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DHANET'S

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E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.buddhanet.net

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Edited by Anuradha Seneviratna

King Asoka and Buddhism

Historical & Literary Studies

King Asoka and Buddhism

Historical & Literary Studies

King Aśoka and Buddhism

H ISTORICAL AND LITERARY STUDIES

EDITED BY A NURADHA SENEVIRATNA

BUDDHIST PUBLICATION S OCIETY K ANDY SRI LANKA

PUBLISHED IN 1994

BUDDHIST PUBLICATION S OCIETY

P.O. BOX 61

54, SANGHARAJA M AWATHA

K ANDY, SRI LANKA

COPYRIGHT © 1994 BY A NURADHA SENEVIRATNA

ISBN 955–24–0065–2.

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Buddhism / Indian History / Asian Studies

King Aśoka and Buddhism

King Aśoka, the third monarch of the Mauryan dynasty in the

third century B.C., was the first ruler of a unified India and one

of the greatest political figures of all time. After he embraced the teachings of the Buddha, he transformed his polity from one of military conquest to one of Dharmavijaya — victory by righteousness and truth. By providing royal patronage for the propagation of Buddhism both within and beyond his empire, he helped promote the metamorphosis of Buddhism into a world religion that spread peacefully across the face of Asia. The present collection of essays by leading Indological scholars draws upon both the inscriptions and the literary tra- ditions to explore the relationship between King Aśoka and the religion he embraced. In highlighting the ways in which Aśoka tapped the ethical and spiritual potentials of rulership, these papers deliver a message highly relevant to our own time, when politics and spirituality often seem pitted against one another in irreconcilable opposition.

Contents: Richard Gombrich: Aśoka-The Great Upāsaka; Romila Thapar: Aśoka and Buddhism as Reflected in the Aśokan Edicts; Ananda W.P. Guruge: Unresolved Discrepancies between Buddhist Tradition and Aśokan Inscriptions; N.A. Jayawickrama: Aśoka’s Edicts and the Third Buddhist Council; Anuradha Seneviratna: Aśoka and the Emergence of a Sinhala Buddhist State in Sri Lanka; John S. Strong: Images of Aśoka; Ananda W.P. Guruge: Emperor Aśoka’s Place in History. Cover design by Mahinda Jeevananda

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The Editor

Anuradha Seneviratna is Professor of Sinhala at the Univer- sity of Peradeniya. His prior publications include The Springs of Sinhala Civilization; Buddhist Monastic Architecture in Sri Lanka; Mahintale: Dawn of a Civilization; and a two-volume work on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.

The Buddhist Publication Society

The BPS is an approved charity dedicated to making known the Teaching of the Buddha, which has a vital message for people of all creeds. Founded in 1958, the BPS has published a wide variety of hooks and booklets covering a great range of topics. Its publications include accurate annotated transla- tions of the Buddha’s discourses, standard reference works, as well as original contemporary expositions of Buddhist thought and practice. These works present Buddhism as it truly is — a dynamic force which has influenced receptive minds for the past 2,500 years and is still as relevant today as it was when it first arose. A full list of our publications will be sent upon request with an enclosure of U.S. $1.50 or its equivalent to cover air mail postage. Write to:

The Hony. Secretary Buddhist Publication Society P.O. Box 61 4 Sangharaja, Mawatha, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

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The Contributors

Richard Gombrich is Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University and Fellow of Balliol College. He is also the Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Pali Text Society. His previous publications include Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon (1971), The World of Buddhism (with Heinz Bechert, 1984), Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (1988), and Buddhism Transformed (with Gananath Obeyesekere, 1990).

Ananda W.P. Guruge has served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in Paris. He is presently the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States. He holds a Ph.D. and D. Litt. (Hon.) and is the author of The Society of the Ramayana (1960), From the Living Fountains of Buddhism (1984), Buddhism — The Religion and its Culture (2nd ed. 1984), and The Mahāvaṃsa — An Annotated New Translation with Prolegomena (1989).

N.A. Jayawickrama was Professor and Head of the Department of Pali of the University of Peradeniya and later Professor and Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Civilization at the University of Kelaniya. He is at present Editorial Adviser to the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism and Professor Emeritus of the University of Peradeniya. His publications include The Inception of Discipline and the Vinayanidāna (1962), The Epochs of the Conqueror (1968), and The Story of Gotama Buddha (1990).

