions. An ambitious king knows no bound to celebrate the battle-victory. But here, what a surprise! The paramount potentate, instead of celebrating victory through wanton and reckless festivities by rolling in wine and woman, broke down with remorse as if it was he who was defeated in the war.
The conquest of Kalinga was a grand achievement for the ruler of Patliputra. A powerful adjacent state is a perennial source of anxiety and worry for any regal personality. Ashoka, therefore, at the smallest provocation was obliged to conquer and subdue it, as the source of constant threat of attack from a powerful independent, neighbour. Why the lamentation than? Why was there a soft corner in the emperor heart? Such an abnormal psychological phenomenon having so enduring and all pervading impact cannot occur from nothing: all is ‘Cause and Effect’.
To know the reason, we need to go back in history. We suggest the reason might have been hidden in the depth of social circumstances. During the reign of the Mauryas the society was egalitarian and the ethos of the contemporary society was primarily nothing but a bundle of ideals; of harmlessness and compassion and the teachings of Gautam Buddha. Gautam was born in 563 BCE. He attained Mahaparinibbana after 80 years. Within a very short period, the luminous glow of his teachings of harmlessness and knowledge: his message of “Middle Path” engulfed, brightened and broadened the reverence and other inner virtues of the people all over India. Reverberated the chanting of the Trisarana: “Buddhan Saranang Gachhami, Dhammang Saranang Gachhami, Sangham Saranang Gachhami….”
Soon after the death of Gautam Buddha, the Magadha emperor, Ajatshatru convened the first Buddha Sangeeti at the Saptaparni cave, under the presidentship of Venerable Bhadant Mahakashyapa. The impact of popularity of the Buddhists was so strong and the Buddhists were a so numerically powerful majority that, the last of the five patricidal rulers that followed the reign of Ajatshatru, was dethroned by their subjects. And the Shramanas not Brahmans appointed a follower of Buddha, Shishu Nag to the throne of Magadh in 413 BC. The 2nd Buddha Sangeeti was held at Vaishali during the reign of his son called Kalasok. From kings Pasenjit and Bimbisara who were contemporary to Gautam Buddha, almost all the Indian rulers were Buddhists. The society was changed with an active culture of Buddhist practice and gracious behaviour (Shramana-dharma).
This was a period when the esteem and influence of Brahminical Social Order and the power of the Brahmins was at its lowest ebb. The vicious social system called “caste” was almost extinguished. All over India the Sudras were ruling. Nandas of the barber Sudra dynasty were ruling the country with absolute supremacy. Srimad Bhagwat described the condition in no uncertain terms:
“Nadivardhan will be the son of Ajoy and Mahanandi will be the son sprung from the loins of Nadhivardhan. These ten kings, the Sishunagas, alone will rule over the earth for three hundred and sixty years during the age of Kali. O jewel among the Kurus! Mahanandi’s mighty son, who will be born of Sudra woman. O king will be certain Nanda, who will win a huge army or untold riches and will bring about the ruin of the Kshatriya race. Thence forward, the rulers of men will be mostly Sudras and the unrighteous: 12/7-9.
When Magasthenes, the Hellenic envoy visited India he failed to find any trace of the Brahminical social hierarchy, the caste system. He described in his account only seven socio-economic groups who formed the social strata. They were as follows: “Philosopher, Husbandman, Artisan and Trader, Soldier, Overseer and Counsellor”. This absence or untraceable condition of Brahmin-Sudra Caste strata system was definitely a result of the predominance of a caste-less Shramana culture in the country. But for the existence of such powerful Shramana culture it would not have been feasible for the lowest of the low born to displace the Brahmin-Kshatriya combine from power politics.
The grandfather of Ashoka was a Jain by faith. He sacrificed his life by starvation in accordance with the Jain tradition of Srabanavelgola, as his own subjects were dying in a severe famine. His father Bindusar was a Buddhist. In the circumstances, it is not difficult to conclude that the prince-soon-to-be-ruler Ashoka was certainly strongly influenced by the prevailing unorthodox and missionary religion of the Buddha and the all pervading Shramana culture.
Therefore, it was because of the tremendous influence of the Buddha’s teachings of compassion and love, tenderness and care, and the Law of piety had on him, that the glow of victory was transformed and appeared before him as a most horrible act of genocide. This explains Ashoka’s horrified reaction to the bloodshed which was so different from the reactions of most victorious conquerors. Note that the Kalinga victory came as an immense shock due to the humanity in his heart. So, we must conclude that Ashoka had been a Buddhist for many years – long before this battle. It is not true to say that he converted to Buddhism after being so shocked at the sight of bloodshed and death. The emperor has recorded his position in one of his Edicts. The Minor Rock Edict I reads :
“His sacred Majesty (Devanampiya) gives these instructions: “For more than two and a-half years I was a lay disciple, without, however, exerting myself strenuously. But a year ago, in fact more than a year ago, I entered the Order, and since then have exerted myself strenuously.”
