Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
The Ceylonese Legend of Asoka
The legends related in this chapter and in that following are related simply as legends, without criticism, or discussion of their historical value[1].
THE CONVERSION OF ASOKA
Kâlâsoka, king of Magadha, had ten sons, who after his death ruled the kingdom righteously for twenty-two years. They were succeeded by other nine brothers, the Nandas, who likewise, in order of seniority, ruled the kingdom for twenty-two years[2].
A Brahman named Chânakya, who had conceived an implacable hatred against Dhana Nanda, the last survivor of the nine brothers, put that king to death, and placed upon the throne Chandra Gupta, a member of the princely Maurya clan, who. assumed the sovereignty of all India, and reigned gloriously for twenty-four years[3]. He was succeeded by his son Bindusara, who ruled the land for twenty-eight years.
The sons of Bindusâra, the offspring of sixteen mothers, numbered one hundred and one, of whom the eldest was named Sumana, and the youngest Tishya (Tissa). A third son, Asoka, uterine brother of Tishya, had been appointed Viceroy of Western India by his father. On receiving news of King Bindusâra's mortal illness, Asoka quitted Ujjain, the seat of his government, and hastened to Pâtaliputra (Patna), the capital of the empire. On his arrival at the capital, he slew his eldest brother Sumana, and ninety-eight other brothers, saving alive but one, Tishya, the youngest of all. Having thus secured his throne, Asoka became lord of all India, but by reason of the massacre of his brothers he was known as Asoka the Wicked.
Now it so happened that when Prince Sumana was slain, his wife was with child. She fled from the slaughter, and was obliged to seek shelter in a village of outcastes beyond the eastern gate. The headman of the outcastes, pitying her misery, entreated her kindly, and, doing her reverence, served her faithfully for seven years. On that very day on which she was driven forth from the palace she gave birth to a boy, on whom tl1e name Nigrodha was bestowed. The child was born with the marks of sanctity, and when he attained the age of seven was already an ordained monk.
The holy child, whose royal origin was not known, happened one day to pass by the palace, and attracted the attention of the king, who was struck by his grave and reverend deportment. King Asoka, highly delighted, sent for the boy, who drew near with decorum and self-possession.
The king said, 'My child, take any seat which thou thinkest befitting.' Nigrodha, seeing that no priest other than himself was present, advanced towards the royal throne as the befitting seat. Whereupon King Asoka, understanding that this monk was destined to become lord of the palace, gave the boy his arm, and seating him upon the throne, refreshed him with meat and drink prepared for his own royal use.
Having thus shown his respect, the king questioned 'the boy monk concerning the doctrines of Buddha, and received from him an exposition of the doctrine of earnestness, to the effect that 'earnestness is the way to immortality, indifference is the way to death.' This teaching so wrought upon the heart of the king, that he at once accepted the religion of Buddha, and gave gifts to the priesthood. The next day Nigrodha returned to the palace with thirty—two priests, and by preaching the law, established king and people in the faith and the practice of piety. In this manner was King Asoka constrained to abandon the Brahmanical faith of his father, and to accept as a lay disciple the sacred law of Buddha.
These things happened in the fourth year after the accession of King Asoka, who in the same year celebrated his solemn coronation, and appointed his younger brother Tishya to be his deputy or vice-gerent.
The sixty thousand Brahmans, who for three years had daily enjoyed the bounty of Asoka, as they had enjoyed that of his predecessors on the throne, were dismissed, and in their place Buddhist monks in equal numbers were constantly entertained at the palace, and treated with such lavish generosity that four lakhs of treasure were each day expended. One day, the king, having feasted the monks at the palace, inquired the number of the sections of the law, and having learned that the sections of the law were eighty-four thousand in number, he resolved to dedicate a sacred edifice to each. Wherefore, the king commanded the local rulers to erect eighty-four thousand sacred edifices in as many towns of India, and himself constructed the Asokâraâma at the capital. All the edifices were completed within three years, and in a single day the news of their completion reached the Court. By means of the supernatural powers with which he was gifted, King Asoka was enabled to behold at one glance all these works throughout the empire.
