Ashoka

Also called: Devanampiya Piyadasi, Asoka · Topic: The Mauryan Empire · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 5 "India, That Is Bharat"; Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

Ashoka was a Mauryan emperor (reign 268–232 BCE in Class 7 NCERT; c. 272/268–231 BCE in Class 12 NCERT) and the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya. After he conquered Kalinga, he spread dhamma (a moral code for everyone in the empire) through edicts cut on rocks and pillars. He matters because his edicts are among the earliest written records in India that speak in a king's own voice. They show how one ruler tried to hold a huge empire with many peoples together by persuasion, not only by force.

Explanation

Background: the empire he inherited and Kalinga

• Family line: Chandragupta → Bindusara → Ashoka.
• Size of the empire: almost the whole subcontinent except the far south. It included land in today's Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.
• Kalinga = present-day coastal Odisha.
• Ashoka conquered it in his eighth regnal year (the eighth year of his rule) [3].

• Britannica dates the campaign to 260 BCE [3].

• The cost, in Ashoka's own words: "One hundred and fifty thousand men were deported, a hundred thousand were killed, and many more died."

• Deported = forced to leave home and move somewhere else.
• He called this "very painful and deplorable", meaning deeply wrong and something to regret.

The turn to dhamma

• What changed after Kalinga:
• He took up the intense study of dhamma, love of dhamma and teaching of dhamma.

• He followed the Buddha's path of non-violence.

• Why confess to a war he won? Class 7 asks this directly. There are two answers:

• Remorse is the message. Admitting the suffering shows the new policy is serious.

• Warning plus mercy. He tells the unconquered forest peoples he is sorry, but he is still powerful.

• Dhamma is not the same as Buddhism. It was a public code of conduct for all subjects. Class 12 lists four core rules:

• Respect towards elders.
• Generosity towards Brahmanas and renouncers (people who left family life to seek truth).
• Kind treatment of slaves and servants.

• Respect for religions and traditions other than one's own.

• Britannica's fuller list adds non-violence, tolerance of all sects and opinions, obedience to parents, liberality towards friends and generosity towards all [3].

• He promised people well-being in this world and the next.

How dhamma was spread: officials and machinery

• Dhamma mahāmattas: special officers whose only job was spreading dhamma. They worked among all sects: the Buddhist Sangha, brahmans, Ājīvikas, Jains and others.
• Pativedakas: reporters. They were to bring the people's affairs to the king at any time and anywhere, even while he was eating, in the cow pen or in the palanquin (a covered seat carried on poles).
• Officials were told "All men are my children" and ordered to be impartial (to treat everyone the same).
• Touring inspections every five years checked for wrongful imprisonment and torture.

Results: what he claimed to do

• Medical care for people and animals, even beyond his borders. The southern kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satiyaputras lay outside the empire.
• Ban on hunting and on cruelty to animals.
• Along main roads: rest houses, wells, and fruit and shade trees.
• Emissaries (messengers) were sent to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Central Asia and beyond.
• He urged every sect to study the best teachings of the others.
• NCERT's caution (Class 7): we need not take every claim literally, because the edicts are the king's own publicity. Still, he clearly worked hard to reach his subjects. This fits the Kautilyan welfare idea in the Arthashastra: the king's happiness lies in his people's happiness.
• Later tradition also links Ashoka closely with the spread of Buddhism.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Mauryan Empire, 3rd century BCE. The reign was 268–232 BCE (Class 7) or c. 272/268–231 BCE (Class 12). The exact dates are approximate, so quote the book you are asked about.
• Edicts began: twelve years after his coronation (269 BCE), according to Britannica [3][2].
• Titles and the name problem:
• Devanampiya = "Beloved of the Gods".
• Piyadassi = "pleasant to behold", or one who looks on others with kindness.

• Most inscriptions use only these titles. The name Asoka appears in only some inscriptions, so scholars had to work out that the king of the edicts was the Ashoka of the later texts.

