VICTORIOUS KING ASHOKA SORRY FOR WINNING WAR

WARRIOR-KING SUDDENLY A PACIFIST

 

260 B.C.

Pataliputra, India

 

The Great King Ashoka, ruler of all India, the most powerful king India has ever seen, has crushed the kingdom of Kalinga, destroying its army and consolidating his power as unquestioned leader of the Mauryan Dynasty.

While his generals celebrated, the Great King was seen slumped on his throne, head in his hands, inexplicably crying. The All-powerful Conqueror of Nations explained that he felt sorrow for the deaths of his enemies. No one quite understands what this means.

As his vast kingdom rejoiced, he officially added to his titles (Destroyer of Cities, Crusher of Foes, Maker of Widows, Scourge of the Indus) a new title: Keeper of Peace.

When asked for a comment on the successful war, King Ashoka, World’s Greatest Warrior, stated that war is a terrible thing, and he would never fight again.

A high-level minister spoke off the record, saying the king is just a little squeamish due to “this Buddhism thing,” but the generals would set him straight, and the country would build on this victory with another aggressive military campaign “in the very near future.”

The generals are already looking forward to the next campaign.

“We’re thinking Persia, or maybe Egypt. The army’s up for it. Don’t worry, the king will come around.”

Our brave returning soldiers, giddy with victory, held a rally in the city square. When the king heard about it, he ordered his men to break it up- peacefully.

 

But seriously…

 

August 31^st, 2022

 

Ashoka is legendary king.

He was a real person, ruling India from 268 to 232 BCE, but the story of his remarkable life has been infused with fabulous legends.

The legends tell of his grandfather, Chandragupta, who met with Alexander the Great, founded a dynasty by an act of murder, and ended his life by ritual starvation in accordance with his religious beliefs.

They tell of a shadowy political advisor, adept at spy craft, who penned an ancient primer on royal ruthlessness.

They also tell that Ashoka killed ninety-nine of his brothers and half-brothers to achieve the throne.

As the mists of legend fade, what’s left standing is a series of inscriptions on stone pillars, scattered across India, called the Rock Edicts.

They testify of a sovereign who was assiduously engaged in promoting the welfare of his subjects.

 

The real man was short, fat, and troubled with a bad skin condition. He was also sadistic. He was known as Canashoka: “Rage-filled Ashoka,” because of his tendency to burn alive those concubines who found him repulsive.

King Ashoka’s legend is linked with his grandfather, Chandragupta, the man who formed the Mauryan Dynasty, the first dynasty in Indian history. Ashoka, a great king in his own right, continued his grandfather’s work of consolidating the Subcontinent. Before Chandragupta, India was a group of tribes. After Ashoka, it was one people.

But Ashoka repudiated the very thing that helped him consolidate power. He renounced violence.

He wasn’t always a peacenik. When King Bindusara died, Susima- Ashoka’s older brother, and heir to the throne- was poised to be crowned. But Ashoka killed him, along with all the other claimants. It took him four years, during which he probably killed six men (not the ninety-nine of the legend). He showed that he was willing and able to kill those who opposed him. This quality served him well in his effort to unite all of India.

 

The Kalinga War

He showed this steely resolve- and ruthlessness- again against Kalinga. Kalinga was the last independent province in his realm. His grandfather and father had failed to conquer it; Ashoka succeeded. After the war, he felt profound remorse for the suffering he had caused.

So this great warrior king became a pacifist.

The Rock Edicts- those inscriptions on stones that are still standing, they spelled out the king’s vision for his realm; they contained laws and instructions. He used them to unite his people behind him. Being such a powerful tool for propaganda, we would expect them to also lavish praise upon the king.

But one of the Rock Edicts does something unheard of. It expresses remorse for the suffering of a defeated enemy:

“One hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried away captive. One hundred thousand were slain, and many times that number died.”

 

Constantine Before Constantine

Like Constantine, Ashoka used the throne to champion a religion. And like Constantine, his immediate impetus was a war he had successfully prosecuted. But unlike the Roman, who vaunted his religion as the reason for his victory, the Indian strongman appealed to his religion to find solace for the effects of his war.

The religion he turned to, and which he caused to spread into a world faith, was Buddhism. It had been around for three centuries, but had a limited following. Ashoka put it on the map.

Unlike Constantine, who put off becoming a Christian until he was about to die (allowing him to engage in some unchristian acts, including murder, which helped him consolidate power), Ashoka was devoted to his religion of peace.

In fact, he was influenced by another faith, which is even more nonviolent than Buddhism.

Both religions follow the principle of ahimsa, showing nonviolence to all living beings.

Jainism was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira, who was born about the same time (his exact birth year is not known) as Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. All three men were born in eastern India; all three were raised as princes.

The adherents of Jainism in Ashoka’s family included his grandfather Chandragupta, who reportedly followed a Jain saint called Bhadrabahu to the south, where he ended his life according to Jain teachings by a slow, regulated starvation.

