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monster of wickedness before his conversion, but according to the Dipavamsa he at first favoured heretics.
CHAPTER XII. ASOKA 160
Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I.
The general effect of Asoka's rule on the history of Buddhism and indeed of Asia is clear, but there is still
some difference of opinion as to the date of his conversion. The most important document for the chronology
of his reign is the inscription known as the first Minor Rock Edict[578]. It is now generally admitted that it
does not state the time which has elapsed since the death of the Buddha, as was once supposed, and that the
King relates in it how for more than two and a half years after his conversion to Buddhism he was a
lay-believer and did not exert himself strenuously, but subsequently joined the Sangha[579] and began to
devote his energies to religion rather more than a year before the publication of the edict. This proclamation
has been regarded by some as the first, by others as the last of his edicts. On the latter supposition we must
imagine that he published a long series of ethical but not definitely Buddhist ordinances and that late in life he
became first a lay-believer and then a monk, probably abdicating at the same time. But the King is
exceedingly candid as to his changes of life and mind: he tells us how the horrors of the war with Kalinga
affected him, how he was an easygoing layman and then a zealous monk. Had there been a stage between the
war and his acceptance of Buddhism as a layman, a period of many years in which he devoted himself to the
moral progress of his people without being himself a Buddhist, he would surely have explained it. Moreover
in the Bhabru edict, which is distinctly ecclesiastical and deals with the Buddhist scriptures, he employs his
favourite word Dhamma in the strict Buddhist sense, without indicating that he is giving it an unusual or new
meaning. I therefore think it probable that he became a lay Buddhist soon after the conquest of Kalinga, that is
in the ninth or tenth year after his accession, and a member of the Sangha two and a half years later. On this
hypothesis all his edicts are the utterances of a Buddhist.
It may be objected that no one could be a monk and at the same time govern a great empire: it is more natural
and more in accordance with Indian usage that towards the end of his life an aged king should abdicate and
renounce the world. But Wu Ti, the Buddhist Emperor of China, retired to a monastery twice in the course of
his long reign and the cloistered Emperors of Japan in the eleventh and twelfth centuries continued to direct
the policy of their country, although they abdicated in name and set a child on the throne as titular ruler. The
Buddhist Church was not likely to criticize Asoka's method of keeping his monastic vows and indeed it may
be said that his activity was not so much that of a pious emperor as of an archbishop possessed of exceptional
temporal power. He definitely renounced conquest and military ambitions and appears to have paid no
attention to ordinary civil administration which he perhaps entrusted to Commissioners; he devoted himself to
philanthropic and moral projects "for the welfare of man and beast," such as lecturing his subjects on their
duties towards all living creatures, governing the Church, building hospitals and stupas, supervising charities
and despatching missions. In all his varied activity there is nothing unsuitable to an ecclesiastical statesman:
in fact he is distinguished from most popes and prelates by his real indifference to secular aspirations and by
the unusual facilities which he enjoyed for immediately putting his ideals into practice.
Asoka has won immortality by the Edicts which he caused to be engraved on stone[580]. They have survived
to the present day and are the most important monuments which we possess for the early history of India and
of Buddhism. They have a character of their own. A French writer has said "On ne bavarde pas sur la pierre,"
and for most inscriptions the saying holds good, but Asoka wrote on the rocks of India as if he were dictating
to a stenographer. He was no stylist and he was somewhat vain although, considering his imperial position
and the excellence of his motives, this obvious side of his character is excusable. His inscriptions give us a
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