Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

BETWEEN DHAMMA AND EMPIRE: THE MAURYAN STATE UNDER AŚOKA

Abdaal M. Akhtar*

As the first major ruler of Indian antiquity about whom substantive

documentation exists, Aśoka occupies a unique position. His campaign of
war and conquest later abandoned for peace and social welfare is one
that is very well known to students of Indian history. For the purposes of
this paper, the researcher shall be looking at Aśoka’s inscriptions to
examine how as an empire builder, he used the tools of war and dhamma
to hold together his extensive domains. While the primary thrust of this
paper is on his administrative setup, the researcher shall use also less
obvious clues gleaned from his inscriptions to piece together the structure
of his State and the lessons that we may draw from the Mauryan polity.

Aśoka Maurya (r. circa 269-232 BC) is one of the most remarkable figures in all of
Indian history. His influence has been felt through the ages and his ideas continue to be
relevant in a modern, post colonial India. The Conqueror who, moved by the death and
devastation he had caused, gave up war and glory to seek spiritual and material
happiness of his subjects has been called the ‘Greatest of all Emperors’ by HG Wells. 1 To
speak of him in a retrospective vein is to actually traverse through the entire length of
Indian history.2 And yet for much of recent history, Aśoka was a shadowy and scarcely
known figure. His name cropped up in ancient Ceylonese Buddhist chronicles like the
Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa but nothing was known about his life or achievements.
It was not till James Prinsep deciphered his name and confirmed that he was the same
person as the mysterious Devanampriya Piyadasi, who had left behind numerous

1
* Roll No: 2008-40, V Year, X Sem; BA LLB (Hons); NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. Submitted
to Mr. Hota Agni Kumar, Lecturer of History, towards partial fulfillment of the course requirements in the
seminar on Government and Political Thought in Ancient India

HG WELLS, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD 612 (1922)

2
Romila Thapar, Aśoka-A Retrospective, ECON. & POL. WEEKLY, Nov. 7, 2009, p.31

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

pillars and inscriptions throughout India, did Aśoka re-enter history after more than a
thousand years of obscurity.

For the purposes of this paper, I shall be looking at Aśoka’s administrative structure and
its relationship with dhamma. While Mauryan polity has some other sources too like
Megasthenes’ accounts or the Ceylonese chronicles referred to above, I shall be
primarily concentrating on what he himself had to say in his many pillar and rock
inscriptions. I shall then critically examine his claims in the light of other sources as well
as historical realities.

The Edicts and Inscriptions of Aśoka

After the Harappan seals, Aśoka’s inscriptions are the oldest extant piece of written text
in Indian history.3 On caves, rocks and superbly carved pillars, Aśoka inscribed his ideas
throughout the length and breadth of India from Shahbazgarhi in the North Western
Frontier Province to Siddapura in modern Karnataka and from the borders of Bengal to
Girnar in Gujarat. Throughout much of India, the inscriptions are written in the Prakrit
language using the Brahmi script, an abugida that is the ancestor of most modern
Indian as well as South East Asian scripts. In Afghanistan and parts of North Western
Pakistan however, the languages and scripts used are Aramaic and Greek. Pakistan also
has a Prakrit inscription in the Kharoshti script.4

This catholicity in languages and scripts was not merely incidental but reflects a very
basic character of these inscriptions. Unlike the slightly older Behistun inscription of
Persia which was meant to be a victory swansong of Darius the Great 5, Aśoka’s
inscriptions are advisory in nature and deal with moral and social topics. This also
explains the multiplicity of them and the fact that less than grand caves and rocks were

3
Id.

4
Subhash Kak, The Evolution of Early Writing in India, INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE , vol. 28,
pp. 375-388, 1994

5
Jona Lendering, The Text of the Behistun Inscription, available at http://www.livius.org/be-
bm/behistun/behistun01.html

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

used for this purpose. Aśoka’s idea was not so much to overawe his people as to spread
his message as far as possible.

Broadly speaking, Aśoka’s inscriptions can be divided into the Rock inscriptions and the
Pillar inscriptions. Historians have further divided each of these categories into Minor
and Major. Pillar Edict VI from Rampurva in Northern Bihar states that Aśoka started
issuing his edicts on Dhamma in the thirteenth year of his reign. This may tentatively be
put at around 257 BC. The Ceylonese chronicles give an older date but are not reliable
on this count.6 Almost all the other inscriptions and edicts issued by Aśoka date to
within a decade of this first inscription.