Crores of ordinary Buddhists are lay-worshippers only. It is not a fact that only the yellow-robed, Bhikhus are the Buddhists, that those who joined the Order are the only Buddhists. Ashoka was one of these teeming millions of lay disciples of the Buddha, before the Kalinga War.
Some other important sources also corroborate this position. For instance when prince Ashoka was the governor of Ujjain he used to come to the capital via the trade route passing through Vidisa. There is a pleasant Buddhist traditional story about the young Prince Ashoka’s romantic life. (This story was neglected by the historians, perhaps because it runs counter to the theory of Ashoka’s becoming a Buddhist after the Kalinga War!) According to the Buddhist tradition, the adventurer prince became enamored by a beautiful girl of a Banker of Vidisa. The advances of the Prince was rebuffed by the girl by the name of Devi. Her good character and strong inner qualities required her to refuse to marry the prince until he changed his unruly way of life into a disciplined life similar to the disciplined one, the Buddha. Devi herself was a disciple of the Buddha. Ashoka accepted these demands to follow Buddhism and they were united. It is said that Devi produced two children: a daughter, Sanghamitra and a son, Mahendra by the emperor Ashoka. Later on, Ashoka built up the massive Sanchi Stupa amidst the natural beauty of the surroundings, on the hill top of the Vidisa Diri. The Stupa, at present, has been included in the map of “World Heritage” sites by the UNO. It is believed that because of the pious desire and warm patronage of the queen empress Devi. Vidisa region became very important Buddhist center with many more Stupas, such as Satadhara etc.
The fact is that the Emperor had become one of the greatest and most progressive of all monarchs due to the impact of Buddhism on him all his life. All the exceptional qualities that he possessed, if examined closely, are found to be the result of the teachings of Gautama Buddha, of which Ashoka became an embodiment. And this is what made him ‘Ashoka the Great.’
Part II
EMPEROR ASHOKA THE MAKER OF HISTORY
The activities of Ashoka were so enormously varied and intelligent that it is difficult to properly asses the contributions he made in constructing and re-arranging the social, religious, economic, cultural and political history of India and even, with his missionaries, of the world. He recorded history, and so was one of the earliest historians, judging by his lengthy and elaborate discussion on various subjects, with minute details on the imperishable surface of his rocks. His awareness of the need to record the important events in history helps one understand his responsible attitude to rule. He would have got much help in this from his posting at Taxila. This culture of knowledge, information based on reasoning is all in glaring contradiction to the Hindu Culture of India, ancient and modern, which now seems unequalled in callousness and indifference and seems to intentionally mislead the historical record.
Hinduism makes everything a product of divinity and Gods. Hindu literature never mention time and space because divinity is not bound or restricted to any time and space; divinity is immortal and transcendental. But the mortal world, the real world is bound up by time and space, therefore the essence of history of human civilization is recording of “TIME & SPACE” or the chronology and country. Ashoka is the first man in the history of human civilization who scrupulously maintained a record of time and space in his edicts. On the other hand he himself became both the subject and object of history of ancient India.
India is a land of restricted education. According to themselves only the Brahmins were entitled to full-fledged education. They thrive on the ignorance of others. Sudras were denied the right to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. And according to the Brahminical culture, writing factual history was a forbidden subject. The only discipline that they encouraged was the spiritual, other worldly and speculative literature, full of myth and imaginary tales. It has been almost impossible to reconstruct ancient Indian history, if it wasn’t for the documental evidence written on robust materials like rock in the form of epigraphic, archaeological sources, created by Ashoka the great.
As an example of the parlous stae of recording Indian history: the Bhagavat Purna has merely mentioned the names of the Mourya kings as follows:
“A certain Brahmin will uproot all the nine Nandas who will be at his mercy. On their destruction it is the Mauryas that will rule the earth during the kali age, the very Brahmin will install Chandragupta on the throne. His son indeed will be Warisara and Ashokavardhana will be born to the letter.” (12/121-13).
Other Prans also make such brief and misleading prophetical (in future tense) statements on the nothing near to practical history and grandeur of ancient India and of the world can even be imagined. Till the discovery of the “Mask Edict” in Hydrerabad, historians could not gather the exact name of the grand monarch who erected exceedingly polished and magnificent monolithic pillars all over the vast country, which have withstand all natural torments like thunders and storms, earthquake and floods and human destructive attempts on them through the centuries. The historians failed to tell the name of the India King who has very clearly inscribed the tales and ethos of the contemporary India on innumerable polished surface of the hills, caves and rocks. Everywhere, it was credited to one DEVANAMPIYA OR THE PIYADASSI, it was extremely difficult for the historians to identity this Piyadassi, as no Indian literature contained any testimony of this terminology or adjective. This unique terminology, Piyadassi was not available in the vocabulary of the dictionary of Indian language. It was available in the pages of the Buddhist chronicles in Ceylon.