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Anuradha Seneviratna is Professor of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya. His publications include The Springs of Sinhala Civilization (1989), Buddhist Monastic Architecture in Sri Lanka (1992), Mahintale: Dawn of a Civilization (1993), and a two- volume work on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (1987, 1990).

John S. Strong is Associate Professor of Religion at Bates College, U.S.A., and author of The Legend of King Aśoka (1983) and The Legend and Cult of Upagupta.

Romila Thapar is Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her publications include Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (1961), A History of India, Vol. I (1984), and From Lineage to State (1984).

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Contents

The Contributors ....................................................................................................................... vi

Editor’s Preface .......................................................................................................................... xi

Editor’s Note ............................................................................................................................. xii

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... xiii

1 Aśoka — The Great Upāsaka

R ICHARD GOMBRICH ................................................................................................. 1

1. Aśoka’s Inscriptions ........................................................................................ 2
2. Aśoka in Buddhist Tradition ..................................................................... 6
3. The Missions: Interpreting the Evidence ......................................... 10 Notes ........................................................................................................................... 13

2 Aśoka and Buddhism as Reflected in the Aśokan Edicts

ROMILA THAPAR ......................................................................................................... 15

3 Emperor Aśoka and Buddhism: Unresolved Discrepancies between Buddhist Tradition & Aśokan Inscriptions

A NANDA W.P. GURUGE ......................................................................................... 37

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 37
2. Conversion of Aśoka to Buddhism ..................................................... 42
3. When, How and by Whom? ................................................................... 46
4. Major Discrepancies in Events and Dates ....................................... 49
5. Historical Reliability of Rock Edict XIII ........................................... 54
6. Aśoka’s Role in the Propagation of Buddhism in his Empire ........................................ 63
7. Foreign Missions of Aśoka ......................................................................... 70

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8. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 79 Notes .......................................................................................................................... 84

4 Aśoka’s Edicts and the Third Buddhist Council

N.A. JAYAWICKRAMA ............................................................................................... 92

Notes ........................................................................................................................ 106

5 Aśoka and the Emergence of a Sinhala Buddhist State in Sri Lanka

A NURADHA SENEVIRATNA .................................................................................. 111

1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 111 2. Sources .............................................................................................................. 112 3. The Mission to Sri Lanka: Brief Account ....................................... 115 4. The Political Background ...................................................................... 118 5. The Sri Lanka-Kalinga Tie ..................................................................... 122 6. Aśoka and Tissa ........................................................................................... 125 7. The Advent of Mahinda .......................................................................... 130 8. Saṅghamittā and the Bodhi Tree ...................................................... 132 9. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 135 Notes ........................................................................................................................ 137

6 Images of Aśoka: Some Indian and Sri Lankan Legends and their Development

JOHN S. STRONG ..................................................................................................... 141

A. The Early Traditions ......................................................... 146

1. The Gift of Honey and the Gift of Dirt ......................................... 146 2. The Fate of the Bodhi Tree .................................................................. 152

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7 Emperor Aśoka’s Place in History:

 - 3. The Gathering of the Relics - 4. The 84,000 Stūpas or Vihāras - B. Later Developments - 1. The Gift of Dirt Reconsidered - 2. The Legends of the Queens - 3. The Collection of Relics: A New Story - 4. The 84,000 Stūpas Once More - Conclusion - Notes 

• A NANDA W.P. GURUGE A Review of Prevalent Opinions
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Aśoka in the Mainstream Indian Tradition and Literature
  • 3. Aśoka of the Northern Buddhist Sources
  • 4. Aśoka of the Sri Lankan Pali Sources
  • 5. Aśoka of Edicts and Inscriptions
  • 6. Aśoka in the Eyes of Recent Writers & Scholars
  • 7. Aśoka and the Decline and Fall of the Mauryan Empire
  • 8. Conclusion
    • Notes
• Aśoka’s Indian Empire Maps
• Areas to which Buddhist Missions were sent