The Character of an Empire

The Mauryan State is the first Indian political unit for which the term ‘Empire’ is used.
Exactly when does a Kingdom transform itself into an Empire is a question that
historians have so far been unable to answer. Illustrations are sought from Rome where
the accession of Augustus is considered to be the beginning of the Roman Empire as
distinct from the Roman Republic that preceded it. Extensive territorial conquests, the
adoption of titles like Imperator (Maharajadhiraja in Ancient India) and other
paraphernalia have all been held at various times to be indicative of an ‘Empire’. Not all
of these can be held to be true in the case of the Mauryas. Aśoka never refers to himself
as the King of Kings, a title that was used by his near contemporaries in Achaemenid
Persia and by the Greek warlord, Alexander the Great. Aśoka’s preferred title, as already
referred to above, was Devanampriya Piyadasi (the Beloved of Gods). More
grandiosely, he sometimes refers to himself as the King of Magadha.

In these titles (or the absence of it) lay the real definition of an Indian Empire. As
Romila Thapar argues, an Empire, especially in Ancient India, was distinguished not by
its mere extent or the vanity of its ruler but by the fact that it was a complex form of a
simple state that had existed in the Vedic Age. 7 An Empire meant that variegated

6
DC SIRCAR, INSCRIPTIONS OF AŚOKA 17 (1998)

7
Romila Thapar, Towards the Definition of an Empire: The Mauryan State, Sakharam Deuskar
Memorial Lectures, Centre for Study in Social Sciences, Calcutta, December, 1985

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

political and economic systems coexisted in the same broader political unit. In the
Mauryan State for example there was Magadha which was the core of the Empire. The
capital, Pataliputra, lay there and so did the centre of power and authority. Then there
were other kingdoms that had been annexed outright and incorporated into the
Mauryan polity. Examples of this were Avanti with its capital at Ujjayni or Gandhara
with its capital at Takshashila. Lastly there were the semi independent forest dwelling
tribes and the peripheral areas where the writ of the State was only notional.

The core of the State had a uniform administrative and political setup. The outlying
kingdoms that had been annexed were under some form of central control but also
enjoyed a degree of autonomy in their functioning. The outlying areas had no central
control and were free to act as they wished till they acknowledged the suzerainty of the
Emperor.

The Geography of the Edicts

It is fashionable to label Aśoka as the first pan Indian Emperor considering the
geographical spread of his edicts. However this geographical spread is also the most
important reason for questioning this theory. Plotting the discovered inscriptions on a
map reveals that their spread is not uniformly pan Indian but more in the nature of
clusters. Five distinct clusters can be identified. The Aśokan pillars are mostly limited to
the Indo Gangetic Plain in an arc stretching from Topra (near Ambala) and Meerut (in
Western Uttar Pradesh)8 to Lauriya in North Bihar. Outside this restricted arc, they may
be found at Sarnath (near Varanasi), Sanchi (near Bhopal) and in Kandahar (Southern
Afghanistan). The locations are not a coincidence. These sites are all situated alongside
the main road from Pataliputra to North West India and beyond to Bactria. Sarnath is a

8
Both the Aśokan Pillars of Topra and Meerut were moved to Delhi in the 14 th century by the Tughlaq
Sultan, Feroz Shah Tughlaq. Seventeen centuries after Aśoka, the pillars still enjoyed prestige value and
were used by him to adorn his new capital at Feroz Shah Kotla where one of them remains. The other, in a
much damaged state, is installed at the Ridge in North West Delhi. They are referred to as Delhi-Meerut
and Delhi-Topra respectively through this paper. Another instance of a pillar not found in-situ is the one
at Allahabad Fort. It was installed at Kosam (modern Kaushambi) and was transported to its present
location at some unknown point in history. Both Samudragupta (4 th century AD) and Jahangir (17th
century AD) have added their own inscriptions to the pillar. It is referred to as Allahabad-Kosam.

