Asoka, the Philosopher Emperor

Extracts from an article by Phiroz Mehta taken from volume 86 of Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1944

Continued from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5

Rock Edict VI says:

“A long period has elapsed during which in the past administrative business or information was not attended to at all hours. So by me the arrangement has been made that at all times, when I am eating, or in the harem, or in the bedroom, or in my ranches, or even in the place of religious instruction, or in my pleasure-grounds, everywhere the reporting officials should make known to me the people’s affairs. In all places I shall attend to public business.”

What untiring energy Asoka must have possessed! What emphasis on a king’s obligations to his people! What a conception of imperial responsibilities and duties, and an ideal of public service!

Hear, further, what he declares in the same edict:

“I never feel satisfaction in my exertions and dispatch of business. For work I must for the welfare of all the folk; and of that, again, the root is energy and the dispatch of business; for nothing is more essential than the welfare of all the folk.”

The religious teaching of Brahmanism insisted on the discharge of three debts owed by man; to religion; to learning; and to the ancestors (by perpetuating the race). Asoka added a fourth:

“And whatsoever efforts I make, they are made that I may obtain release from my debt to my fellow human beings.” (R.E. IV.)

To his Governors, when neglectful of duty or indifferent to his injunctions, he addresses a vigorous and dignified protest:

“With certain natural dispositions success (in administration) is impossible, to wit, envy, lack of sustained efforts, harshness, haste, want of application, indolence and lassitude. You must desire that such dispositions be not yours. At the root of the whole matter lie steadiness, and patience. He who is tired in administration will not rise up; but one must needs move, advance, go on. There will be special officers to remind you of your obligations to the king and of his instructions. Fulfilment of these bears great fruit, non-fulfilment brings great calamity. By those who fail, neither heaven nor royal favour can be won. By fulfilling my instructions, you will gain heaven and also pay your debt to me.” (K.E. I.)

He sums up the policy of his empire in a single sentence in the Thirteenth Rock Edict:

“The supreme conquest, in His Majesty’s opinion, is the conquest of the Law of Righteous Living.”

Asoka believes in, preaches, and fulfils in practice the ideal of Right served by Might. To the limits of his vast empire, and beyond to Egypt and Greece, went the king’s message of freedom, of peace on earth and good will to man. The war drum was silenced; instead, the clarion call to a nobler life was heard by all. For five and twenty years India enjoyed a brotherhood of nations, a golden age of peace and freedom.

And for the personal comfort and cheer and health of the people, and also as a free gift for neighbouring states outside the empire, the Second Rock Edict says:

“Everywhere within the dominion of His Majesty the King, likewise among the frontier peoples such as the Cholas, Pandyas, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras, what is known as Tamraparni, the Greek king Antiochos — everywhere have been instituted by His Gracious Majesty two kinds of medical treatment, medical treatment of man and medical treatment of beast. Medicinal herbs also, those wholesome for man and wholesome for beast, have been caused to be imported and to be planted everywhere wherever they did not exist. On the roads, wells also have been caused to be dug and trees caused to be planted for the enjoyment of man and beast.”

Asoka well understood that the greatness of an empire as well as his people’s happiness rested upon the basis of individual character, and that the root of character was moral development. The royal devotee and member of the Buddha’s great order of monks preached morality and the rules of practical religion with a zeal and piety singularly free from bigotry and sanctimoniousness. Simplicity, toleration, universal applicability, sound psychology, common sense and the clean flame of truth characterise his moral precepts for his peoples.

Continued in part 7

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