Foreign sources and foreigners came together to solve the puzzles of Indian history. When countrymen destroyed the sources of Indian history then it was obvious that the foreign sources and the foreigners only were able to rewrite the history of this country. These foreign sources were also created by the emperor Ashoka. The European Civilians who came to administer this country, on their own took the burden of digging up the buried truth of the history. It was James Princep who discovered the “Delhi-Meerat-Pillar Inscription” in 1750, thereafter in 1784, the “Radhia” Pillar and the pillar inscription of “Lauria Arreraj” at Nepal Tarai were discovered. The scripts were deciphered by English scholars. Scripts such as Brahmin and Khrosti, and the languages, Pali and Prakrit were deciphered by the English scholar and the chronicles Deepavamsa and Mahavamsa. But only the “Maski” edict, discovered in 1915 mentioned the name of Devanampiya Piyadassi! Ashoka.
The chronology and the description of the contemporary political and diplomatic relations with foreign countries were written by Ashoka with so accurate objectivity that there was no difficulty in verifying the record from the foreign sources. In his rock edict XIII, mention has been made of the contemporary Hellenic Kings ….. where the king of the Greeks named Antiochos, the four kings named severally Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magass and Alexander (likewise) in the south Cholas and Pandyas… everywhere they follow the instruction of His Sacred Majesty.” These rulers mentioned are all found in Greek history as mentioned in the Ashokan pillars. Therefore, from the stand point of history it can be stated that Ashoka has been the sheet anchor of ancient Indian chronology and history.
It is very difficult to say definitely as to how many inscriptions he got engraved on stone pillars and rocks because no Brahminical or Hindu ruler took any step to locate, record and preserve them. On the contrary the natural process of erosion of time has been greatly assisted by Brahminical hostility and determination to wipe out all evidence of the Buddhist philosophy of harmlessness, humanitarian principles and democracy, egalitarian policies used regularly in the past as instruments to rule different states in Indian history and govern its subjects compassionately. Only a few of these edicts survived and only those when hidden under the cover of deep jungles and heaps of mud in some deserted and remote places.
It is interesting to mention here that the Ashoka pillar found at the Sanchi Stupa (Vidisa) has been preserved and kept by the authorities of the Archaeology Department on the ground in a flat position. This pillar was found in a mutilated form. The pieces of the pillar remaining have been well preserved by modern archaeologists. These remnants show many definite and deep marks of damage. That tells us of the many attempts that were made to break it into pieces: signs of heavy blows marking the body of the pillar. The department of Archaeology has very kindly displayed a Notice Board, nearby by, to disclose that some Hindu fanatic Zamindars tried to destroy the pillar. There is a lingaraj temple some sixty miles away from Vidisa and near to the Bhopal city. The Shiva linga in the temple is around eighteen feet high and twenty feet in diameter. A close and careful observation reveals that the Shivalinga has been cut and shaped from a massive Ashokan pillar. The same sand stone which was used by emperor Ashoka for the pillars, has been used and the same school of art have produced the linga. It should be noted that the Linga temple was constructed a thousand years after the pillars were shaped and inscribed by the emperor Ashoka’s men. The entire temple other than the linga, including the base on which the linga has been placed was made out of distinctly different stone of slate colour. The school of architecture appears to be different. It is possible to give many other instances of destruction and Hinduisation of Buddhist relics. Therefore, it cannot be estimated just how many of these fine pillars, rock face inscriptions, etc. have been destroyed by the Brahminical fanatic vandals. Many Hindu Temples in India have been found to have been made from the remains of Buddha stupas, Viharas,etc.
History of SCRIPT and Language
The inscriptions found on the pillars and rocks opens up a bright light on the condition of literacy of Indian society, on the state of scripts, languages and literature of India. Today’s India has the largest illiterate population of this world. Around 50% of the total illiterate of this globe are Indians. But it was not like that in the Ashokan era. People were generally educated and the masses were in a position to read and write. Had the condition of mass literacy not prevailed, the emperor would not have taken pains to record his instructions in public places of mass gatherings, on the road side in the commercial complexes, at places of pilgrimages and in the remote localities. The general public was definitely literate, or else the pious and expensive efforts, like cutting out and polishing pillars and leveling rocks to inscribe morals, in the vernacular language by the king would have been a futile exercise. These edicts become meaningful only if people were literate.