4
 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

Buddhist site of great significance and Sanchi is the site of the great Stupa housing the
relics of the Buddha. It also happens to be on the road leading south west to the major
ancient port of Bhrigukachcha (modern Bharuch in Gujarat).

A study of the location of the Major Rock Edicts is also revealing. Not a single major
rock edict has been found in the central heartland of the Empire. Instead they are all
concentrated in the frontier extremes of the State at places like Shahbazgarhi, Manshera
and Kandahar (in Northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan), Dhauli (in the newly conquered
eastern province of Kalinga), Erragudi and Sannathi in the extreme south and Kalsi in
the northern Terai boundary region. Minor rock edicts abound in Raichur and
surrounding areas in Karnataka. This was the site of many gold mines and was hence
coveted by the Mauryans.

This analysis is important for two reasons. Firstly, it makes it quite clear that contrary to
popular belief, the Mauryans did not rule all of India. Large parts of Central India,
Maharashtra as well as most of South India were outside their control and inhabited by
independent tribes. They had an extensive Empire no doubt, but it had a very linear
structure. From Pataliputa to the North West Frontier, the important Northern Road
formed the economic backbone of the State. The road to the South skirted over the
Vindhyas and descended all the way down to the gold mines of Karnataka. With the
conquest of Kalinga in Aśoka’s time, the Mauryans also managed to control all the
coastal regions-again very important economically for the lucrative foreign trade that
they generated.

Secondly, it also severely threatens the idea that the Mauryan State was an extremely
centralized polity with hardly any devolution of powers or autonomy. Running a
centralized state in the 3rd century BC would have been a rather difficult enterprise
anyway but the location of Aśokan edicts makes it clear that the Empire had a much
more cooperative character than what it generally assumed. The inscriptions constantly
make references to un-subjugated tribes (the Aranyakas of the Vedic age) and to peoples
like the Keralaputras, Satyaputras, the Cholas and the Pandyas. The State was not at war
with them but had not conquered them either. At best they were tributary states who
enjoyed absolute autonomy in their internal matters. The last two were probably

5
 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

completely independent in all respects because Rock Edict XIII groups them along with
the Yavanas of Antiochus as border people.9 The Major Rock Edict at Girnar too makes
a mention of a feudatory Yavanaraja (King of Greeks/Foreigners) Tushaspha ruling in
what is now Saurashtra.10

Mauryan Administration

The Mauryan polity had been a centralized one right from the days of Chandragupta
Maurya according to Megasthenes.11 Kautilya’s Arthashastra contains a pretty
exhaustive chapter on administration as well. 12 We may assume that the latter was
followed in some way throughout the life of the Mauryan Empire. Aśoka’s edicts confirm
the strong central control theory. The Mauryan Empire was divided into five parts or
provinces. The central part in the Mauryan heartland of Bihar and the adjoining regions
(the remnants of the old Mahajanapadas and the Lichhavi republics) was directly
administered by the Emperor. The remaining four provinces were governed by Princes
of the Blood (called variously as Kumaras or Aryaputras). These were headquartered at
Takshashila (modern Taxila in Rawalpindi District of West Punjab), Tosali (near
Bhubaneswar in Orissa), Ujjayni (Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh) and Suvarnagiri (near
Raichur in Karnataka).13 Aśoka himself had served as the Viceroy of Takshashila and
probably Ujjayni in his youth when his father Bindusara was the Emperor. 14

9
Rock Edict XIII, Shahbazgarhi, Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan

10
Rock Edict II, Girnar, Junagadh District, Gujarat, India; Another mention of this Tushaspha, wrongly
identified as Persian by a few early British historians, is made in the Markandeya Purana.

11
RC Majumdar, The Indika of Megasthenes, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY , Vol. 78, Oct-
Dec, 1958, p. 277

12
Satya Deva, State and Bureaucracy in Kautilya’s Arthasastra, ECON & POL. WEEKLY, May 12, 1984,
p.811

13
HERMANN KULKE, DIETMAAR ROTHERMUND, A HISTORY OF INDIA 67 (1998)

14
UPINDER SINGH, A HISTORY OF ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIA: FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE 12TH
CENTURY 192 (2008)

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

The list of instructions given out to minor officials enables us to reconstruct some sort of
micro administrative structure as well. The provinces were divided into districts of a
fairly large size that were each probably headed by a one (or maybe even more)
Mahamatras. Megasthenes had referred to such ‘high local officials’ too but we have no
way of knowing if these were the same people. In towns these Mahamatras also carried
out the functions of the local judge (nagara viyohalaka).

