Asoka untranslated

Asoka 01. King of Magadha. He was the son of Biṇḍusāra. Biṇḍusāra had sixteen wives who bore him 101 sons. The chief Pāli sources of information regarding Asoka are Dīpavaṁsa (chaps. i., v., vi., vii., xi., etc.), Mahā Vaṁsa (v., xi., xx., etc.), Samantapāsādikā (pp.35 ff.). Other sources are the Divyāvadāna passim, and the Avadānaśataka ii.200ff. For an exhaustive discussion of the sources and their contents see Prszlyski, La Legende de l’Empereur Asoka.

The Pāli Chronicles (Dīpavaṁsa and Mahā Vaṁsa) mention only three of the sons, viz. Sumana (Susīma according to the northern legends) the eldest, Asoka, and Tissa (uterine brother of Asoka) the youngest. The Mahā Vaṁsaṭīkā gives the name of his mother as Dhammā and calls her Aggamahesī (Biṇḍusāra’s chief queen); she belonged to the Moriyavaṁsa (p.125; Mbv.98. In the northern tradition, e.g., Asokāvadānamālā, she is called Subhadrāṅgī, daughter of a Brahmin of Campā). The preceptor of Dhammā’s family was an Ājīvaka called Janasāna (which probably explains Asoka’s earlier patronage of the Ājīvakas).

In his youth Asoka was appointed Governor of Avanti with his capital at Ujjenī. The Divyāvadāna says he was in Takkasilā with headquarters in Uttarāpatha, where he superseded Susīma and quelled a rebellion. When Biṇḍusāra lay on his death-bed, Asoka left Ujjenī and came to Pāṭaliputta where he made himself master of the city and possessor of the throne. He is stated in the Mahā Vaṁsa (v.20; Mbv.98) to have killed all his brothers except Tissa that he might accomplish his purpose, and to have been called Caṇḍāsoka on account of this outrage (Mhv.v.189). It is impossible to say how much truth there is in this account of the accession. Asoka’s Rock Edicts seem to indicate that he had numerous brothers, sisters and relations alive at the time they were written in Pāṭaliputta and other towns (see Mookherji, Asoka, pp. 3-6). His brother Tissa he appointed as his Uparāja (Mhv.v.33), but Tissa (q.v.) became a religious devotee attaining Arahant-ship. The Theragāthā Commentary refers to another younger brother of Asoka, Vītasoka, who also became an Arahant (i.295f. The northern works give quite a different account of his brothers. See Mookherji, p.6).

Asoka had several wives. His first wife was the daughter of a merchant of Vedisagiri, whom he met when stopping at the merchant’s house on his way to Ujjenī (Mhv.xiii.8ff). Her name was Devī, also called Vedisa Mahā Devī, and she was a Sākyan, descended from a Sākyan family who migrated to Vedisa to escape from Viḍūḍabha (Mbv., pp.98, 116). Of Devī were born a son Mahinda, and a daughter Saṅghamittā, who became the wife of Aggibrahmā and mother of Sumana. Devī evidently did not follow Asoka to Pāṭaliputta, for his aggamahesī there was Asandhamittā (Mhv.v.85). Asandhamittā died in the thirtieth year of Asoka’s reign, and four years later he raised Tissarakkhā to the rank of queen. Mhv.xx.1-3. The Allahabad Pillar Inscription mentions another queen, Kāruvākī, mother of Tivara. The Divyāvadāna (chap. xxvii.) gives another, Padmāvatī, Kuṇāla’s mother. Besides the children mentioned above, names of others are given: Jalauka, Cārumatī (Mookherji. p.9).

According to Mahā Vaṁsa (v.21, 22), Asoka’s accession was 218 years after the Buddha’s death and his coronation was four years later. The chronicles (v.22ff) contain various stories of his miraculous powers. His command spread a yojana into the air and a yojana under the earth. The Devas supplied him daily with water from the Anotatta Lake and with other luxuries from elsewhere. Yakkhas, Nāgas and even mice and karavīka birds ministered to his comfort, and thoughtful animals came and died outside his kitchen in order to provide him with food.

At first Asoka maintained the alms instituted by his father, but soon, being disappointed in the recipients, he began looking out for holy men. It was then that he saw from his window, his nephew, the young novice Nigrodha. Owing to their friendship in a past birth (Asoka, Devānampiyatissa and Nigrodha had been brothers, traders in honey, and they gave honey to a Pacceka Buddha. Asandhamittā had been the maiden who showed the honey-shop to the Pacceka Buddha. The story is given in Mhv.v.49ff), Asoka was at once drawn to him and invited him into the palace. Nigrodha preached to him the Appamādavagga and the king was greatly pleased. He ceased his benefactions to other religious orders and transferred his patronage to Nigrodha and members of the Buddhist Saṅgha. His wealth, which, according to the Samantapāsādikā (i.52), amounted to 500,000 pieces daily, he now spent in doing acts of piety – giving 100,000 to Nigrodha to be used in any manner he wished, a like sum for the offering of perfumes and flowers at the Buddha’s shrines, 100,000 for the preaching of the Dhamma, 100,000 for the provision of comforts for members of the Saṅgha, and the remainder for medicines for the sick. To Nigrodha, in addition to other gifts, he sent sets of robes three times each day, placing them on the back of an elephant, adorned by festoons of flowers. Nigrodha gave these robes to other monks (MN­a.ii.931).

Having learnt from Moggaliputtatissa that there were 84,000 sections of the Dhamma, he built in various towns an equal number of vihāras, and in Pāṭaliputta he erected the Asokārāma. With the aid of the Nāga king Mahā Kāḷa, he created a life-size figure of the Buddha, to which he made great offerings.

