CHAPTER VI.

THE ASOKA INSCRIPTIONS.

KING ASOKA was a powerful monarch who ruled over about three-fourths of the continent of Hindustan. He received the great anointment B.C. 260; he was converted to Buddhism B.C. 257. In the year B.C. 251 he caused certain rocks in various parts of his dominions to be incised with his edicts. Later on, certain other edicts were spread abroad on stambhas or solitary pillars, erected for the purpose; and in caves. These inscriptions are all in the Pâli language, the vernacular of the period. They are prized by antiquarians as the earliest known inscriptions in India; and to an inquirer into early Buddhism they are still more valuable, for Asoka is the first Buddhist that emerges from the regions of myth into matter-of-fact history. On his rocks and pillars he gives us an authentic picture of himself—a very remarkable picture considering the age in which he lived. The sun-king of the heavens, the Vedic Indra, who harms no mortal, seems to have come down from the sky. Swaying over a larger portion of India than any Mogul king, Asoka proclaims that bloodshed and acquiring many provinces is not "true glory;" which is alone to be found in making living creatures happy. He forbids executions and torture; he forbids the animal sacrifice of the priests; he forbids slavery; he forbids the slaughter and ill-treatment of the helpless animal world. For the benefit of both beast and man, gardens are to be cultivated everywhere of healing shrubs and herbs. Shady trees are to be planted along all the

highroads, wells sunk, serais or inns erected, and the national wealth devoted, not to wars and tinsel pageants, but to the education of his people in spirituality; and with a view to their happiness here and hereafter.

As these tablets of stone are especially designed to illustrate what Asoka meant by religion, we shall consider some of the chief topics seriatim.

KING ASOKA'S IDEAS ABOUT GOD.

"Much longing after the things (of this life) is a disobedience, I again declare; not less so is the laborious ambition of dominion by a prince who would be a propitiator of Heaven. Confess and believe in God, who is the worthy object of obedience (Isànameva manyata mánam)! For equal to this (belief), I declare unto you, ye shall not find such a means of propitiating Heaven. Oh, strive ye to obtain this inestimable treasure."-First Separate Edict, Dhauli (Prinsep).

"Thus spake King Devânampiya Piyadasi :-The present moment and the past have departed under the same ardent hopes. How by the conversion of the royal born may religion be increased? Through the conversion of the lowly born if religion thus increaseth, by how much (more) through the conviction of the high born and their conversion shall religion increase? Among whomsoever the name of God resteth, verily this is religion."

"Thus spake Devânampiya Piyadasi:-Wherefore from this very hour I have caused religious discourses to be preached. I have appointed religious observances, that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to God."—Edict No. VII. (Prinsep).

"In like manner, turning his mind to law in an establishment of learned men, he called together the Buddhist priests of Eastern Kalinga, who were settled there under

the ancient kings... act of devotion . . . all equipages ... he gives to God.”—Prinsep's translation of a somewhat defaced inscription on the Khandagiri Rock, erected by the grandson of Asoka.

"It is well known, sirs, to what lengths have gone my respect for and faith in Buddha, Dharma, Sañgha (Sâkya Muni, his law and his congregation).”—Second Bairat Rock (Burnouf).

"Whatever words have been spoken by the divine Buddha, they have all been well said."-Second Bairat Rock (Wilson).

"And he who acts in conformity with this edict shall be united with Sugato."-Delhi Pillar (Prinsep).

"The white elephant whose name is The Bringer of Happiness to the Whole World."-Final Sentence of the Rock Edicts (Kern).

"The appropriate temple of Kurma (Rishi ?)."— The Snake Cave, No. II. (Prinsep).

"The impregnable chamber of Chula Kurma ... continued in . . ."-Snake Cave, No. I. (Prinsep).

These two last caves are attributed to one of the immediate successors of King Asoka.

As the Swastica (the two divine serpents) is incised in several places on Asoka's rocks, and a sculptured elephant half emerging from a rock is at Dhauli, and another elsewhere, it is pretty evident that the king used the words Buddha, Dharma, Sañgha, in their transcendental sense. It is impossible that he could have had a religious "faith" in the "congregation," the oppressed and brutalised herd whom it was the object of his life to elevate and spiritualise. "Union with Sugato" also plainly implies that his "Sugato," his "God," was the transcendental

Buddha, "he who knows all." This God was triune, hence the use of the Swastica, the only emblem on the tablets.

ASOKA ON A FUTURE LIFE.

"On the many beings over whom I rule I confer happiness in this world; in the next they may obtain Swarga (paradise)."-Edict VI. (Wilson).

"This is good. With these means let a man seek Swarga. This is to be done. By these means it is to be done, as by them Swarga (paradise) is to be gained."-Edict IX. (Wilson).

"I pray with every variety of prayer for those who differ with me in creed, that they, following after my example, may with me attain unto eternal salvation."Delhi Pillar, Edict VI. (Prinsep).

"And whoso doeth this is blessed of the inhabitants of this world; and in the next world endless moral merit resulteth from such religious charity."-Edict XI. (Prinsep).

"Unto no one can be repentance and peace of mind until he hath obtained supreme knowledge, perfect faith, which surmounteth all obstacles, and perpetual assent."Rock Edict, No. VII. (Prinsep).

"In the tenth year of his anointment, the beloved King Piyadasi obtained the Sam-bodhi or complete knowledge." -Rock Edict, No. VII. (Burnouf).

"All the heroism that Piyadasi, the beloved of the gods, has exhibited is in view of another life. Earthly glory brings little profit, but, on the contrary, produces a loss of virtue. To toil for heaven is difficult to peasant and to prince unless by a supreme effort he gives up all."—Rock Edict, No. X. (Burnouf).

'May they (my loving subjects) obtain happiness in this world and in the next."-Second Separate Edict (Burnouf).

...

"The beloved of the gods speaketh thus:-It is more than thirty-two years and a half that I am a hearer of the law, and I did not exert myself strenuously; but it is a year or more that I have entered the community of ascetics, and that I have exerted myself strenuously. Those gods who during this time were considered to be true gods in Jambudvipa have now been abjured. . . . A small man who exerts himself somewhat can gain for himself great heavenly bliss, and for this purpose this sermon has been preached. Both great ones and small ones should exert themselves, and should in the end gain (true) knowledge. And this manner of acting should be what? Of long duration! For the spiritual good will grow the growth, and will grow exceedingly; at the least it will grow one size and a half.

"This sermon has been preached by the departed. "Two hundred and fifty years have elapsed since the departure of the teacher."—Rupnath Rock (Bühler).

How the learned have gone on maintaining that early Buddhism was agnostic in the face of such evidence it is difficult to understand. Swarga is the Vedic paradise, and the Vedic Rishis knew nothing of the metempsychosis. In later Buddhism it is held that an unenfranchised mortal who does good actions goes to one of the Dewaloca heavens as long as the karma or causation of those good deeds endures, and that then he returns to earth. But plainly in Asoka's day nothing was known of such a doctrine. The "moral merit" of righteous actions is said distinctly to be "endless;" and " Swarga" and "eternal salvation," as in Vedism, are pronounced identical.