Other officers mentioned in the inscriptions but whose functions are not entirely clear
were:

a) Pradeshika: These appear to be high officers placed somewhere between the

Mahamatras and the provincial Governor. Their position was probably roughly
analogous to the Divisional Commissioner of modern India where they were in-
charge of several districts.15

b) Yukta: The yukta was almost certainly a petty officer in charge of local tax
collection. His position may be compared to that of a modern Tehsildar. 16 The
Manusmriti uses the same term to describe keepers of lost property. 17 The
Arthashastra makes a mention of them as in-charge of the community
(samudaya) wealth.

c) Rajuka: The Rajuka makes only a fleeting appearance in one of Aśoka’s pillar
inscriptions. He comes across as some sort of a law and order enforcing authority
who enjoys penal jurisdiction over ‘thousands of people’. 18

d) Pulisani: A Pulisani was a go between, a sort of royal envoy who conveyed the
Emperor’s wishes to provincial authorities. 19

15
Rock Edict III, Girnar Hill, Junagadh District, Gujarat

16
Id. In the inscription, the word ‘Yukta’ is used in the sense of an officer. However historians have
broadly consented that it also refers to a class of officers.

17
Pranashtadhigata dravya (Recovered lost property), MANUSMRITI, Chapter VIII

18
Pillar Edict No: IV, Delhi-Topra, Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi.

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

In spite of Aśoka’s numerous declarations regarding the complete overhaul of the

system of governance; he seems to have left much of the early Mauryan system in place.
Rock Edicts III and VI20 make a mention of a Parishad. This was variously described as
a form of Sabha, samiti or even a caste group 21 but was almost certainly the same
Council of Ministers that Kautilya had referred to in the Arthashastra. 22 In addition to
the Mahamatras mentioned above, Pillar Edict I23 also makes a reference to Amta
Mahamatras. This has been taken to mean the Mahamatras of the border districts. 24
Kautilya refers to them as Antapalas in the Arthashastra.25

Both the Rajukas and the Pradeshikas find a mention in external sources as well. Rock
Edict III and Pillar Edict IV26 refer to the Rajukas as a class of officers.

In the Erragudi Minor Rock Inscription 27, they are referred to as Rathikas. No clear
translation of Rathikas has been done till now. It may mean ‘citizens of the tribal states’
as assumed by Barua28 or it may be extrapolated and compared with the latter day
19
Id. “[The Rajukas] will also have to obey the Pulisani who know my wishes. And these officers will
exhort some of the Rajukas who may not know my wishes, so that the latter can please me.”

20
Major Rock Edict, Girnar Hill, Junagadh District, Gujarat

21
For instance, in the works of Senart and Buhler

22
Jayaswal had postulated this view. HC Raychaudhuri and Sircar agree. See, inter alia, HC
RAYCHAUDHURI, POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA 280 (1970)

23
Delhi-Topra, Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi

24
James Prinsep translated it to mean Warden of the Marches, a position roughly analogous to this in the
United Kingdom. Raychaudhuri agrees with him. Supra, n.19, p. 282

25
Kautilya bestows a very high position on him. It fixes the salaries of the Antapalas at par with a Kumara
(the Viceroy) and members of the Parishad. Evidently his duties encompassed a vast array. See, THE

ARTHASHASTRA, CH.36, P. 247

26
Delhi-Topra, Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi

27
Minor Rock Edict I, Erragudi Village, Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh

28
BM Barua in Indian Historical Quarterly, p.117 (1933)

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman29 to mean officials of the district. Contextually, the

latter appears to be the more plausible translation. Strabo refers to them as some sort of
minor land revenue officials.30

Other minor Mauryan officials include the Prativedakas (the Reporters). They too find a
mention in the Arthashastra where they are called as Charas.31 There were the royal
scribes known as Lipikaras. This was evidently an important enough office because one
of the Aśokan edicts mentions a lipikara called Chapala by name. 32 Lastly, there were the
royal envoys known as dutas.33