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Editor’s Preface

A

LARGE NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS agree that

Emperor Aśoka of India in the third century B.C. was

one of the greatest conquerors who later achieved the most difficult conquest of all — the conquest of himself — through self-conviction and his perception of human suffering. After embracing the Dhamma of the Buddha as his guide and ref- uge, he transformed the goal of his regime from military con- quest to conquest by Dhamma. By providing royal patronage for the propagation of Buddhism both within and outside his vast dominion, he helped promote the metamorphosis of Buddhism from one among many sects of Indian ascetic spirituality into a world religion that was eventually to pene- trate almost all of southern and eastern Asia. The present collection of papers by leading Indological scholars is intended to highlight different aspects of the close connection between the political and religious life of this exem- plary Indian ruler. By underscoring from different angles the ways in which Aśoka tapped the ethical and spiritual poten- tials of rulership, and did so in ways which did not violate the religious convictions of those who did not accept the same sys- tem of beliefs that he himself endorsed, these papers, in their totality, deliver a message that is highly relevant to our times, when political and ethical goals so often seem to ride a colli- sion course and religious tolerance is threatened by fanaticism and belligerent fundamentalism. This volume arose out of a seminar on King Aśoka and Buddhism that had been scheduled to be held at the Buddhist Publication Society in March 1987, but had to be cancelled

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owing to the inability of certain scholars from abroad to attend on time. Fortunately we were able to receive their contribu- tions, and the editor has undertaken to provide a paper on Aśoka’s influence on Buddhism in Sri Lanka. I am beholden to Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi for the trust and con- fidence he placed in me when he appointed me the editor of this volume. I owe a special word of thanks too to the eminent scholars who have contributed to this work.

A NURADHA SENEVIRATNA

Editor’s Note

T

WO VARIANT SPELLINGS ARE USED for the subject of this volume — Aśoka and Asoka. The former is used as the standard spelling, the latter when quoting from or referring to sources in Pali, which does not include the sibilant ś in its alphabet. In other respects I have allowed the authors’ spell- ings of proper names to stand, and the differences in meth- ods of transliteration account for occasional differences in the spelling of the same names.

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Acknowledgements

T

HE EDITOR AND PUBLISHER OF this volume cordially thank the following: Routledge & Kegan Paul for permission to include pages 127–136 of Richard Gombrich, Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (1988) as the article entitled “Aśoka — The Great Upāsaka.” The Jayawickrama Felicitation Volume Committee for permission to use Ananda W.P. Guruge’s essay “Emperor Aśoka and Buddhism: Unresolved Discrepancies between Buddhist Tradition and Aśokan Inscriptions,” which originally appeared in Buddhist Philosophy and Culture: Essays in Honour of N.A. Jayawickrama (1987). The Sri Lanka Journal of Buddhist Studies for permission to use Ananda W.P. Guruge’s essay “Emperor Aśoka’s Place in History: A Review of Prevalent Opinions,” which originally appeared in the Journal (Vol. I, 1987), issued by the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka (214, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7). N.A. Jayawickrama for permission to use his article “Aśoka’s Edicts and the Third Buddhist Council,” originally published in the University of Ceylon Review (Vol. XVII, 1959). The map “Aśoka’s Indian Empire” is taken from Aśokan Inscriptions edited by Radhagovinda Basak (Calcutta: Progressive Publishers, 1959). The map “Areas to which Buddhist Missions were sent” was drawn by J.F. Horrabin and is taken from Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas by Romila Thapar (Oxford University Press, 1961).

1 Aśoka — The Great Upāsaka

R ICHARD GOMBRICH

T

HE MOST IMPORTANT BUDDHIST LAYMAN in history has

been the Emperor Aśoka, who ruled most of India for

the middle third of the third century B.C. On the capital

of one of the pillars Aśoka erected is beautifully carved a wheel with many spokes. This representation of the wheel of Dhamma which the Buddha set in motion is the symbol cho- sen to adorn the flag of the modern state of India. The lions on the same capital are on the state seal. Thus India recalls its “righteous ruler.” Aśoka is a towering figure for many other reasons too, but we confine ourselves to his role in Bud- dhist history. Before Aśoka Buddhism had spread through the northern half of India; but it was his patronage which made it a world religion. Aśoka was the grandson and second successor of Candra- gupta, who founded the Mauryan dynasty and empire about

324 B.C. We have very little evidence about the precise extent of

what Candragupta conquered and even less about the activities of his son Bindusāra, but Candragupta’s empire may already have covered northern India from coast to coast and probably comprised about two-thirds of the sub-continent. Bindusāra and Aśoka extended it further to the south. The capital was the city of Pāṭaliputta, which had been founded as the new capi- tal of Magadha fairly soon after the Buddha’s death; modern Patna is on the same site. The Mauryan empire was a political

unit of a new order of magnitude in India, the first, for exam- ple, in which there were speakers of Indo-Aryan languages (derivatives of Sanskrit) so far apart that their dialects must have been mutually incomprehensible. Aśoka’s precise dates are controversial. Eggermont, the scholar who has devoted most attention to the problem, pro-

poses 268–239 B.C.^1

For our purposes, there are two Aśokas: the Aśoka known to modern historians through his inscriptions, and the Aśoka of Buddhist tradition. We shall say something about each in turn and then try to reconcile the two.