His two children, Mahinda and Saṅghamittā, aged respectively twenty and eighteen, he ordained under Moggaliputtatissa and Dhammapālā, in the sixth year of his reign (MN­a.v.197, 209). This raised him from a paccadāyaka to a sāsanadāyādin.

In order to purge the Saṅgha of undesirable monks and heretical doctrines, Moggaliputtatissa held the Third Council under the king’s patronage. It is said that the pious monks refused to hold the uposatha with those they considered unworthy. The king, desirous of bringing about unity in the Saṅgha, sent a minister to restore amity, but the minister, misunderstanding his orders, beheaded many holy monks, being at last stopped by the king’s brother Tissa, who was then a monk (MN­a.vs.240ff).

At the conclusion of the Council, held in the seventeenth year of his reign, Asoka sent forth Theras to propagate the Buddha’s religion:

• Majjhantika to Kasmīra and Gandhāra,
• Mahā Deva to Mahisamaṇḍala,
• Rakkhita to Vanavāsa,
• Yona Dhammarakkhita to Aparantaka,
• Mahā Rakkhita to Yona,
• Majjhima to the Himālaya country and
• Soṇa and Uttara to Suvaṇṇabhūmi;
• Mahinda with Iṭṭhiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasāla he sent to Laṅkā (Ibid., xii.1-8).

For particulars of these missions and identification of the places mentioned, see under the different names; this list appears also in the Samantapāsādikā, where further interesting details are given. For a discussion of them see Mookherji, pp.33ff) (Ibid., 280; in the northern texts Moggaliputtatissa’s name is given as Upagupta. It was for this Council that the Kathāvatthu was written). In the eighteenth year of his reign he sent to Laṅkā, at Devānampiyatissa’s request, Saṅghamittā, with a branch of the great Bodhi Tree at Buddhagayā (Mhv.xx.1). A little earlier he had sent by his grandson Sumana, some relics of the Buddha and the Buddha’s alms-bowl to be deposited in the Thūpas of Laṅkā (Mhv.xvii.10f).

Asoka reigned for thirty-seven years (Mhv.xx.6). In his later life he came to be called Dhammāsoka on account of his pious deeds (Mhv.v.189). The Dīpavaṁsa gives his name in several places as Piyadassī, e.g., vi.1, 2, 25. The title Devānampiya used by Asoka in his inscriptions was also used by Tissa, Asoka’s contemporary in Ceylon, and by Asoka’s grandson Dasaratha (Nāgarjunī Hill Cave Inscription). It was used also by other kings in Ceylon: Vaṅkanāsikatissa, Gajabāhukagāminī and Mahallakanāga (Ep. Zeyl. i.60.f).

The Chronicles state that Asoka and Devānampiyatissa of Ceylon had been friends – though they had never seen each other – even before Mahinda’s mission to Ceylon. Tissa had sent him, as a friendly gesture, various gifts, and Asoka had returned the courtesy. He sent an embassy of his chosen ministers, bearing gifts marvellous in splendour, that Tissa might go through a second coronation ceremony, and the messengers were directed to give this special message to the king: “I have taken refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha and declared myself a follower of the religion of the Sākyaputta. Seek then, even you, oh best of men, converting your mind with believing heart, refuge in these best of gems.” (Mhv.xi.18-36)

The Milindapañha (p.121) mentions an encounter of Asoka with a courtesan of Pāṭaliputta, Biṇḍumatī, who, in order to show the king the power of an Act of Truth, made the waters of the Ganges to flow back. According to the Petavatthu Commentary (244ff) there was a king of Suraṭṭha, called Piṅgala, who used to visit Asoka in order to give him counsel. Perhaps he was an old friend or tutor of the king.

Asoka is called a dīpacakkavatti as opposed to padesarājās like Bimbisāra and Pasenadi (Vin-a.ii.309).

Asoka had three palaces for the three seasons: Mahā Sappika, Moragīva and Maṅgala (Ras.i.93).

Asoka 02. See Kāḷāsoka.

Asoka 03. See Vītāsoka.

Asoka 04. A Brahmin in the time of Kassapa Buddha. He provided eight meals daily for the monks and entrusted the distribution of them to his serving-woman Bīraṇī. Mhv.xxvii.11.

Asoka 05. Attendant to Vipassī Buddha (Ja.i.41; Bv.xx.28). He was once ill and was cured by a doctor who, in this age, was Tikicchaka Thera (Tekicchakānī Thera). Ap.i.190; Thag­a.i.442.

Asoka 06. The chief disciple of the future Metteyya Buddha (Anāgatavaṁsa. v.97). According to the Mahā Vaṁsa (xxxii.81) he should be identified with Duṭṭhagāmaṇī.

Asoka 07. A monk of Ñātikā. Once when the Buddha was staying at Ñātikā in the Giñjakāvasatha, Ānanda mentions to the Buddha that Asoka Thera had died, and asks where he had gone. The Buddha tells him that Asoka was an Arahant and had realised Nibbāna. SN.i.358.

Asoka 08. See Anoma (7).

Asoka 09. A mountain near Himavā. There, in the time of Sumedha Buddha, Vissakamma built a hermitage. Ap.ii.342.

Asokā 01. A nun of Ñātikā. When Ānanda announces her death to the Buddha at Ñātikā in the Giñjakāvasatha, and inquires where she had been born, the Buddha says that she had been reborn spontaneously in the Suddhāvāsā, there to pass away, destined never to return. SN.v.358.

Asokā 02. One of the two chief women disciples of Maṅgala Buddha. Bv.iv.24; Ja.i.34.