Aśoka’s Dhamma as State Policy

In the eighth or ninth year of his reign, Aśoka decided to annex the fertile and
prosperous province of Kalinga (modern Orissa). The battle was won but at a great cost
of human lives. It had a tremendous impact on Aśoka and he resolved to give up all wars
of expansion that only resulted in human misery.34 As he says:

‘After that, now that the country of the Kalingas has been conquered, the
Beloved of the Gods is devoted to an intense practice of the duties relating
to Dhamma, to a longing for Dhamma and to the inculcation of Dhamma
among the people. This is due to the repentance of the Beloved of the
Gods on having conquered the country of the Kalingas…Verily the
slaughter, death and deportation of men which take place in the course of
conquest of an unconquered country are now considered extremely
painful and deplorable by the Beloved of the Gods.’

29
Girnar Inscription of Rudradaman, Junagadh District, Gujarat

30
Hamilton and Falconer (ed.), STRABO, GEOGRAPHY, VOL.III 103

31
ARTHASHASTRA, Chapter XVI

32
Minor Rock Edict II, Brahmagiri, Chitradurga District, Karnataka

33
Rock Edict XIII, Shahbazgarhi, Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

34
Id.

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

This was the beginning of a moral campaign of conquest that lasted through the rest of
his reign and led to him being celebrated as Dharmaśoka (Aśoka, the Righteous) in
Buddhist literature.35 All of Aśoka’s inscriptions, edicts and rock carvings ultimately
point towards this goal-one where the Emperor is a well meaning father of all Indians 36-
a Pater Indorum, if you will.

It is easy to mistake the Aśokan inscriptions as some sort of a personal discourse on

ethics. This is however not the case. Like Akhenaton 37, the heretic Pharaoh of Ancient
Egypt, Aśoka’s ideas were not only his personal ethics but enmeshed morality and
governance and were the clearest reflection of his policy of administration. They allow
us to reassess the ground realities of Mauryan administration after the theoretical base
provided by Kautilya and the somewhat doubtful tales allegedly relayed by
Megasthenes.38 After all Aśoka’s rule marked the mature phase of the Mauryan polity.
By the time he had finished putting up his pillars, the Mauryans had, by all accounts,
ruled much of India for close to a century.39

It is also necessary to get another misconception out of the way. Aśoka’s religious views
were heterodox, but they were so only for India’s Brahmin clique. For much of the
Indian population, these ideas were not novel or unknown. 40 The welfare of the people
was based on the political conquest of their lands. The only major difference perhaps
was in his abjuring war. Early Magadhan kings like Bimbisara and Ajatshatru 41,
35
The Ceylonese Mahavamsa for instance

36
Pillar Edict VI, Rampurva Village, West Champaran, Bihar

37
Ruled circa 1350 BC

38
Romila Thapar, among others, casts doubts on the accuracy of later day authors quoting Megasthenes.

39
Kulke and Rothermund, Supra, n.13, date Chandragupta’s accession to circa 322 BC. The Buddhist
Ceylonese chronicles as well as the Jaina accounts differ wildly in their dates.

40
The Buddha and Mahavira had after all been quite successful in their mission. The former had even
managed to convert quite a few Kings to his creed.

41
These two kings of the Magadhan Hariyanka Dynasty ruled from circa 540 BC to 460 BC. Ajatshatru
was a contemporary of both the Buddha as well as Mahavira. Both these sects claim him as one of the

10
 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

allegedly followers of the Buddha themselves, never compromised on wars of conquest.