Ashoka’s mother followed Ajivika, an offshoot of Jainism, which called for an even more austere life.

Jainism today counts Ashoka among its historical practitioners.

Whatever his precise religious beliefs, it’s clear that he was a sincere devotee of ahimsa, or nonviolence.

 

Machiavelli Before Machiavelli

So, how did he hold onto power? Despite renouncing violence, he never relinquished resourcefulness. He displayed a remarkable combination of political wisdom and craftiness. Where did it come from?

Kautilya- also known as Chanakya- was a political theorist who, like Machiavelli, wrote a book on how a head of state should govern. His book, Arthaśāstra, and his philosophy, were hard-headed directions for staying in power. According to the legend, he attended a conference of pundits, where the king, Dhana Nanda, publicly insulted his homely appearance. He vowed revenge, and went out onto the city streets and found a poor boy, whom he trained to oust the king and become king himself. That boy was Chandragupta. That’s the legend. It’s now believed that Kautilya may have lived several hundred years later.

Some of the chapters in Arthaśāstra give a glimpse of Kautilya’s ruthlessness:

“Establishment of Clandestine Operatives”

“Pacifying a Territory Gained”

“Surveillance of People with Secret Income”

“Investigation Through Interrogation and Torture”

and

“Secret Conduct” (employing an army of spies, often disguised as monks or nuns).

It also includes a catalogue of the “eighteen-fold-torture,” one of which was scorpion bindings.

Some other advice: the king should be wary of being poisoned by those closest to him, and he should make use of a double to avoid assassination.

Kautalya also recommended that, for reasons of safety and security, a king have no more than three or four counselors- a practice that several United States presidents have followed (and been criticized for).

Ashoka’s wily use of the levers of state power suggests he was aware of these teachings, or similar counsels. He had his own advisor, Radhagupta, who helped him maneuver his way to the throne, and guided him in matters of realpolitik.

 

The War For Peace

Ashoka was a sincere adherent of his faith who was also clever enough to use religion to unite his subjects, and bind them to him.

He waged the war for peace on several fronts:

First, he challenged the authority of the Brahmins. These men were the religious leaders of the time, who held the power to offer sacrifices to the gods on behalf of the people. The duty to provide grains and animals to sacrifice wore heavily on the people financially, and kept them under the control of the Brahmins. Buddhism freed them from this onerous obligation.

Second, he made the lives of his subjects better. He constructed public hospitals, and cultivated medicinal herbs for public consumption. He created rest stops along the imperial roads, where he dug wells and planted Banyan trees for shade.

Third, he traveled the country on Dhammayatas, or “dhamma tours,” or “piety tours,” during which he preached and held discussions.

Fourth, he got the word out, through his Rock Edicts, teaching Buddhist principles, while projecting his power through the presence of his written words.

It should also be noted that Ashoka benefited from the work of his grandfather in establishing a society that was largely unified and peaceful. Kalinga was the last area that needed to be “pacified.”

 

Dharma and Danda

An Indian king faced two opposing forces: Dharma and Danda.

Dharma encompasses right, duty, and integrity; the fixed law of heaven and earth; custom and time-honored conduct; virtue and canon law; justice law and order.

Danda is force: the coercive authority of the state.

While following Dharma, Ashoka also leveraged Danda.

The standing army under Chandragupta included 600,000 infantrymen, 30,000 cavalrymen, 8,000 chariots manned by 22,000 men, plus 9,000 elephants requiring 36,000 handlers. Ashoka hired an army of inspectors to ensure the people were obeying his laws, including the paying of taxes. His inspectors were instructed to report to him no matter where he was, “in the harem, in his inner apartment, even at the cowpen, in the palanquin, and in the parks,” on any breach of discipline among the people. He also employed a cadre of what he called Supervisors, who were actually propagandists, who travelled the kingdom repeating his talking-points.

He was willing to crack down on those who deviated from his laws, including ordering dissident monks to be expelled from Buddhist monasteries. He was willing to use, if not violence, at least coercion to maintain obedience. Because of this practice of compelling his subjects to be good, some have called him a “monster of piety.”

But could also be flexible. He didn’t abolish the death penalty or recommend the abolishment of slavery. He also made one important exception to one of his own rules: he compiled a long list of birds that were not to be killed, but he left the peacock off the list, presumably because he enjoyed the taste.

How many spies interrupted him while he was dining on peacock?

 

Ashoka has assumed the legend of his grandfather, even as he usurped the throne of his brother. His legend has eclipsed all the kings who preceded him, precisely because of the very real acts he performed to bring peace to a bloody throne.

 

Sources

Asoka Maurya, Balkrishna Govind Gokhale

Incarnations, A History of India in Fifty Lives, Sunil Khilnani

12 Major World Religions: the beliefs, rituals, and traditions of humanity’s most influential faiths, Jason Boyett