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 19th 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!