We must however not lose sight of the fact that Aśoka was in a much more secure
position with regard to territorial integrity of his State than either of the two were.
Magadha may have been the pre-eminent Mahajanapada of the Indo Gangetic plain but
it had powerful rivals in Vatsa, Anga, Avanti and Kosala. By the time Aśoka came on the
scene three centuries later, Mauryan dominance was absolute in all these regions.
Indeed so thoroughly had dissidence and fissiparous tendencies been crushed that when
the Mauryan State collapsed half a century after Aśoka’s death, it did so because of a
traitorous commander of the Army and not because of any external aggression. 42

The main problem that Aśoka faced was in communicating his conception of Dhamma
to the common people. The word, a Prakrit rendering of the Sanskrit Dharma, was not
unknown to the Indian people.43 It meant many things depending on the context in
which it was used and by whom. For the Brahmin orthodoxy, it meant rigid adherence
to the caste based system of society that had been in vogue since the Later Vedic Age.
For heterodox sects like the Buddhists, the Jainas and the Ajivikas 44; it meant following
ideas that would lead to salvation or moksha. A study of the Aśokan inscriptions reveals
that these were not fulminations of an orthodox Buddhist kind. They did promise
spiritual benefits but their inspiration was hardly divine. In inscriptions in the North
West, for instance, he refers to ethical ideas prevalent there without attributing them to
the Buddha.45 His universal ethical code was tempered by social reality and divorced
from religious orthodoxy.

followers.

42
Pushyamitra Sunga assassinated the last Mauryan Emperor, Brihadratha to establish the Sunga Dynasty
in circa 184 BC

43
It features prominently in the Epics. The Bhagavad Gita, possibly a post Aśokan work, makes numerous
references to the notion of Dharma.

44
The Ajivikas were followers of a preacher called Gosala, a contemporary and one time associate of
Mahavira.

45
Rock Edict XII, Kandahar, Afghanistan

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

A major stress of the Aśokan administration appears to be on smoothening out social

divisions. He realized that caste divisions could not be negated on the mere wishes of an
Emperor. Arguably, there is nothing to suggest that Aśoka had any issues with the then
existing caste system, but his inscriptions reveal such a lack of engagement with caste
that it cannot fail to surprise an observer. Employers and employees, brahmanas and
shramanas,46 teachers and pupils and so on are all advised on their moral life but caste,
be it in the form of varna or jaati, is the only uniquely Indian identity marker that is
completely absent from the Aśokan inscriptions. In preaching tolerance for all sects and
treating religious divisions as unimportant, Aśoka pre-empted Akbar the Great by close
to two millenniums.47 Yet, just like Akbar, he realized that idealism had his limits and
where some amount of intolerance actually helped the cause of the State and prevented
unnecessary strife, he was not loath to take sides. 48 The modern Indian definition of
secularism: equal respect for all religions (sarva dharma sambhava), as well as the
issues faced by it, can be directly traced to Aśoka’s secularism.

A similar sort of dichotomy between idealism and the practicalities of Empire are seen
when the question of war comes up. Aśoka by his own admission had given up warfare
of all kinds and yet he realized the importance of punitive punishments and the force of
arms for maintaining the security and economic interests of the Mauryan State. He
remarks that it is better for people like the Atavikas (the forest dwellers) to see reason
and not oppose him so that he is not compelled to visit them with slaughter.
Interestingly enough, both his abandonment of war and the barely concealed threat to
resort to it if the situation so demands makes an appearance in the same edict-proof that
for Aśoka Dhammavijaya did not mean a soft State. 49 Again, Aśoka expresses remorse
and repentance about the Kalinga killings in inscriptions all over India except in Kalinga

46
The Shramanas were a heterodox sect who did not believe in the Vedic rituals. Their ideas deeply
influenced Buddhism, Jainism as well as other indigenous atheistic and agnostic movements.

47
Rock Edict XII, Shahbazgarhi, Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

48
The famous Schism Edict. Minor Pillar Edict I, Allahabad-Kosam, Allahabad Fort, Uttar Pradesh
(originally installed at Kosam (Kaushambi), Uttar Pradesh & Sanchi, Raisen District, Madhya Pradesh

49
Rock Edict XIII, Shahbazgarhi, Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

itself.50 The Dhauli and Jaugada Inscriptions51 make no mention of the momentous
happenings there that allegedly led to Aśoka’s change of heart. Instead they are occupied
with instructions to the Empire’s officials in charge of Kalinga to discharge their duties
faithfully. The message that seems to go out is that a conquering force cannot appear to
be wavering, especially in a recently conquered and perhaps restive province.

