Ashoka set an extraordinary example by making himself available at all times for consultation, whether he was relaxing, say, in the palace gardens, or even while being massaged. By hearing and settling disputes he kept in touch with the details of administration. The disputes over water rights and grazing rights, and the problem of money-lending were all familiar to him. To complete the picture of how the emperor and his people lived, it is essential to consider the castes which were already forming in India’s first great empire. In Ashoka’s empire there was first the priestly caste who lived as monks or holy men and performed the rites at the temples. They regarded themselves as superior to all others and their influence was so great that it was sometimes a threat to the power of the emperor himself. Next in importance came the three largest castes, the herdsmen, cultivators and craftsmen; while the soldiers, officials and councillors, who were less important, were relatively few. Finally there were slaves and others outside the caste system altogether.
Thus the life of the emperor and his people can be made out from the legends and scraps of writing which have been preserved. It was the extraordinary empire that Ashoka crafted with new ideas which grew from his study of Buddha and his followers.
Gautam, the Buddha, had lived nearly three hundred years earlier. Little is known with certainty about him as he grew up, but innumerable legends have formed around his life. Some of these are common to many religious leaders in Asia, such as a capacity for walking on water or multiplying food. Buddhism taught Ashoka the importance of the right way to live. According to a legend, talking to a victorious king, Buddha asked:
“What would you do if you were told that a landslide was about to destroy you and your city?”
The king replied: “I would live righteously. There would be nothing else to do.”
Gautam further asked: “Old age and death are rolling down upon you. What are you going to do?”
The king smiled and answered: “Live righteously.”
Gautam Buddha taught that the aim of life was to escape from the petty hopes, fears and hatreds which make people little-minded, and to become serene and happy by rising above them. Nothing was written down about him or his sayings until shortly before Ashoka’s time, but then the tales began to accumulate as they were recounted in Buddhist monasteries where the monks gathered and lived. Gradually the Buddhist religion separated itself from Hinduism and spread to other countries — and Ashoka to an extent was responsible for this.
He was alert to new religious ideas and he must have met and talked to Buddhist followers. However, his conversion was not sudden, like St. Paul’s on the road of Damascus, nor did he have an experience such as Gautam had when the right way to live became suddenly clear as he sat meditating one day under a Banyan tree. The great event in Ashoka’s reign was the Kalinga War. The Kalinga War was to Ashoka what the Banyan tree was to Gautam Buddha.
Most men, when victorious, become so drunk with power that they will listen to good advice neither from statesmen nor prophets, but Ashoka was appalled at the contradiction between the cruelty he saw and the lessons of Buddhism he had learned. Ashoka’s greatness can be measured by what he caused to be written on rocks after the victory. He got the inscriptions engraved so that any sons or great-grandsons that he might have would not think of gaining conquests but would live in peace and contentment. Ashoka denounced fame and glory and announced that to him the only glory was following Dhamma.
Towards the end of his reign, he kept contact with a large number of Asian countries, but instead of sending only the usual sort of envoys, he sent missionaries to explain Dhamma in the countries they visited. His influence as a wise ruler was therefore spread far more widely than if he had marched with his victorious armies. Later, Buddhism spread to Burma, Thailand and China. Where a standard of humility for great rulers and a belief in serenity, goodness and a reverence for life, were accepted and have still not died out. It is doubtful whether there can ever be peace between countries unless this first lesson is learned: the power of rulers must be guided by kindness and wisdom. Although Emperor Ashoka appeared to be a failure, since his subjects gave up Buddhism and within fifty years his empire fell to pieces; he was a man whose influence, like that of Jesus’ or Socrates’, was extended by his death.