As a true and ardent follower of Buddhism, Ashoka was bound to promote universal education. Buddhism was a religion requiring knowledge. Siddhartha Gautam got Bodhi or attained the summum bonum by acquiring education. to the public, to the Sudras, Vaisyas and commoners of their right to education or knowledge by threatening Adam and Eve of ‘sure death’ in case they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. It was however, a great and risky endeavour from the part of Adam to defy the threat of “sure death” and to revolt against the Lord God to get knowledge which will enlighten them to know and distinguish good and bad. Gracious was the Lord God who did not punish Adam with “sure death.”
Hinduism, however, never allowed the common people to have the fruits from the tree of Knowledge. Buddhism in contradiction to all these made the fruit of knowledge as the cardinal point of spiritual end. They declared, “Satyam Eba Joyate.” The finest of the followers of this faith. Ashoka, naturally established public schools, colleges and Universities. All the Buddha monasteries were also seats of learning. Buddhism is the religion of rational and learning. All the Buddha monasteries were also seats of learning. Buddhism is the religion of rationality and learning.
Pali, Prakrit, and Indian Native Languages
Sakya Sinha Gautama Buddha used Pali and Prakrit, that is the local vernacular language or dialects of the contemporary India, while teaching his Dhamma. Buddha never created any elite language or communal language like Sanskrit which was a prerogative of the priestly caste or of the spiritual leaders. This language, exclusive for the use by one priestly community was made an elite language by ignorance. The medium or the language used by Ashoka, in the edicts were Pali and Prakrit, the aboriginal forms of languages of ancient India. These were the linguafranca of the entire northern India. Other languages like Sanskrit, etc and modern languages like Bengali, Oria, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Moitheli, Hindi, Punjabi were born out of these Pali and Prakrit languages. Gautama Buddha also preached his religion three centuries before Ashoka, in these languages only. Sanskrit was never a lingua franca of India. This was a communal language used exclusively by the Brahmins. Others were not free even to learn this language. As a result, according to the 1951 census Sanskrit was the mother tongue of 555 Indians, this figure increased to 1284 as per the 1971 Census. This being the condition, it will be from the angla of grammar, misnomer to call Sanskrit a language. It is a communal dialect.
The script used in the Ashokan Edicts, when discovered, came as a surprise. It was unknown to the Indian scholars! It was definitely a matter of greatest shame that all traces of these scripts had been lost to the autochthons of India. And the Brahmins were so successful in their attemptscto obliterate Budhim and even the historical events that when centuries after, the Europeans discovered these edicts, there was no Indian to recognize even his own language. What a terrible torrential flood of devastating destructions passed over the nation can be only remotely imagined out of this condition of national amnesia.
Material aspect of civilization can easily be destroyed; it can be replaced with another.
But here we are dealing with a complete black-out of Indian Buddhism and its history and culkture, akin to blanket of lava laid by the savage Aryan intruders.
Eventually, the scripts were deciphered by the European scholars and named them Brahmi and Kharosti scripts. Some are written from right to left as scripts opened up new lights of flood gates of truth regarding the origin of Devanagari and other scripts that are used in the Indian languages. Before the discovery of these scripts it was contemplated by the Indian philologists that the genesis of India scripts are the Phoenician scripts which were developed and used by the marcentile community of the ancient city-states of Babylon, Sydon, Tyre, etc. located on the eastern bank of Mediterranean Seas of old Cannon estates during 2500 BC. But the discovery of the Ashokan scripts,, the earliest available form of scripts in India, declared in no uncertain terms that these scripts were the relatives of the Indus Valley scripts which were used by the pre-Aryan indigenous Indian during 2000 BC. And not any foreign school of script but the Assura- scripts of the Indus Vally are the mother of all scripts used in India. Let us record, here, some expert views on this issue. Acharya Sunit Kumar Chattopadhaya opines.
“When European scholars first tackled Brahmi, they gradually formed the opinion that it was a derivative ultimately of the ancient Phoenician alphabet of about 1200 BC which came either in a northern form directly into India, or in a southern from as it had developed in Southern Arabia. It was suggested by them that there was no system of writing known to ancient Indians, whether Aryan or pre-Aryan, and that Indian merchants who went for trade to Mesopotamia and South Arabia got the ideal of writing of Prakrit dialects and Sanskrit, and this could have only taken place by 500 BC, giving us finally the finished Brahmin alphabet of the Maura times. A certain similarity between the shapes of the Brahmi letters and those of the oldest Phoenician alphabet, both standing for the same or similar sounds, gave considerable support to this theory.