As already discussed elsewhere, the Aśokan Edicts are the result of a conflict between
Kautilyan ideas of administration and the ground realities faced by the enormous
Mauryan polity. In those days of non-existent communication facilities and enormous
distances measured in months, the Kautilyan dictum of conquest followed by a heavily
centralized administration would have been impossible to follow. The inscriptions reveal
a State and an Emperor who are trying their utmost to ensure that a balance is struck
between effective provincial administration and Imperial unity. The Dhamma-
Mahamatras were given a large deal of autonomy in their functioning so that they may
adjust to local conditions and patterns of governance. 52 At the same time the mandate of
the Dhamma Mahamatras was clear. They were tasked with bringing about some sort
of notional religio-cultural unity among the peoples of a subcontinent that had never
known an Empire this extensive. Again, a useful comparison may be made to Akbar. For
Akbar, faced as he was with incredible religious diversity, the only way to hold together
an Empire was not to actively promote one religion over the other but to almost negate
the divisive tendencies of religion. Akbar portrayed himself more as a Mughal Indian
Emperor than as a Muslim Emperor. He was consumed by the idea of creating a
centralizing force that could bind together the Empire which was derived not from
religion or custom but from absolute obedience to the person of the Emperor himself.
The Emperor in effect became a figure far above religious and social differences. He
overplayed his hand a bit when he took these ideas of Sulh-Kul to the extreme and tried

50
Id. The above Edict, for example, dwells extensively on the bloody conquest of Kalinga and the
enormous casualties that resulted.

51
Special Rock Edicts XV and XVI, Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar, Orissa and Jaugada, Ganjam District,
Orissa

52
ROMILA THAPAR, ASOKA AND THE DECLINE OF THE MAURYAS 315-19 (1997)

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

to establish a new cult with himself as its anthropomorphic deity which unfortunately
became another differentiating marker.53

For Aśoka too, even though he lived in less complicated times, the problems were very
similar. These problems were compounded by the fact that unlike Akbar the
technological advancements of 3rd century BC were not much to write home about. He
tried something very similar to Akbar by claiming divine legitimacy 54 but at the same
time reducing the Gods to ill-defined, shadowy figures who were secondary to the King
in the Empire.55 56
This explains his religious broadmindedness that I have commented
on earlier and also his lack of patience with religious orthodoxy. Buddhism, thanks to its
flexibility and the lack of rigid, caste based rules, was the ideal philosophical vehicle for
Aśoka’s decidedly political aspirations.

Conclusion

Aśoka as an Emperor was more than the sum of his parts. As a Philosopher King, he
would have appealed to the Ancient Greeks. As an administrator, he accomplished the
prodigious feat of holding together a vast Empire by the sheer force of his personality.
As a missionary, his efforts successfully installed Buddhism as a major religion in India
as well as abroad. While evidence is hazy and nobody really knows if Aśoka’s dhamma
pracharaks actually preached the Buddhist gospel, it is proven that till the arrival of
Islam in the 8th century AD, large parts of Central Asia were overwhelmingly Buddhist. 57

53
The reference here is, of course, to Din e Ilahi that did not outlast Akbar

54
His preferred title in all his inscriptions being Devanampiya Piyadasi (The Beloved of the Gods)

55
J BLOCH, LES INSCRIPTIONS D’ASOKA 146 (1950)

56
Major Rock Edict IV, Girnar Hill, Junagadh District, Gujarat; Aśoka refers to how through his
endeavours the practice of Dhamma has reached such levels that were not possible in the earlier days
through magic and other celestial means.

57
IDP-Oriental Studies Programme, The History of Buddhism in Central Asia, available at
http://idp.orientalstudies.ru/education/buddhism/background/history.html

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

Local legends attribute the spread of Buddhism in countries ranging from Japan to Sri
Lanka to the efforts of his missionaries.58

The Mauryan Government under Aśoka was so successful because it combined the best
of Kautilyan administration theory with a level headed appreciation of the ground
realities. The autonomy afforded to local administrators ensured that prompt action
could be taken and urgent situations immediately addressed. By not conquering difficult
to control interior tracts, the Mauryas significantly reduced the strain on the treasury
and made sure that overheads did not damage the financial health of the Empire. The
Mauryan Viceroys ensured that autonomy did not translate to disregard of Imperial
dicta.

