Ashoka: Difference between revisions

==Foreign relations==

It is well known that Ashoka sent ''dütas'' or emissaries to convey messages or letters, written or oral (rather both), to various people. The VIth Rock Edict about "oral orders" reveals this. It was later confirmed that it was not unusual to add oral messages to written ones, and the content of Ashoka's messages can be inferred likewise from the XIIIth Rock Edict: They were meant to spread his ''dhammavijaya,'' which he considered the highest victory and which he wished to propagate everywhere (including far beyond India). There is obvious and undeniable trace of cultural contact through the adoption of the [[Kharosthi]] script, and the idea of installing inscriptions might have travelled with this script, as [[Achaemenid]] influence is seen in some of the formulations used by Ashoka in his inscriptions. This indicates to us that Ashoka was indeed in contact with other cultures, and was an active part in mingling and spreading new cultural ideas beyond his own immediate walls.<ref name="Hinuber2012">{{cite journal | author=Oskar von Hinüber |title=Did Hellenistic Kings Send Letters to Aśoka? | journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=130 | issue=2 | year=2010 | publisher=Freiburg | pages=262–265}}</ref>

===Hellenistic world===

In his rock edicts, Ashoka states that he had encouraged the transmission of Buddhism to the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic kingdoms]] to the west and that the Greeks in his dominion were converts to Buddhism and recipients of his envoys:

Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamktis, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dhamma. Even where Beloved-of-the-Gods' envoys have not been, these people too, having heard of the practice of Dhamma and the ordinances and instructions in Dhamma given by Beloved-of-the-Gods, are following it and will continue to do so. | [[Edicts of Ashoka]], [[Ashoka's Major Rock Edict|Rock Edict]] (S. Dhammika)<ref>[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammika/wheel386.html#rock14 The Edicts of King Ashoka: an English rendering by Ven. S. Dhammika] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510060618/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammika/wheel386.html |date=10 May 2016 }}. Access to Insight: Readings in Theravāda Buddhism. Retrieved 1 September 2011.</ref>|source=}}

It is possible, but not certain, that Ashoka received letters from Greek rulers and was acquainted with the Hellenistic royal orders in the same way as he perhaps knew of the inscriptions of the Achaemenid kings, given the presence of ambassadors of Hellenistic kings in India (as well as the ''dütas'' sent by Ashoka himself).<ref name="Hinuber2012" /> [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] is reported to have been such a Greek ambassador at the court of Ashoka, sent by [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]],<ref>{{cite web |url = http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.21 |title = Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", 6, 21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728023626/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.21 |archive-date=28 July 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> who himself is mentioned in the [[Edicts of Ashoka]] as a recipient of the Buddhist proselytism of Ashoka. Some Hellenistic philosophers, such as [[Hegesias of Cyrene]], who probably lived under the rule of King [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]], one of the supposed recipients of Buddhist emissaries from Asoka, are sometimes thought to have been influenced by Buddhist teachings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Preus |first=Anthony |year=2015 |title=Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjW_BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=184 |isbn=978-1-4422-4639-3 |access-date=18 June 2017 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104102717/https://books.google.com/books?id=wjW_BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |url-status=live }}</ref>

| publisher =Thames & Hudson

}}</ref><ref name="emmerick 263"/> According to one version, the nobles of a tribe in [[Taxila (ancient)|ancient Taxila]], who traced their ancestry to the deity [[Vaiśravaṇa]], were said to have blinded [[Kunala|Kunãla]], a son of [[Ashoka]]. In punishment they were banished by the [[Maurya Empire|Mauryan emperor]] to the north of the Himalayas, where they settled in Khotan and elected one of their members as king. However war then ensued with another group from China whose leader then took over as king, and the two colonies merged.<ref name="Mallory 2000"/> In a different version, it was Kunãla himself who was exiled and founded Khotan.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XXGhAL1WKcC&pg=PA193 |title=The Early History of India|first= Vincent A. |last= Smith | page=193 |publisher= Atlantic Publishers |date= 1999|isbn=978-81-7156-618-1}}</ref>

==Legends about past lives==

Buddhist legends mention stories about Ashoka's past lives. According to a ''Mahavamsa'' story, Ashoka, Nigrodha and Devnampiya Tissa were brothers in a previous life. In that life, a [[pratyekabuddha]] was looking for honey to cure another, sick pratyekabuddha. A woman directed him to a honey shop owned by the three brothers. Ashoka generously donated honey to the pratyekabuddha, and wished to become the sovereign ruler of Jambudvipa for this act of merit.{{sfn|Strong|1995|p=146}} The woman wished to become his queen, and was reborn as Ashoka's wife Asandhamitta.{{sfn|Strong|1995|pp=146–147}} Later Pali texts credit her with an additional act of merit: she gifted the pratyekabuddha a piece of cloth made by her. These texts include the ''Dasavatthuppakarana'', the so-called Cambodian or Extended ''Mahavamsa'' (possibly from 9th–10th centuries), and the ''Trai Bhumi Katha'' (15th century).{{sfn|Strong|1995|p=166}}