Ashoka, forgotten and rediscovered!

Book review – Ashoka – the Search for India’s Lost Emperor by Charles Allen

I remember reading in school that Ashoka was an emperor who lived before the time of Christ, was a ferocious campaigner, and ruled most of what is currently the Indian subcontinent. We were told that he built habitable cities, roads lined with trees, Buddhist monasteries and rest areas for travelers. That he had a change of heart after the war against Kalinga, suffered remorse for his ruthless actions and converted to Buddhism.

What I don’t remember being taught is that he was largely forgotten until the 19^th century. Indian Puranas had a nothing more than a grudging mention of this illustrious grandson of Chandragupta Maurya.  Ashoka was presumably condemned to the sidelines due to his religious affiliations. Buddha’s early disciples were from the Brahmin community. The Buddhist monks and evangelists were largely drawn from the Brahmin population well into Ashoka’s lifetime. Allen reckons that this didn't well with the worshippers of Shiva, Vishnu and other Indian deities (later to be collectively labeled Hindus), who authored and passed the puranas on by word of mouth.

It took the intellectual curiosity and the tenacity of a few bright Englishmen to connect the dots spread through India. These dots were in the form of rock edicts, pillars, stone carvings, statues and other archeological evidence. The writings in these edicts were assumed to be in Greek by the locals. Over a few generations, the European ‘orientalists’  summoned enough curiosity to connect the writings on a few rocks, work out the scripts, correlated the evidence to records from Greek, Chinese, and Sri Lankan sources and reconstructed the timeline of Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara and Ashoka. 

I find this stunning.  A combination of religious power battles between various religions - Buddhists, Shaivites, Ajivikas and Jains, and successive invasions from various factions erased (or distorted) a significant part of India’s heritage. History written by one religious body invariably undersold the others. Invasions from Muhammed of Ghor and Mohammad Bhakthiyar did further damage by destroying Nalanda University, its library, and various archeological landmarks in eastern India.  

History is written by the victors. And is forgotten if the victors don’t stay victorious.  It took William Jones, James Princep and a whole succession of accidental archeologists to help India remember its history. 

The book does a great job of how observations, accidental discoveries and associations complete the picture of Ashoka. What starts of as a fascination over Firoz Shah’s column and over the similarity on the stone carvings of the an unidentified monarch gels into a complete picture of Ashoka. Ashoka, the first emperor who ruled most of India well over a millennium before the Moghals or the British managed to bring it under one rule; and the emperor who transformed what was seen was a minor dissenting faction of Hinduism to a major world religion.

The book reviews all that we know of Ashoka’s family, political life, appearance and dietary preferences. And then concludes with Ashoka’s effect on contemporary India. It’s full of interesting anecdotes and tidbits, reconstructed from various sources. For example, the Buddhist scriptures describe how Ashoka was born ugly with an unpleasant skin condition, as he had, in his previous birth, unwittingly offered some earth to Lord Bhuddha to eat. Another story is about how he had an inferior rebirth, because he died in anger. He was aware of his diminishing influence in his declining age. In the final hours, he wakes up to find the maid assigned to fan him had fallen asleep. In his mind, He contrasts the perceived indifference to his glory days, and dies with that resentment. There are also a few fascinating details of how Ashoka was partial to peacock meat, and how the Mauryas preferred trained warrior women to be the Emperor’s bodyguards. (Take that, Lara Croft!).

This is more than the story of how Ashoka was rediscovered. It’s a story of the Mauryas, a story of Buddhism, and the story of how religion has always influenced politics. And a story of positive contributions the Europeans made to waking a colony to its past.

A highly recommended read. This book has managed what my history teachers never achieved - arouse an interest in the history of India. It deepened my long standing gripe against my school teachers – how did they manage to teach history without making me realize how fascinating the subject was!  I already ordered John’ Keay’s book, India Discovered, as a related title. And it appears this is only one of several books that Charles Allen has authored. I can’t wait to read the rest!