“Ashoka and the Maurya Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire” by Colleen Taylor Sen

ashoka

Ashoka the Great (3rd century BCE) of the ancient Indian Mauryan dynasty (4th to 2nd century BCE) remains something of a mystery. He was emperor of one of the largest and richest kingdoms of the ancient times that covered Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern parts of India. However, he was forgotten in India (while continuing to be revered in China and Southeast Asia, thanks to his appearance in Buddhist narratives) until the 19th century British scholars researching Indian antiquity discovered him as texts and inscriptions in the previously unreadable Brahmi script came to be newly deciphered.

In the 20th century, Indian political leadership turned him into an icon by drawing from the symbolism of his inscriptions and edicts: the national emblem of India as well as the Dharmachakra (the wheel of law) at the center of the Indian flag are drawn from Ashokan symbolism of the Dhamma. He is known for the violent war of conquest he fought with the Kalinga kingdom and then for the remorse he felt at the killings and devastation that resulted. He also stands tall in the Buddhist world as the Chakravartin, the upholder of the Dhamma.

 

Ashoka and The Maurya Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire, Colleen Taylor Sen (Speaking Tiger, November 2022; Reaktion, August 2022)
Ashoka and The Maurya Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire, Colleen Taylor Sen (Speaking Tiger, November 2022; Reaktion, August 2022)

In Ashoka and the Maurya Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire, culinary historian Colleen Taylor Sen attempts a combination history and biography based on both historical records  and historical writing produced on the man and the period since the 19th century. Sen starts with an overview of the Indus Valley Civilization to provide some longer historical context to city, polity and religion before the Mauryan period in Indian history; she also discusses India’s brush with the Persians and the Greeks. She ends with a discussion of historians’ speculation about the decline of the empire soon after Ashoka’s death.

While much of the material Sen consults is the same as used by scholars working on ancient Indian history and religion, what stands out in Sen’s book is her blending of her voice as a commentator with Ashoka’s voice as available from the edicts he left behind. For instance, when discussing Ashoka’s interest in the Dhamma in the aftermath of the Kalinga War, Sen notes that the war may have caused the killing and deporting of 400,000 citizens. But she also shares a simple translation of the famous Rock Edict on Kalinga:

 

In the eighth year of my reign, I conquered Kalinga. A hundred and fifty thousand people were deported, a hundred thousand were killed, and many more died from other causes.
      After Kalinga was conquered, I began to earnestly practice Dhamma, love Dhamma and instruct the people in Dhamma. I felt deep remorse for the killing, death and deportation of people, which always happens when a country is conquered. But what is even worse is that the people who live there – whether Brahmins, sramanas or people belonging to other communities; householders who are obedient to their superiors; mothers and fathers and teachers; and people who are courteous to their friends, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, relatives, sales and servants – were also wounded or killed or saw their loved ones deported.

 

Sen finds this expression of remorse in the edict noteworthy because of the tendency of other rulers in world history to boast about their conquests and notes that Ashoka presents a triumph as a disaster.

Apart from this touch of the personal, Sen provides an overview of how Ashoka is perceived: there is a historical Ashoka of the historical records and inscriptions and then there is a legendary Ashoka of the Buddhist narratives. The two are very different personae. The former is also known as the-Ashoka-of-the-edicts (as per the example  above) while the latter is a figment out of “Buddhist morality tales” whose

 

purpose is to show the power of Buddhism in converting a ruler from a monster who tortured and killed tens of thousands of people – Chanda Ashoka, ‘cruel Ashoka’ – to a model of tolerance and kindness, a defender of the Buddhist faith, and a paradigm of Buddhist kingship – Dhamma Ashoka.

 

These tales introduce an element of the fanciful in describing Ashoka. For instance, one of them does not mention the Kalinga war at all and credits Ashoka’s exposure to Buddhism alone as a reason for his transformation. In another, he is said to have ruled for a hundred years after the Buddha’s death.

 

Sen became interested in Ashoka while working on a previous book on Indian food and its streak of vegetarianism as reflected in some of Ashoka’s edicts that banned the killing of animals for sacrifice or food.

While she claims that she approaches this icon as a leader to be “emulated” in contemporary times, her book should be seen in the context of the larger curiosity about him, especially since a lot of questions around the deciphering of ancient scripts, the location of his palace complex as well as the capital of his kingdom, or the inspiration behind the works of sculpture he ordered are still in need of answers.

In presenting the complex and even conflicting sources to piece together Ashoka and his dynasty, Sen’s work captures some of the difficulty involved in handling these questions for the general reader.


Soni Wadhwa lives in Mumbai.