But the discovery of the Mohenjodaro writing has called for a revision of the view that India was indebted to the Semitic world for her script. It has been found that quite a number of symbols occurring in the Mohenjodaro writings have resemblance to the letters of the Brahmi alphabet. Moreover, the Brahmin consonant letters seems also to have been in use in the Mohenjodaro script. We can distinguish several stages in the evolution of this old and prehistoric Sind-punjab writing, a pictorial and hieroglyphic, a syllabic, and then a much more simplified linear form which was probably alphabetical.
It is exceedingly likely that the Brahmi alphabet is just a modification of the Sind-punjab script was in a flourishing stage before the Aryans, probably, had no system of writing of their own, although they had occasion to come in touch with this great envision of civilization in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. After they settled down of the soil of India, a modified form of the late Sind-punjab script was in all likelihood adopted to write the Aryan language, which was at that time a kind of late Vedic Sanskrit. This adoption would appeal to have taken place by 1000bce. which alone made possible the compilation of the mass of Vedic literature, so long current orally, into four written compilations, the four Vedas which Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa is traditionally said to have accomplished. Vyasa was an older contemporary of the heroes of the Mahabharata, and the Mahabharata was, according to Pargiter and H.C. Raychaudhary, who followed quite different methods in working out the date, took place in the middle of the tenth century BC. So that we would not be wrong in assuming that this became the finished Brahmin of 300 BC. Even in Maurya Brahmi, we find the script still hesitating in certain matters and not fully established as a system of writing, it did not know how to indicate properly double and conjunct consonants. The perfection of the Brahmin alphabet as a worthy medium for Sanskrit with its scientific and accurate orthography would appear to have taken place as late as the nearly centuries of the Christian era.”
GENESIS IS INDUS – LANGUAGE
Even prior to the discovery of the Indus scripts many historians could trace out the fact that Indians were highly literate and they had their own scripts and written language and dialects. General Cunningham opined on the issue:
“In this brief examination of the letters of the old India alphabet, I have compared their forms at time of Ashoka, or 250 BC with the pictures of various objects and of the different members of the human conviction that many of the characters still preserved, even in their simpler alphabetical forms, very strong and marked traces of their pictorial origin. My comparison of the symbols with the Egyptian hieroglyphics shows that many of them are almost identical presentations of the same objects. But as the Indian symbols have totally different values from those of Egypt, it seems almost certain that the Indians must have worked totally different values from those of Egypt, it seems almost certain that the Indians must have worked out their system quite independently, although they followed the same process. They did not, therefore, borrow their alphabet from the Egyptians.
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Now, if the Indians did not borrow their alphabets from the Egyptians, it must have been the local invention of the people themselves, for the simple reason that there was no other people from whom they could have obtained it. Their nearest neighbors were the people of Anana and Persia, of whom the former used a Semetic Character of Phoenician origin, reading from the separate detached strokes, which has nothing whatever in common with the compact form of the Indian alphabet.”
It is now, very interesting that before the discovery of the Indus-scripts, in 1921, what was a mere speculative opinion for Cunningham, became an authentic and proven historical fact for Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyaya. On the basis of the archaeological and circumstantial evidences he has indicated that the Indus scripts were the mother of all the schools of scripts used in India even in the modern period. And this course of change or development (primarily artificial) could not have been tracked down in the absence of the Ashoka scripts(Edicts), which stands at the middle path or as the first stage of change or shift from the original form to the final stage of its transition.
Suniti Kumar Chattopadhayay has also very rightly commented that the Aryans had no script or modality to record their ideas and communiqué. That is why they did not bring any documentary evidence along with them at the time of their arrival in India. No, they could produce any written document, soon after subduing Assura of India. That is why it took, around a thousand years for them to learn the India mode of writing, the scripts and Language. It took so much time as because, the first a few centuries they spent to destroy all traces of literacy of the pre-Aryan Assura people and to artificially transform them into a different shape so that the posterity of the sons of this soil failed to recognize and understand their ancestral language. And that is what really happened . No Indian could, therefore, recognize or read the Ashokan language or scripts. Nobody knew about the Pali language or scripts. Nobody knew about the Pali language which had, indeed, volumes of literature, older as well as more voluminous than Sanskrit literature.
ABORIGINALS USE INDUS-SCRIPTS TODAY
From philological stand point, it is usually understood that the language used by the minority foreigners will not survive for long in an alien country, in the midst of hostile atmosphere. In particular, the foreign Aryan language which was an unwritten one was bound to be merged and mingled into the ocean of advanced and written language of the pre-Aryan highly civilized and cultured Indians. This is why, even the developed form of English and Arabic-Urdu language which had its written form of literature failed to replace any of the Indian languages, like Tamil, Telgu, Malayalam etc. It is in the circumstances, rational to say that the unwritten language of the savage, pastoral Aryans annihilated written Indian language.