1. Aśoka’s Inscriptions

Aśoka left a large number of inscriptions on rocks and pil- lars. He dictated his edicts to scribes in Pāṭaliputta and had them carved in conspicuous places throughout his vast king- dom. They record a personality and a concept of rule unique not merely in Indian but perhaps in world history. The idea of putting up such inscriptions probably came to Aśoka from the Achaemenid empire in Iran; but whereas Darius has boasted of winning battles and killing people, and considered his ene- mies products of the forces of evil, Aśoka recorded his revul- sion from violence and his wish to spare and care for even animals. He had begun in the usual warlike way, but after a successful campaign in Kalinga (modern Orissa) he had a change of heart. He publicly declared his remorse for the suf- ferings he had caused in the war and said that henceforth he would conquer only by righteousness (dhamma)^2 This remark- able conversion from what every proper Indian king consid- ered his dharma to a universalistic dhamma of compassion and, ethical propriety presumably coincided with the conversion to

Buddhism which Aśoka announced in what may well be the earliest of his edicts. In that edict 3 he says that he first became an upāsaka, a Buddhist lay follower, but did not make much progress for a year; then, however, he “went to” the Saṅgha and made a lot of progress. We cannot be sure just what he meant by “going to” the Saṅgha — the Buddhist tradition that it meant going and living with monks may be an exaggera- tion — but in any case it clearly involved getting to know more about Buddhism. Almost all of Aśoka’s inscriptions are about dhamma. By this he did not mean specifically Buddhism, but righteousness as he understood it. And it is clear that his understanding was greatly influenced by Buddhism. The best traditions of both Buddhism and Indian kingship coincided in Aśoka’s declared support for all religions. This support went far beyond passive toleration: he dedicated caves to non-Buddhist ascetics,^4 repeat- edly said that Brahmins and renouncers (śramaṇa) all deserved respect, and told people never to denigrate other sects but to inform themselves about them.’ Aśoka abolished the death penalty.^6 He declared many ani- mal species protected species 7 and said that whereas previously many animals were killed for the royal kitchens, now they were down to two peacocks and a deer per day, “and the deer not regularly — and in future even these three animals will not be killed.” 8 (Here as so often the rather clumsy style seems to have the spontaneity of unrevised dictation.) He had wells dug and shade trees planted along the roads for the use of men and beasts, and medicinal plants grown for both as well.^8 The influence of Buddhism appears in both substance and style. The Buddha took current terminology and adapted it to his purpose: who is the true brahmin; what should one

really mean by kamma, etc. Aśoka does this repeatedly with his dhamma. Other kings have victories; he has dhamma victories.^10 Other kings go on hunting expeditions; he gets much more pleasure out of dhamma expeditions, on which he makes gifts to brahmins and renouncers and senior citizens,^11 tours the country and finds instruction in the dhamma. Other kings have officials; he has dhamma officials to promulgate virtue and to look after such disadvantaged groups as old people, orphans and prisoners.^12 In an edict addressed to these officials 13 he tells them to follow “the middle path” — almost certainly ech- oing the Buddhist term — by avoiding such vices as jealousy, cruelty and laziness. In another edict 14 he says that people go in for all sorts of ceremonies on family occasions such as mar- riages, and women especially perform all kinds of paltry and useless rites for good luck, but the only rewarding ceremony is to practise dhamma, which means treating your slaves and servants properly, respecting your elders, acting with restraint towards all living beings, and making gifts to brahmins and renouncers. This edict closely echoes the Advice to Sigāla and other ser- mons of the Buddha on lay ethics.^15 Given that Aśoka is most unlikely to have had a text available, the resemblance could hardly have been closer. Like Sigāla, Aśoka’s subjects are to sub- stitute ethical action for traditional ritual, and what they are to do is just what the Buddha recommended. The notion that the ideal king portrayed by the Buddha is the ideal layman writ large, fits Aśoka perfectly. To follow all the details one should read these wonderful human documents for oneself.^16 I shall just cite two more points at which Aśoka commends what we have identified as distinctively Buddhist values. He says: “It is good to have few expenses and few possessions.” 17 And he

