It's King Ashoka's Own Philosophy Not Buddhism

It is King Ashokas own philosophy not Buddhism
-Chandrakanth, 11110024
Chandaashoka to Ashoka:
Ashoka1, the Great has come to be regarded as one of the most exemplary ruler in the world. He was the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty. Ashoka had been given the royal military training. He was known as fearsome hunter, a well trained sword fighter and killed a lion with just a wooden rod. In the fight that followed his accession, Ashoka attacked Patliputra and kill his brothers[7]. After seeing fearsome acts of the kings, the people named him Chandaashoka. After eight year of ruling, he fought with independent kingdom Kalinga, which is having fertile land and rivers. After this battle, Chandaashoka decided to look over the destruction. He saw the houses burned down and many bodies still unburied. It was the first time that Chandaashoka saw the direct impact of war. Ashokas later edicts show that approximately 1,00,000 were killed in Kalinga army and almost equal no.of his army. Chandaashoka after seeing this was filled with sorrow and remorse. Like Buddha an instance change came in Chandaashoka and he turns into Dharmaashoka also called Ashoka.
Ashoka rock edicts, Stupas and Pillar inscriptions:

Because the ancient Indians used perishable materials like palm leaves as writing material, we have no written documents before the third century B.C.E from south Asia[3]. However throughout his reign Ashoka had his ideas carved on the both large and small stones, called edicts, stupas and later on stone pillars. Thus Ashokas inscriptions are providing full record of his thoughts and movements. Ashoka pillars are basically series of pillars that are spread all over the northern part of Indian subcontinent. Ashokas seven pillar edicts have been found at Topra
1
Lived from 304 BCE to 232 BCE
(Delhi), Meerut, Kausambhi, rampurva, Champaran, Mehrauli and some minor pillar edicts. Even though people believe in the existence of God, they will build Temples and they do devotions. Similarly Ashoka built Pillars and spread his philosophy and his ruling even then he believes in his philosophy. On all these pillars he never mentions about Buddha and most of time he didnt write Buddha teachings. Always Buddha talks about life cycle, eight fold cycle, and related to personal development. Ashokas philosophy comes from his own heart after seeing bloodshed in Kalinga war and its all about ethical behaviour towards all the living creatures and benefits. He made inscriptions like principle of protection, dhamma, not to kill any animals etc. It shows publicizing his own philosophy using these pillar inscriptions. Ashokas rock edicts show his beliefs in moral behaviour, policy towards slaves and masters, king responsibility to get information about the conditions of people constantly and little personal details about his life[6]. Ashoka kingdom includes present India (except southernmost part), Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Persia is the land next to Ashoka kingdom. Probably he might be inspired by the public monuments of the kings of Persia2. He publicized his change of heart and new imperial policies in a series of engraved rock and pillar inscriptions scattered throughout his lands. Here I am providing the evidences to prove my argument. The earliest known document in the history of religious toleration was made by King Cyrus II, Persian king. Cyrus issued a declaration inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform3 on a clay cylinder, which was discovered in Babylon in 1879. On this cylinder Cyrus announced a number of reforms he made after conquering the country. These include arranging, the
2 3
Now it is called Iran One of the earliest known systems of writing
restoration of temples and organizing. Similarly, the Behistun inscription, a multi lingual stone inscription approximately 15 m high and 25 m wide located in western Iran. It was written by Darius I. This inscription begins with a brief autobiography of Darius I, he also proclaimed himself victorious in all battles during the period of upheaval[4]. Herodotus (484 425 BCE), the Persian king ran some 2,875 km Royal road from the city of Susa to port of Smyrna (modern Izmir in Turkey) on Aegean sea. This highway built by the Persian king of Darius I to facilitate rapid communication. The stupa originated as piled up burial-tumulus and constituted the most characteristic monument of Buddhist religion, although stupas of other faiths are not unknown. There are sites like Sanchi and Taxila (Pakistan) have Buddhist monuments, even though they were not visited by Buddha[5]. As Persian kings did the reconstruction, organizing of temples King Ashoka might applied this to Stupas. Vaisali is one of the eight holy places of Buddhism has uninscribed Mauryan pillaer. Besides this piller stupas were found in 1957-58. It was seen to have started stupas of unpretentious size in the pre-Mauryan age and was enlarged four times[5]. The materials used for these were bad, so these stupas were just rebuild by Ashoka. Stupa at Piprahwa in Basti District of Uttar Pradesh is a brick stupa of probable pre-Asokan date. Some of these stupas contained a network of walls containing the hub spokes and rim of whell, while others contained interior walls in a swastika shape. This Ashoka wheel on these stupas conatin 24 spokes. But Buddhas dhamma chakra contains only 8 spokes (Right view, right thought, right speech, right behaviour, right livelihood, right effort, right
mindfulness and right meditation), therefore there is no exact relationship between Ashoka dhamma chakra on these stupas and Buddha dhamma chakra.
Ashoka Dhamma and Buddha Dhamma:

