12 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Did Emperor Ashoka really exist?
Since people are lobbing big follow up questions at you, let me not break the trend: just how Buddhist was Asoka and his empire?
I know that for a long time it was taken for granted that Asoka was Buddhist, but when I was in college like twenty years ago, I remember getting assigned a reading that put more doubt on that, though I can’t remember the details. The general thesis, if I remember anything, was that Asoka supported religion generally, including Buddhism, but not Buddhism exclusively, and he should be seen in a more pluralistic South Asian Brahmana/Sramana context. While Minor Rock Edict 1 is explicitly Buddhist, Minor Rock Edict 2 could be read as more traditionally Brahman than Buddhist. The Major Rock Edicts certainly demonstrate support for principles that Buddhists support, but these principles, like *ahimsa* (non-violence) obviously have pre-Buddhist roots as well. The Major Rock Edicts, if i remember correctly, do not explicitly mention Buddhism. Like Major Rock Edict 2 focuses on the relationship between people and cattle—is this a reflection of a Brahmanic tradition more than a Buddhist one? Major Rock Edict 3 and 4 explicitly mentions both Brahmanas and Sramanas, but doesn’t specifically mention “Oh, hey, I’m a follower of a specific Sramana sect.” Major Edict 5 seems explicitly trans-sect as well and so forth, etc.
What’s the contemporary take on Asoka both personal and public religion throughout his life? Just how Buddhist was he and just how Buddhist was his state?
Comment by lcnielsen at 08/04/2020 at 10:37 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Just a note, this sounds a lot like what is the case with Kanishka the Kushanite some 350 years later - he's hailed as a Buddhist in some texts, but material evidence shows that what flourished was a syncretism with worship of not only deities such as Zeus-Bel-Ohrmazd, but also recurring is some sort of Indra-Shiva figure depicted with a jar (symbolizing fortune or auspiciousness, the literal meaning of Shiva), a trident (symbolic of Rudra, Shiva's wrathful aspect), and a vajra (symbolic of Indra).