Ashoka

Title: Ashoka – The Search for India’s Lost Emperor

Author: Charles Allen

Publisher: Abacus, 2013 (First published 2012)

ISBN: 978-0-349-12238-0

Pages: 425

Ashoka is India’s greatest monarch, ever. He unified India by integrating the numerous petty kingdoms in the post–Vedic period. Stung with remorse after a cruel battle against Kalingas, he followed the precepts of Buddhist Dharma (moral law) and renounced needless violence. His example continued to simulate great minds in conquering contemporary issues. Ahimsa (non–violence) carried forward by him helped mould the mode of protest of the Mahatma against the British. He presided over the seeding of a written script for Indian languages for the first time. The Brahmi script, in which Ashoka caused rock and pillar edicts to be written, developed into modern Indian scripts. In short, in whichever way you look towards him, the mark of nobility and greatness adorns the person of Emperor Ashoka. Curious it may seem that knowledge of this great emperor not at all existed in this country just 250 years before. Devastated by 700 years of Islamic rule, all traces of the country’s past had been obliterated in a tirade of destructive jihads. Charles Allen describes the thrilling story of tracing Ashoka and his legend through rocks, boulders and monastic remains scattered over jungle and country. It is also a tribute to those scholars in the British raj who maintained a benevolent and even admiring outlook towards the nation they were called upon to administer. The history of Ashoka was unearthed by these untiring savants who fought all odds – manmade as well as natural – to make the flower of knowledge blossom. Charles Allen is the right person to narrate this tale; in the delightful fashion of his many other books like Soldier Sahibs (reviewed earlier in this blog) and God’s Terrorists. With this book, Allen has proved that he is as responsive to Indian tastes and as enjoyable to read as William Dalrymple.

The genealogy of Mauryan kings is now taken for granted, and few of us know about the painstaking and pioneering research that went behind establishing it. Oriental scholars among the East India Company officials, the most notable among them being William Jones, who established the Asiatic Society, was behind the novel initiative that caused even ridicule among his peers. This occurred around the end of the 18^th century when all references to India’s pre-Islamic past had been obliterated by centuries of ruthless Islamic rule. The iconoclasm began in 1194, when Mohammed Bakhtiyar, a general of the slave-king Qutb-ud-din Aibak razed the great vihara at Nalanda to the ground and set the entire library on fire, after ensuring that there were no copies of the Koran in its shelves. It is said that the library had an immense collection of books that it took months to burn all books and the dark column of smoke was visible from miles afar. Buddhism, already crumbling at that time due to lack of patronage, found its coup de grace from Muslim invaders. All historical references to Buddha and the Mauryan dynasty faded from history and Ashoka’s pillar edicts ended up in Sultans’ construction projects. Matters stood idle at that for 400 years, when the intellectuals in East India Company’s employ began to wonder at the strange script that looked like ancient Greek, but totally undecipherable. Tales from epics and legends were collected and synchronized in chronology from Greek classic writers like Arrian, Strabo and others. Chandragupta was thus identified with the Greek Sandrocottus.

The story of how the script used in the inscriptions was deciphered provides an exciting account of historical secrets succumbing before ingenuity and intuition. The script, Ashokan Brahmi as it is called, looked like proto-Greek to the scholars. As several edicts were discovered from various corners of the subcontinent and copies taken, material was growing, but it took a supreme intellect to open the doors of knowledge. James Prinsep, an assayer in the Calcutta Mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal succeeded in 1837 to read the lines etched in rock – the last time anyone had done it was 2000 years in the past. Prinsep unlocked the Brahmi script, which was the precursor of most Indian scripts. The logical pathways which Prinsep traversed in his discovery are clearly detailed in the book. But one crucial error crept in. In most of the edicts, the text began with the lines devanampiya piyadassi laja’ (king Priyadarshi, beloved of the gods spake thus). Unfortunately Prinsep identified the name with that of King Devanampiya Tissa of Sri Lanka, who was converted to Buddhism by Ashoka’s mission involving his son and daughter, Mahinda and Sanghamitra. It was George Turnour, another oriental scholar stationed in Sri Lanka correctly identified Ashoka with Piyadassi, based on references from an ancient chronicle ‘Dipavamsa’. Both Prinsep and Turnour, however died young within five years of the revolutionary feat. Both were in their early forties.

Alexander Cunningham, the first director of the newly constituted Archeological Survey of India amassed legendary status by his efforts at reconstructing the Mauryan past. The travelogues of Fa Hsien and Hsuen Tsang, two Chinese travelers who came here in the 5^th and 7^th centuries respectively, came out during this period. In a result that is nothing short of astonishing, archeologists were able to pinpoint the locations of ancient cities and monasteries described in the Chinese works, based solely on the directions given in those books. Cunningham silenced the skeptics who still refused to accept that the creator of all those rock and pillar edicts and rock inscriptions was Ashoka, clinging on to the argument that King Piyadassi, mentioned in the epigraphs might not be Ashoka. But countless references in ancient religious texts like the Mahavamsa, Raja Tarangini and Ashokavadana confirmed the point. To cap it all, at Girnar and Maski, an inscription was found in which the name ‘Ashoka’ found mention. The flame lighted up by English scholars was soon taken up by Indians themselves and savants like Ramakrishna Bhandarkar contributed a great deal.

Charles Allen describes a lot of books that helped in writing the chronicle of Ashoka after 2000 years since his time. Such fine introduction would go a great deal in familiarizing serious readers to delve deeper into the story. To mention a few crucial works include Legend of King Ashoka by Eugene Burnouf, Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India by Vasili Vasiliev, Great Tang Records of the Western Regions by Hsuen Tsang and A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms by Fa Hsien. We learn with enthusiasm that the Chinese monks mention Ashoka by the name Wuyou Wang, which means ‘the king not feeling sorrow’ in Chinese, which is the exact translation of the Prakrit original, Ashoka (without shoka). Also, we note Ashoka’s reluctance to mention the Kalinga war in rock edicts situated in the erstwhile Kalinga state (modern Orissa). Both in the Dhauli and Jaugada edicts, three edicts (11 to 13) dealing with the war, are missing. Probably the emperor wanted to spare the emotions of the vanquished people, as many edicts were commissioned within a few years of the war. We also note with pride the priorities of a monarch who valued his subjects much.

The author portrays Bakhtiyar’s devastating raid and arson at Nalanda in 1194 in heart-breaking detail. He quotes from Minkaj-ud-din’s Tabakat-i-Nasiri that, “the greater number of the inhabitants of that place were Brahmans…and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and when all these books came under the observation of the Mussalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of these books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed…When that victory was effected, Muhammad-i-Bakhtiyar returned with great booty and came to the presence of the beneficent Sultan Kutb-ud-din Ibak and received great honour and distinction” (p.4).

The book is very interestingly written and a page turner. It is endowed with an excellent collection of plates illustrating the edicts, sculptural works and digging sites as it were found in the 19^th century. A comprehensive index provides cross references. Those who want to have a books with a little more depth may turn toward Romila Thapar’s Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, reviewed earlier in this blog.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star