not only urges diligence on others, but leads by example: he attends to business at any time, whether he is eating, in the women’s quarters, in his bedroom, in his litter, in the garden, or even — if our understanding is correct — on the toilet. “For I am never satisfied with my efforts and with settling busi- ness, because I think I must work for the welfare of the whole world.” 18 Near the end of his last and longest inscription,^19 after sum- marizing his efforts to propagate dhamma, Aśoka says: “People’s progress in dhamma is achieved in two ways, by dhamma rules and by conviction. Rules count for little; most is by convic- tion.” A perfect Buddhist sentiment, which I find touching in the context. Some scholars have questioned Aśoka’s Buddhism on the grounds that he never mentions Nibbāna or other key concepts of Buddhist soteriology. A consideration of Buddhist lay-relig- iosity, both in the Canon and after, proves that this objection is foolish. There are also certain inscriptions, apart from the announcement of his conversion, which have a purely Buddhist content in the narrowest sense. In an inscription found at the site 20 he announces that he has visited Lumbinī, the Buddha’s birthplace, and remitted the village’s taxes. In another 21 he says that he has doubled the size of the stūpa of a (named) former Buddha and come himself to worship at it. So Aśoka went on Buddhist pilgrimages. There are also two remarkable inscrip- tions addressed to the Saṅgha. In one 22 he recommends that they study certain specific texts; most but not all have been identified. In another, which has been found at three sites 23 (though badly damaged at two), he says that any monk or nun who splits the Saṅgha is to be made to wear white clothes (i.e. revert to lay status) and made to leave the monastery; the

laity are to come each uposatha to check that this is done. We have seen that this issue, the unanimity of the Saṅgha, is a cen- tral one in the Vinaya, and that, in lending his authority — in- deed, his practical help — to the expulsion of dissidents, Aśoka is acting as the perfect Buddhist king who enables the Saṅgha to keep itself pure. We have left to the last the passage in an inscription 24 which mentions Aśoka’s missions. In it he says that he has won a dhamma victory by sending messengers to five kings and sev- eral other kingdoms. The kings, all of whom ruled in the Hel- lenistic world, the Near East, have been identified; from their dates we can deduce that the inscription was dictated in 256

or 255 B.C., and this gave modern scholarship the key to dat-

ing not merely Aśoka but the whole of ancient Indian history. Unfortunately most of the other countries mentioned have not been securely identified. An overlapping list of countries, equally problematic, is mentioned in another inscription 25 in a similar context. We shall return below to the vexed problem whether these missions correspond to the missions recorded in the Buddhist chronicles.

2. Aśoka in Buddhist Tradition

The missions had a great influence on world history. But in other respects the Aśoka who influenced later Buddhists, serving as the model for Buddhist rulers, was the Aśoka por- trayed in the Buddhist chronicles. A large body of stories grew up around him. We shall, however, restrict ourselves to the Theravādin chronicles, and in particular to the account of the Mahāvaṃsa.^26 Most features of the Aśoka of legend are perhaps simple- minded inflations of the truth. Thus he is said to have built

84,000 monasteries and as many stūpas; it seems that in later times almost every old stūpa was attributed to him. He is also said to have been preternaturally wicked before his conver- sion, killing 99 half-brothers. The story of Aśoka’s conversion is that one day he chanced to see a Buddhist novice walking down the street and was so impressed by his tranquil deportment that he conceived confi- dence in him and invited him in. (There is a romantic tale that, unbeknown to the king, he was his nephew; but that is not the point of the episode.) “The king said, ‘Sit down, dear sir, on a suitable seat.’ Seeing no other monk present, he went up to the throne.” 27 This establishes that the most junior monk has prec- edence over the highest layman, the king. Again, significantly, the novice preaches to the king about diligence (appamāda); he is thereupon converted and starts to feed monks on a vast scale. In due course Aśoka’s younger brother, his son Mahinda, and his daughter Saṅghamittā enter the Saṅgha. The lavish state patronage has an unintended conse- quence; it tempts non-Buddhists to join the Saṅgha, or rather, to dress up as monks. The true monks cannot co-operate with them, so no uposatha ceremony is held for seven years. The king’s first attempt to rectify this leads to disaster when his too-zealous minister has some real monks beheaded for this non-co-operation. He then invites the venerable elder Tissa Moggaliputta, who first assures him that without evil inten- tion there is no bad kamma. The king and the elder then pro- ceed to the big monastery the king has founded in Pāṭaliputta, and the king cross-examines its inhabitants to weed out the non-Buddhists. (Notice that this says nothing about doctrine within Buddhism or Buddhist sect formation: the men who merit expulsion were never Buddhists at all.) Finally Aśoka

