THE DHARMA DECREES OF KING ASHOKA
Rock Edict 13
Rock Edict 3
King Priyadarshi Beloved of the Gods, says:
Twelve years after my consecration I decreed thus:
Everywhere in my dominions, every five years, local, provincial, and state officials shall make a tour of their districts, for the special purpose of preaching Dharma, as well as performing other functions, as follows:
Obedience to mother and father is meritorious.
Liberality to friends, acquaintances, relatives, Brahmins and Shramanas is meritorious.
Abstention from killing living creatures is meritorious
Spending little and acquiring little is meritorious.....
Rock Edict 1
Rock Edict 9
Maski Rock Edict
Bhabra Rock Edict
Sanchi Pillar Edict
The Sangha of the monks and the Sangha of the nuns have each been united, to remain united for as long as my sons and great-grandsons shall reign, and for as long as the sun and the moon shall shine.... It is my desire that the Sangha be united and endure for ever.
Sarnath Pillar Edict
Rock Edict 12
King Priyadarshi, Beloved of the Gods, honours people of all religious groups, whether they are ascetics or householders....
The religions of other people all deserve to be honoured....
King Priyadarshi desires that people of all religious groups should know the teachings of other religions, and acquire pure knowledge.
Rummindei Pillar Edict
Twenty years after his consecration, King Priyadarshi, Beloved of the Gods, visited this place in person and worshipped here, because the Buddha, the Sage of the Shâkyas was born here.
He had a stone wall constructed around the place, and he erected this stone pillar to commemorate his visit.
He declared the village of Lumbinî free from taxes....
NOTES
In preparing these free renderings of selections the inscriptions of King Ashoka, the following books were consulted:
Jules Bloch, Les Inscriptions d’Asoka (Paris 1950), Prakrit texts and French translation.
N.A. Nikam and Richard McKeon, The Edicts of Asoka (Chicago 1959), English translation.
D.C. Sircar, Inscriptions of Asoka (Delhi 1957).
Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, Buddhist Texts as recommended by Asoka (Calcutta 1948), text and translation of the Bhabra Rock Edict, and texts and translations of what he identifies as the seven scriptures recommended by Ashoka to the monks and nuns of his kingdom; these are all from the Pali Canon.
Ashoka ruled India in the 3rd century B.C.E. This fact is confirmed by the foreign kings he names as his contemporaries (in Rock Edict 13):
Antiyokia = Antiokhos II Theos of Syria (261-246)
Turamaya = Ptolemaios II Philadelphos of Egypt (285-247)
Antikini = Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia (278-239)
Maka = Magas of Cyrene (300-258)
Alikasu(n)dara = Alexandros of Epirus (272-258).
This edict would have been issued in or before 258 BCE, which is the only date at which all five were still alive. India was obviously in diplomatic contact with Europe at that time.
The Inscriptions of Ashoka are written in various Prakrit dialects (related to Sanskrit and Pali). Some Aramaic inscriptions are also known outside India.
King Ashoka (also called Priyadarshi, and ‘the Beloved of the Gods’) tells us that after his return from the Kalinga war he was filled with remorse over the bloodshed and suffering he had caused (Rock Edict 13). He turned his back on military conquest and for the rest of his life devoted himself to the pleasure of moral conquest, achieving victories for and through Dharma. As used by Ashoka, Dharma does not mean the teaching of the Buddha, even though Ashoka became a lay-disciple of Buddhism and a defender of the Buddhist Sangha. For him it signifies morality and the truth common to all religions. He sought to combat sectarianism by promoting religious tolerance in his kingdom. Note that he does not mention Nirvana as a religious goal, but happiness in ‘heaven’ or ‘the next world’.