ASHOKA (PĀLI AŚOKA). - Emperor of India, nephew of the founder of the Maurya dynasty, Candragupta. Having ascended the throne in 272 B.C., he reigned until 233 and brought the empire of India to its greatest extent with the conquest of the region of the Kalinga. But, deeply anguished by the horrors of war, he converted to Buddhism, of which he was first a lay member and later a monk. Throughout his life he devoted himself not only to spreading the doctrine of the Enlightened One but also to applying its precepts strictly in himself and in each of his subjects. He assumed the name Piyadassi (Sanskrit Priyadariin, "the compassionate"), the very name by which he designated himself in the numerous edicts scattered throughout India, of which 34 are known to us today.
Works of public utility, such as the planting of trees along the roads, the digging of wells and irrigation canals, the construction of shelters for travelers and of hospitals; measures aimed at forming enlightened officials and suited to tending well to everything that could be of benefit to the poor, the sick, and the old, and to promoting the well-being of their respective jurisdictions, and to mitigating and deferring punishments for the spiritual good of the condemned; precepts of high morality, such as the imposition of obedience to parents and of a generous spirit toward one's neighbor in his various social classes; the prohibition of sacrificing animals with the consequent abolition of hunting parties, which he replaced with public pilgrimages; the exposition of the Buddha's doctrine and the exaltation of important events in his life: all this and more, known to us from the aforementioned edicts carved on rocks, columns, and caves, reveals to us the enlightened and beneficent work of the great Indian emperor.
To A. is owed the testimony of the Buddha's birthplace (Rummindei) through an inscription on a column erected there, still existing, in memory of his pilgrimage to that locality.
Among his edicts, particularly worthy of mention are the 12th, in which he recommends the broadest spirit of tolerance toward every form of religion, and the 13th, in which he alludes to the work he carried out for the spread of Buddhism throughout India and in various countries outside it (Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, Epirus, Cyrene), a work entrusted to the activity of missionaries.
A. built sanctuaries and cloisters and erected stāpa (monuments for the preservation of relics), particularly in the places traversed by the Buddha.
In 245 B.C., according to tradition, a council (the third after the Buddha's death) would have been held at Pāṭaliputta (Sanskrit Pāṭaliputra, present-day Patna), convoked by A., at which the canonical texts, once the doctrine had been purged of every heresy and brought back to the teachings of the "elders" (Pali thera, Sanskrit sthavira), would have received their definitive codification.
Bibliography
Ambrogio Ballini