says to the elder, “Since the Saṅgha is purified, let it perform the uposatha ceremony,” 28 and they do so in concord. Tissa then organizes the Third Council; they compile the scriptures (by reciting them) and he composes the Kathāvatthu, the last book in the Pali Abhidhamma Piṭaka. In effect he thus as it were seals off the Tipiṭaka, the Pali version of the Canon, with the possible exception of the large “Collection of Minor Texts” (Khuddaka Nikāya) of the Sutta Piṭaka, the contents of which remained somewhat fluid for many centuries. The Kathāvatthu establishes or reaffirms Theravādin orthodoxy on a host of points, mostly minor, on which they differed from some or other Buddhist schools. The story of the Third Council is peculiar to the Theravāda tradition; evidently it concerned only them. The story of Aśoka’s intervention to purify the Saṅgha is found in other Buddhist traditions too, though with variant details. It is not corrobo- rated by inscriptional evidence, as the inscription cited above does not say that Aśoka has actually expelled monks himself; on the other hand, it is almost certain that many of Aśoka’s inscriptions have been lost — new ones are still being discov- ered — and the argument from silence is weak. The surviving inscription certainly proves that Aśoka took an interest in the unanimity and purity of the Saṅgha. Scholars have treated the Theravādin account with scepticism because of various implausible features in it. Certainly, it confuses the fortunes of one sect, or perhaps even just one monastery, with those of Buddhism throughout India: it is impossible to believe that no uposatha ceremony was held in all India for seven years, and in any case Aśoka’s expulsion of pseudo-monks from one monas- tery would only have rectified matters in that particular sangha, not in the Saṅgha as a whole. It also seems odd that it should

be Aśoka, a layman, who tests monks on their doctrine. Yet this is hardly out of character for a king whom we know put up an inscription telling the Saṅgha which texts to study. It is the occupational hazard of rulers to think they know best. Whether the story is essentially accurate or inflates a minor incident in which Aśoka did not personally participate, it serves in the Theravādin literature to complement the Vinaya, sup- plying the missing piece to the puzzle of the Saṅgha’s regula- tion. Buddhist kings ever after Aśoka saw it as their duty to act as Defender of the Faith — to use the Christian phrase — by expelling malefactors to purify the Saṅgha. For a Buddhist, to defend the faith is to defend the Saṅgha. Aśoka has been the model for rulers all over the Buddhist world. Within the next thousand years at least five kings of Sri Lanka prohibited the killing of animals.^29 In Burma, Aśoka’s example has constantly been invoked by kings, 30 and Prime Minister U Nu, modelling himself on Aśoka, had innumerable small stūpas put up.^31 The great Khmer ruler Jayavarman VII (1181 –after 1215) saw himself as a “living Buddha” and in his inscriptions expressed Aśokan sentiments on the material and spiritual welfare of his subjects and announced that he had had hospitals built. 32 In eleventh-century Thailand, King Rāma Khamhaeng ordered that for urgent business he should be disturbed even on the toilet. 33 In fifth-century China, the Buddhist emperor Lian-u-thi went and lived in a monastery with monks. 34 Of course no one before the nineteenth century had access to the inscriptions, or even knew they existed; they based themselves on Buddhist literary sources. In modern times, Aśoka’s precedent has been no less invoked but more distorted. The great Sinhalese Buddhist reformer Anagārika Dharmapāla, whose assumed name Dharmapāla means

“Defender of the Faith,” called Aśoka’s “the greatest democratic empire,” 35 while the Sinhalese polemicist D.C. Vijayavardhana, who regarded the Buddha as somehow anticipating Karl Marx, described Aśoka as “the Lenin of Buddhism.” 36