• The edicts:

• 14 major rock edicts and 7 pillar edicts, found in many versions across the empire [3].
• Most are in Prakrit (the people's spoken language) written in the Brahmi script.
• In the north-west some use Kharoshthi, a script based on Aramaic. Greek and Aramaic inscriptions are found only in Afghanistan and the trans-Indus region [3].

• They were first deciphered by James Prinsep in the 1830s [2].

• Named sites:

• Dhauli (Odisha): the edicts are cut on a boulder. Above them is a rock-cut front half of an elephant, about four feet high [4].
• Jaugada: a duplicate set of the Dhauli edicts on a rock by the Rushikulya river, north-west of Ganjam town, Ganjam district, Odisha [4].
• Junagadh, Gujarat: Ashokan Rock Edicts [4].
• Mansehra (now in Pakistan): rock edicts on UNESCO's Tentative List [3].
• "Ashokan Edict sites along the Mauryan Routes": a serial nomination (several sites put forward together) on UNESCO's Tentative List [3].
• Sarnath: fragments of the Ashokan pillar survive, reported as 15.25 m high. The pillar carries his edict plus two later inscriptions. The remains at Sarnath range from the 3rd century BCE to the 12th century CE [2].

Don't confuse with

• Chandragupta Maurya: he founded the Mauryan Empire and was Ashoka's grandfather. Bindusara, Ashoka's father, ruled in between. Kalinga and the dhamma edicts belong to Ashoka.
• Buddhism: Ashoka's dhamma was a moral code for everyone, not a single religion. His dhamma mahāmattas served Buddhists, brahmans, Ājīvikas and Jains alike.
• Dhamma mahāmattas vs pativedakas: mahāmattas spread dhamma among all sects. Pativedakas were reporters who brought the people's affairs to the king at any time.
• Brahmi vs Kharoshthi: most edicts are Prakrit in Brahmi. Kharoshthi (based on Aramaic) appears only in the north-west [3].

Prelims Hooks

• Kalinga (coastal Odisha) was conquered in Ashoka's eighth regnal year. Britannica dates the campaign to 260 BCE [3].
• Edict casualty figures: 150,000 deported, 100,000 killed, and many more died.
• Devanampiya = "Beloved of the Gods"; Piyadassi = "pleasant to behold". The name Asoka appears in only some inscriptions.
• 14 major rock edicts + 7 pillar edicts [3]. They were first deciphered by James Prinsep in the 1830s [2].
• Dhauli has a rock-cut elephant forepart. Jaugada has a duplicate set of the Dhauli edicts, on the Rushikulya river in Ganjam district, Odisha [4].
• Trap: the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satiyaputras are named in the edicts but were outside the empire.

Mains Points

• Dhamma was a tool for running the state, not just a personal faith.
• Its four rules were simple and did not favour any one sect.
• For an empire stretching from Afghanistan to Odisha, a shared basic code of conduct was cheaper and safer than ruling by force.

• After Kalinga, conquest by arms gave way to dhamma-vijaya (victory through dhamma): medical aid and emissaries went to places the army never entered.

• The edict as a source: its strength and its limit.

• The edicts were written at the time, they are dated, and they speak in the king's own voice. That makes them better evidence than later legend.
• But they are also royal self-presentation, and NCERT warns against taking them literally.

• Good answers check the edicts against archaeology at Dhauli, Jaugada, Junagadh and Sarnath [2][4].

• Language was chosen to help govern. Ashoka wrote in Prakrit, the people's language, and switched to Greek, Aramaic and Kharoshthi at the frontiers. This shows the edicts were meant to be read, not just displayed. It is an early example of a state shaping its message to suit its subjects [3].

Related concepts

• Bindusara
• Kalinga war
• Rock Edict XIII
• Kalinga edicts
• Dhauli
• Ashoka's dhamma
• Dhamma mahamatta
• Pativedaka
• Devanampiya
• Ashoka's religious tolerance

Read more

• Ashoka: Kalinga, dhamma and the edicts