Many Modern assessments have tended to view King Ashoka largely only as a Buddhist. When placed in historical context in more recent times the man and his ideas come to be liberated from this single perspective[1]. We need to see him as a person with strong commitment to change society through his own philosophy. The Ashokas edicts are the best way of initiating a reassessment of the king and the nature of his policies, and even it applies to the present politicians. Ashokas dhamma4 is a philosophical entity that emphasizes on the high ideals in order to lead a successful life. He wanted everyone to live peacefully and co-exist in harmonious environment[2]. Some of his ideals were avoiding wars, spreading peace, stopping animal sacrifices, giving respect to elders, masters treating slaves like humans, and promoting vegetarian (result of stopping animal killing) etc. King Ashoka dhamma was essentially a code of ethical behaviour and the benefits. His formulations of dhamma were intended to influence the conduct of categories of people in relation to each other especially where they involved unequal relationships. Eg: children and parents, teachers and pupils, and employees and employers etc. Buddha dhamma teaches us to maintain purity of life, to reach perfection in life, to live in Nibbana5, to believe that all compound things are impermanent, to believe karma is the instrument of moral order. All these Buddha dhamma are targeted towards the personal life perfection, it doesnt say how to behave with colleagues, neighbours or with animals and
4 5
Equivalent to Sanskrit word dharma The salvation of soul
how to treat them. The teachings of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct, wisdom, and meditation. Ashokas dhamma didnt derive from Buddhas divine inspiration. It was more in keeping with the ethic conditioned by the logic of given social situations[1].
Ashokas son and daughter went Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism:

Ashoka went into Ujjain and was injured in the ensuing battle (in the early age of his ruling) battle. Ashoka was treated in hiding so that loyalists of Susima group could not harm him. He was treated by Buddhist monks and he met Devi there who is also a Buddhist[7]. When she saw the consequences of her husbands action she reportedly left him because she is follower of Buddha. She has one son Mahinda and one daughter Sanghamitta. They both were inspired by their mother became Buddhist monk . They both had gone to Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism, but there is no hand of King Ashoka in this activity.
Conclusions:
Ashoka is one of the best kings in the world. Like Buddha he also got changed after the Kalinga War. He was inspired by some of the kingdoms nearby and followed them to constantly monitor his kingdom people. He publicized his own philosophy after seeing the bloodshed of Kalinga war but not Buddhism. Even though there is some agreement and coincide of Buddha dhamma and Ashoka dhamma, he himself quoted all these dhammas to make everyone happy. He is the first person to use all rock edicts, stupas and pillar inscription
to inspire the people, and to beckon them in his (right) path. His son and daughter are inspire by their mother who is a Buddhist but not by father, Ashoka.
Bibliography and References:

1] Ashoka a retrospective, Romila Thapar, Economic and Political weekly, Vol. 44, No. 45 (Nov 7-13, 2009), pp-31-37 2] http://www.iloveindia.com/history/ancient-india/maurya-dynasty/ashoka-dhamma.html 3] The human record, Alfred J. Andrea, Volume-1, 4th edition: 2011, Cengage learning, pp156 - 160
4] http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?era=-1000 5] http://www.gktoday.in/inscriptions-edicts-pillar-edicts-of-asoka/ 6] http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html 7] http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/ancient-india/ashoka.html 8] http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ashoka 9] The Buddha and Dr Fuhrer, Charles allen, First edition: 2008, London, pp-17 10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka

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It is King Ashokas own philosophy not Buddhism

Ashoka rock edicts, Stupas and Pillar inscriptions:

Lived from 304 BCE to 232 BCE

Now it is called Iran One of the earliest known systems of writing

Ashoka Dhamma and Buddha Dhamma:

Equivalent to Sanskrit word dharma The salvation of soul

Ashokas son and daughter went Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism:

Bibliography and References:

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