3. The Missions: Interpreting the Evidence Curiously enough, the Theravādin chronicles do not credit Aśoka directly with what we naturally think of as his most important achievement, the dispatch of missions which estab- lished Buddhism over a far wider area, within the Indian sub- continent and beyond. According to those texts, it was the Elder Tissa Moggaliputta who sent out nine missions to “bor-

der areas.” This was in C. 250 B.C. Each mission was headed by

an elder whom the texts name and consisted of five monks, the quorum required for conferring higher ordination in remote parts.^37 The mission to Sri Lanka was headed by the Elder Mahinda, whom Theravādin tradition considers to have been Aśoka’s son; his daughter Saṅghamittā followed in due course to establish the Order of Nuns in Sri Lanka. There is archaeological evidence to corroborate a piece of the chronicles’ story. Five named monks are said to have gone to various parts of the Himalayan region.^38 In Bhilsa (= ancient Vidisā) in central India, relic caskets of the right period, the

early second century B.C., have been found inscribed with the

names of three of these monks and stating that they are of the Himalayan School. 39 Nevertheless, the great Buddhologist Etienne Lamotte not only argues that these missions cannot be those to which Aśoka refers in his inscriptions, he is even sceptical whether there was a concerted missionary enterprise at all.^40 He points out that Aśoka’s “dhamma messengers” or ambassadors of right-

eousness can hardly have been Buddhist monks, because the emperor protected all faiths and used dhamma to mean some- thing much more generally acceptable than Buddhist doctrine. He argues that the lists of destinations in the Buddhist sources on the one hand and the inscriptions on the other are dis- crepant, though they overlap; that some of them were already familiar with Buddhism by that date; and that the dates too are discrepant. Erich Frauwallner, on the other hand, accepts the Buddhist account in most particulars.^41 But he identifies it with Aśoka’s embassies and thus holds the emperor directly responsible. He further argues that the missions set out from Vidisā in central India, where the missionaries’ remains were found. He identi- fies the geographical names in Theravādin sources with some of those in the inscriptions, and glosses over the difficulty of the date. On the whole I side with Frauwallner. The geographical identifications are too uncertain to help us. While Lamotte is right to point out that some of the areas visited, notably Kash- mir, had Buddhists already, that does not disprove that mis- sions could be sent there. The chroniclers, as so often happens, had no interest in recording a gradual and undramatic proc- ess, and allowed history to crystallize into clear-cut episodes which could be endowed with edifying overtones; but this oversimplification does not prove that clear-cut events never occurred. We know from the inscriptions that they did. There is a discrepancy of about five years in the dates; as the dates of Aśoka’s embassies are certain, within a year or two, I suggest that we must not flinch from concluding that on this point the Buddhist sources are slightly out. Maybe Frauwallner is also right about where the missions left from, for the Sri Lankan

sources say 42 that Mahinda stayed a month at Vedisa (= Vidisā) before going to Sri Lanka. Aśoka’s ambassadors of righteousness would certainly not have been men travelling alone. Such a mission could well have included monks, perhaps even representatives of more than one religion. So Lamotte’s objection about the nature of the dhamma can also be parried. The monks who composed the chronicles would not have been pleased to record that Buddhism travelled as a sideshow. Nor would it indeed have been relevant to their main purpose as chroniclers, which was to show how valid ordination traditions came to be established. I agree with Frauwallner that the mis- sions to remote parts were probably responsible for the creation of several of the early sects, which arose because of geographi- cal isolation. What is really most implausible, in my view, is that it should have been Tissa Moggaliputta who sent out all the missions. The strong evidence of the Kathāvatthu demonstrates that he was a polemicist for the particular doctrinal interpre- tations of the Pali school, whereas we know that Kashmir, for example, had other sects and schools (i.e. disciplinary and doc- trinal traditions), not the Theravāda or vibhajja-vāda. Evidently Tissa Moggaliputta was the chief Theravādin intellectual of his day, and the Theravādin chronicles therefore grossly exagger- ated his role in general Buddhist history. Just as he cannot have presided over the purification of the entire Saṅgha throughout India, he cannot have been the prime mover in dispatching mis- sions throughout the known world. Indeed there is one account which does not connect him with Mahinda’s mission.^43 Aśoka may well have sought his advice and secured his co-operation, but these missions, the evidence indicates, were from court to court, a product of state patronage.