In the circumstances, it is interesting to note the Sindh-Punjab aboriginal scripts have been traced in Bengal-Bihar border also. The Bihar Transport officer N.K. Varma, claimed to have deciphered the script, discovered in the archaeological ruins of pre-Aryan Indian Assura civilization of the Mohejodaro Harappa region. He, with his great surprise, found the Santhals (tribe) to have used the Indus scripts by the Santhas of Sahib Ganj opens up a flood gate of suppressed truth that the autochthons of India, sitting 3000 KM away and 3000 year’s dark distance, have been using the aboriginal scripts still today.
PLAGIARISED BY THE ARYANS
Having made a comparative study of the vocabulary of the Vedic texts and the Ashokan edicts, along with the language of the Santhals of Sahebganj of Bengal-Bihar border we seem to have removed the tapestry on the clear picture of the native language of India. It is obvious that the Aryans not only grabbed the scripts of native Indians, as has been suggested by Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyaya, but they also plagiarized the language and vocabulary of the natives of India. The victor Aryans, simply gave some artificial twists in the pronunciation and spelling the structure.
What N.K.Varma has deciphered in the Indus script, on the basis of the symbols, used by the Santhals of Sahebganj is revealing. “They use symbols akin to Indus inscription in their rights and songs known as verses of “Karm Bintee” provide us beautiful land of seven revers, “Eay Nay Daishm” “Dag Gorhan” as to denote writing. Some other tribal words as deciphered by Verma are. “Nayke-priest; Eay-seven, Nai-river, Daishm-land or country. O Rab—O God; Gooi—cow, Kaskom—cotton; Abharan—dress or cloth” etc. If we analyse we find that these words mentioned above, as used by one of the famous autochtrons group, are very familiar to us, such as:- Pooja, Khond (Kar) Karma; Bintee; Dag (line_ Grohan (take or make); Nayak, Sat; Nadi; Desh; Gaai; Abharan (Sanskrit0. In some form they exist in the Vedic language.
All of these words are available in the Pali language too. If we analyze the Ashkan inscriptions we find the words are Pali and they form the vocabulary of the early Vedic language too. Let us take some example:– “Sayameba Joyate”, Sab Munispaja Mamaa”; or “Asu putra prapoutra Me navam Vjiyam Ma Vijityavam” etc. as has been written by the emperor Ashoka the great in his inscriptions. The word “Satyadharma” has been used in the Rig Veda as an adjective of a native Indian called, Agni, the son of Bala Assure; the word “Joy” is abundantly available, the word “Munish” in the Rig Veda denotes common village – subjects, artisans or peasants. The word “ Muni” the saint exists in the Vedas “Sab” denotes Sarba; “Paja” denotes praja; “Mama” denotes Mama. The words “Putra”, “Prapoutra”, “Bavam” “vijoy” etc. are frequently used in the early Vedic and Sanskrit language with the same meaning.
Like wise, we may find the traces of most of the Vedic-cu-Sanskrit words very popularly common tongue of the remote illiterate villagers who does not know anything of th Sanskrit language. India villagers of upper India generally used the word “piba” for expressing the verb “drink”. The word “pani” (water) appears to have come from the “pani” (the Bank of businessman who used to sail across the water of seas during the pre-Aryan period). The very familiar word of today, “pannya-drabya” meaning commodities to deal with is derived from the word “pani”. The Aryans had neither marcentile people nor slave or dasa with them, while, the word Dasa and the servile class was very familiar in the pre-Aryan India. The word “das” has been taken by the Aryans from Indian source. Likewise most of the words in the Vedic language are available in the Ashokan-pali language, in the use of the Santhals and these are taken from its original source in the pre-aryan Indian language and literature.
This situation is corroborated with the fact that the number of people with Sanskrit as their mother tongue in 555 and 1284 only as per Census Report of 1971 and 1981 respectively. The Aryans have never been reported to be a barren race. They have never suffered any massacre tec. The orthodox Aryans are not reported to have deserted their mother tongue at any point of time. Despite this, the number of people with Sunskrit as their mother-tongue was so less because, it was never their mother tongue. This was a language as developed artificially from the native language of India. They very fondly called this language “Sanskrit” that is purified from some dirty, impure ore-language. The Aryan Brahmins thus condemned both the people of India and their language impure and polluted.
The Ashokan inscriptions show that the linguafranca of at least the Northern India, from the Himalaya to Vindya mountains, and from the Indus to the Ganges was this Pali-Prakrit language with its varying dialects. General Cunningham calls them the Punjabi, the Ujjaini, and Magadhi. This was a very normal phenomenon which developed due to the country’s vastness. The Ujjain dialect is marked by the entire absence of “r” for which “L” has been substituted. Laja for Raja, Dasalatha for Dasaratha. Etc.