The importance of socio-cultural unity was very well understood by Aśoka. He realized
that a hierarchical setup that was exclusionary could not lend sufficient strength to the
Empire. He therefore strove to create an altogether new system that was more inclusive
and accepting of differences. His use of Buddhism as an agent of such change was a
masterstroke. With its pronounced agnosticism and materialistic outlook, Buddhism
was perfectly in tune with the aims of an expanding Empire. Pacifism became state
policy only when Aśoka was assured that all troublesome areas were well under
Mauryan control and that there was no significant external threat to the Empire. By
maintaining good relations with both his Greek and Indian neighbours, Aśoka aimed to
ensure that economic prosperity would not be hampered by narrow parochialism. In
this he was a welcome change from both the rulers who had preceded him as well as
many other ‘Emperors’ who succeeded him.

There were problems of course. For all his efforts at granting autonomy, Aśoka did not
quite succeed in establishing the sort of administrative structure that kept the Roman
Empire flourishing for more than half a millennium. When Aśoka, who possessed the
power to both preach as well as punish, died, the gates were left open for dissidence and
invasions. The Indo Bactrians, the Kushanas, the Sakas and the early Hunas, all came
rushing in through the gates of North West India. The reasons are not too far to seek.
Even at the peak of its decentralisation, the Mauryan polity depended a lot on the

58
The Mahavamsa being a case in point

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

personality of the reigning Emperor. Much of the fault for the dizzying decline of the
Mauryan Empire must be laid at the feet of Aśoka’s incompetent successors who could
not quite continue from where their illustrious ancestor had left off. It was therefore not
surprising that within fifty years of Aśoka’s death, the Mauryan dynasty had ceased to
exist-another very interesting parallel to the Mughal Empire after the death of
Aurangzeb, the last of the Great Mughals.

Much attention has been paid to Aśoka’s preaching of dhamma. The results of all that
effort were regrettably little, atleast in India. By striving towards an ideal that was
simultaneously rigid as well as accepting of all differences, Aśoka achieved precious little
in the field. Without dismantling the existing power hierarchy, there was no way that
Dhamma Aśoka’s conquests could be permanent. Indeed, one of the theories often
advanced for the rise of the Sungas is that it was a reactionary movement encouraged by
the Brahminical orthodoxy against the heterodox practices of Aśoka. While there is
evidence to the contrary, considering the fact that the Sungas did patronise a lot of
Buddhist construction, it was probably their own effort at maintaining social harmony
in the kingdom once they were in power.

Sources ranging from the Kushana era all the way to the early medieval period are
curiously silent about Aśoka. Indeed at Sannathi in Karnataka, there even seems to have
been an attempt at deliberately disfiguring and reusing an Aśokan inscription for a
temple.59 The only notable exception to this trend of damnatio memoriae was the
Kashmiri scholar Kalhana who in the 11 th century AD wrote in glowing terms about
Aśoka.60 His sources were not Aśokan pillars or inscriptions but popular culture and
local legends-evidence that more than a thousand years after his death, Aśoka was still
remembered fondly in popular lore. As Aśoka himself stated, implementing his ideas
has not been easy. The fact that he even then stuck to consensus and persuasion as the
first rule of governance, two thousand three hundred years ago, is enough to
immortalise him in Indian and World History.

Selected Bibliography
59
KV Ramesh, The Aśokan Inscription at Sannati, INDIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW XIV, p. 36-42

60
RAJATARANGINI, Chapter I

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 Government and Political Thought in Ancient India: Aśoka’s Inscriptions

 ROMILA THAPAR, ASOKA AND THE DECLINE OF THE MAURYAS, 3rd ed., Oxford
University Press, New Delhi (1997)

 UPINDER SINGH, A HISTORY OF ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIA: FROM THE

STONE AGE TO THE 12 CENTURY, University of Delhi Press (2008)

TH

 HERMANN KULKE, DIETMAAR ROTHERMUND, A HISTORY OF INDIA, Routledge

(1998)

 RC MAJUMDAR ET AL., AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA, Macmillan (2000)

 A.S ALTEKAR, STATE AND GOVERNMENT IN ANCIENT INDIA, Banaras (1949)

 RADHAKUMUD MOOKERJI, AŚOKA, 3rd ed., Delhi, Motilal Banarsidas (1962)

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