The tangible evidence of Ashokan script, the scripts of Indus nature, which were available in the Indus valley, only makes a bridge between the modern Santhals modality of writing and its genesis, available in the Mohenjodaro-Harappa. Without Ashokan scripts it would not have been possible for us to explain the missing-links of current languages and scripts of the country. Out of these edicts, it has also become obvious that the Aryans destroyed the aboriginal Indian language in course of the first crusade that they fought in this land to destroy Buddhism. Language is the preserver of the cultural and religious heritage. It is the scripts, language and literature which records the ideals and ideology of a civilized race so that their posterity can use it and can derive benefit out if it. Therefore, to destroy all the evidences of the religious ideals of pre-Aryan India, the prevailing Buddhism of the Indus regions the Aryans annihilated out scripts, language and literature.
(Part III shall be continued within some days…….)
Compiled, Preserved and Propagated by
Ayu. C.C.HADKE
DARK AGE ENDS: Continue from last issue………..
Part III
EMPEROR ASHOKA THE GREAT
It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Monarchy does not compromise with benevolence. It is also said that arrogance of power and not the generosity of the authority emerges out of monarchy. But the benevolence of a paramount monarch, knows no bounds in the heart of the India emperor Ashoka the great. There are some European rulers, famous for their benevolence. These monarchs were highly influenced with the democratic ideals of Europe and were made to be benevolent by the ceaseless movements of the people. Whereas, Ashoka was benevolent from within. This was possible, as the traits of character and of heart of Ashoka was made up of the doctrine of the Lord Buddha.
IMPACT OF THE VIRTUE LOVE:
So, when those grand regal personalities of Europe are placed beside the entity of the Indian of a Indian Emperor, Ashoka the great and a comparative study is attempted, their glow of benevolence vanishes into the blue, as the stars in the sky goes beyond our vision with the sun-rise.
The powerful but pleasantly soothing glow of light that emitted out of the deeds of Ashoka the great was in deed, like the moonlit shine/The source of light witch he got was nothing but the cardinal doctrines of the Lord Buddha. The emperor won over the hears of humanity of his contemporary period and of the eternity to come. This he accomplished, just by transforming some of the ideals of the Lord Buddha into reality. What the Buddha preached, the emperor practiced. He made the Buddhist ethos very practical and alive in human life.
This not only touched the life of literacy or the domain of knowledge in the society, but it shaped also the culture, religion, polity, politics and social interaction of the common people of India, at large. While on the one side of Buddhism there was the concept of knowledge, the other side of the coin was the virtue of love. The feeling of belonging together or to one group or oneness emerges out of the love or the high degree of associative attitude. Without the feeling of oneness the concept of equality is never welcome.
Un-equals never love each other storm of love does not recognize any level. When love is there, there does not arise any desire to subjugate one who is being loved by the other. Co-existence of love and un-truth is not a normal phenomenon. This gives rise to the sense of mutual suspect and well-being. Out of love emists individualism. Either party, involved in love is neither superior nor interior. Lovers care and protect each other, respects each other.
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY OF BUDDHA:
Buddha declared, “Sabbe Satta sudhi hantu, sabbe hantu chakhe mina.” Let all being be happy and prosperous. His bound less love taught, “Mata Jatha niyang puttand aayusa akaputtamanukakhe abampisabbe bhutesu manasambhabayeparimanang.” As the mother gets ready to sacrifice her life to save the life of her only son, so also, one is to love every being”. In the society each one is to love and care for the other one each one ought to work for the good of the majority and for the happiness of the majority; “Bahujana hitaya Bahujan Sukhaya”, preached the Lord Buddha and the theory was practiced into reality, was transformed into the state laws by the Ashoka the great.
Therefore, when Buddha, preached the theory of kingship, it was most with the concept of love and respect for every individual and he propounded the doctrine of “Social Contract Theory”. It was virtually impossible for the Buddha who loved all, and who wanted welfare for all to hold and propagate a theory of divine kingship, which makes the potentates absolute, a source of arrogance of power and thereby a machine of exploitation. This divine right kingship goes against the Buddha’s doctrine of “Social Welfare State.”
People generally believe that the “Social Contra Theory” of kingship was, for the first time, given by the French, revolutionary political philosopher Rousseau during the 18the Century A.D. From historical standpoint it was, however, wrong. It was Lord Gautam Buddha who propagated the “Social Contract Theory” more than 2500 years ago. And emperor Ashoka was the first ruler on the earth who implemented the theory into practice during the 3rd Century B.C. This, he made very consciously.
The Buddha’s theory has been recorded elaborately in the “Agnagna: Sutta of Dighanikaya . Buddha described the process of emergence of the private property in the human society. Eventually, the unbridled desire to accumulate provate property gave birth to all kinds of corruptions and criminal problem. Thus there arose the cause of formation of an institute called kingship. So in Dighanikaya Buddha wrote, “ Then all the “Satta” combinedly shouted ….. then other caught him and told …”O satta, you have done wring, don’t do it again”….. second time… third time he did the same, and others told that Satta, “ You have committed sin….” When it was done again, he was caught by others and was beaten up. Thenceforth, theft, lie, condemnation and act of punishment was prescribed…. Then all the Sattas 9being” assembled together and decided there has arisen corruption amongst us.. now let us elect some one who will condemn the corrupt and punish the guilt, praise and reward the praise worthy, who will prescribe every one’s duty and proper function and banish the one who will be so deserving………Then all went and approached the most mightly and bright personality of the clan and requested him,”O satta! You give us the verdict of just and unjust, condemn the guilty, and banish the one who deserve so. We will give you share of our “Shali.” He accepted the offer, by declaring, “be it so.” His name become “Mahasammata”, as he was agreeable to the request of Mahajans, the people’s request.”
Emperor Ashoka, although was a paramount and absolute ruler, shaped his life style as well as his royal office as the embodiment of this theory of social contract. He did not rule hs kingdom and his subjects on the basis of divine right. That is why we find the emperor to record and declare: “ A long period has elapsed during which in the past business was not carried on or information brought in, all all times. So by the arrangement has been made that at all times when I am eating, or in my private room, or in the news, or in my conveyance, or in the pleasure-grounds, everywhere the persons appointed to give information should keep me informed about the affairs of the people……….
………. Because I never feel satisfaction in my exertions and dispatch of business. For, work I must for the welfare of all the folk; and of that again, the root is energy a and dispatch business; for nothing is more essential than the welfare of all the folk. And whatsoever efforts I make they are made that I may attain release from my debt to animate beings, so that while in this world I make some persons happy, they may win heaven in the world beyond. For that purpose have I caused this scripture of the Law to be written in order that it may endure, while my sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons may take action for the welfare of all folk. That, however is difficult save by the utmost exertion.”
No absolute monarch who ascended the imperial throne on the basis of hereditary right, or as a natural heir to it, in the world, felt while discharging his official duty or doing welfare of his subjects, that he was liquidating some, “debt to animate being (subjects or otherwise)” and realized that attainment of release from the dept comes through tireless services to the animate beings. These, as a natural corollary, come out of the teachings of the “Social Contract Theory.” Ashoka mounted to the throne of Indian empire not through a democratic election, by the adult suffrage of his subjects. Even then he bowed before the theory of the Buddha and became a benevolent ruler.
EMBODIMENT OF THE PARENT:
Ashoka’s hear too, as taught by the Lord Buddha, was filled with the milk of human kindness that a mother posses for her only son. He made efforts to care and rear his subjects with personal love and affection. All rulers appoint Governors, Vice-roys, officers and feudal Lords to consolidate, collect revenue and to rule the Territory and people under his governance. But emperor Ashoka was unique one who engaged their provincial governors to look after the subjects as the parents appoint good nurses for the children. He declared in the imperishable mode of writing on the stones.
“To my Governors set over many hundred thousands of people I have granted independence in the Governors, confidently and fearlessly may perform their duties, bestow welfare and happiness upon them.
They will ascertain the causes of happiness or unhappiness, and through the subordinate officials of the Law of Piety will exhort the people of the country so that they may gain both this world and the next.
My Governors, too, eager to serve me; my Agents, also, acknowledging my will, shall serve me, and they, too, on occasion, will give exhortations so that the Governors will be eager to win me.
For, just as a man, having made over his child to a skillful nurse, feels confident and says to himself, “ The skillful nurse is eager to care for the happiness of my child,” even so my Governors have been created for the welfare and happiness of the country, with intent that fearlessly, confidently, and quietly they may perform their duties. For the reason I have granted to my Governors independence in the award of honours and penalties.”
RULE OF LAWS:
The last paras of the Rock Edict no IV, reveals a starting point regarding the existence of the “Rule of Laws” in ancient India. The Hindu society of later age and the Brahminical society of the previous rather pre-Gautama period basically remained law less and without any institution worth name, judiciary. The colonial rule of the Aryans, made the rules on the basis of principle of discrimination. These were called caste-laws, the duty of the kings were primarily to observe and maintain this laws of “Chatur Varna and Ashrama.” These
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