From the time of his consecration as emperor of India, two hundred and eighteen years after the death of the perfect Buddha, the miraculous faculties of royal majesty entered into King Asoka, and the glory which he obtained by his merit extended a league above and a league below the earth.
The denizens of heaven were his servants, and daily brought for his use water from the holy lake, luscious, fragrant fruits, and other good things beyond measure and without stint.
The king, lamenting that he had been born too late to behold the Buddha in the flesh, besought the aid of the Snake-King, who caused to appear a 1nost enchanting image of Buddha, in the full perfection of beauty, surrounded by a halo of glory, and surmounted by the lambent flame of sanctity, in honour of which glorious vision a magnificent festival was held for the space of seven days.
THE STORY OF MAHENDRA AND SANGHAMITRA, AND THE CONVERSION OF CEYLON
While Asoka during his royal father’s lifetime was stationed at Ujjain as Viceroy of the Avanti country, he formed a connexion with a lady of the Setthî caste, named Devî, who resided at Vedisagiri (Besnagar near Bhilsâ)[4]. She accompanied the prince to Ujjain, and there bore to him a son named Mahendra, two hundred and four years after the death of Buddha[5]. Two years later a daughter named Sanghamitrâ was born. Devî continued to reside at Vedisagiri after Asoka seized the throne; but the children accompanied their father to the capital, where Sanghalnitrâ was given in marriage to Agni Brahma, nephew of the king, to whom she bore a son named Sulnana.
In the fourth year after King Asoka's coronation, his brother Tishya, the vicegerent, his nephew Agni Brahmâ, and his grandson Sumana were all ordained. The king, who had received the news of the completion of the eighty—four thousand sacred ediices, held a solemn assembly of millions of monks and nuns, and, coming in full state in person, took up his station in the midst of the priesthood. The kings piety had by this time washed away the stain of fratricide, and he who had been known as Asoka the Wicked, was henceforth celebrated as Asoka the Pious.
After his brother Tishya had devoted himself to religion, Asoka proposed to replace him in the office of vicegerent by Prince Mahendra, but at the urgent entreaty of his spiritual direetor, Tishya son of Moggali (Mudgâlya), the king was persuaded to permit of the ordination both of Muhendra and his sister Sanghamitrâ. The young prince had then attained the canonical age of twenty, and was therefore at once ordained. The princess assumed the yellow robe, but was obliged to defer her admission to the Order for two years, until she should attain full age. Mahendra was ordained in the sixth year of the king's reign, dating from his coronation.
In the eighth year of the reign, two saints, named respectively Sumitra and Tishya, died. Their death was attended with such portents that the world at large becanie greatly devoted to the Buddhist religion, and the liberality of the people to the priests was multiplied. The profits so obtained attracted to the Order many-unworthy members, who set up their own doctrines as the doctrines of Buddha, and performed unlawful rites and ceremonies, even sacrifices after the manner of the Brahmans, as seemed good unto them. Hence was wrought confusion both in the doctrine and ritual of the Church.
The disorders waxed so great that the heretics out-numbered the true believers, the regular rites of the church were in abeyance for seven years. and the king’s spiritual director, Tishya son of Moggali, was obliged to commit his disciples to the care of Prince Mahéndra, and himself to retire into solitude among the mountains at the source of the Ganges.
Tishya, the son of Moggali, having been persuaded to quit his retreat, expelled the heretics, produced the Kathâvatthu treatise, and held the Third Council of the Church at the Asokfirama in Pâtaliputra. These events happened in the year 236 after the death of Buddha, and seventeen and a half years after the coronation of King Asoka.
In the same year King Devânampiya Tissa (Tishya) ascended the throne of Ceylon, and became the firm friend and ally of King Asoka, although the two sovereigns never met. The King of Ceylon, in order to show his friendship and respect, dispatched a mission to India, headed by his nephew, Mahâi Arittha. In seven days the envoys reached the port of Tâmalipti (Tamlûk in Bengal), and in seven days more arrived at the Imperial Court. They were royally entertained by King Asoka, who was graciously pleased to accept the rich and rare presents sent by his ally, in return for which he sent gifts of equal value. The envoys remained at the capital for five months, and then returned to the island by the way they had come, bearing to their sovereign this message from King Asoka: 'I have taken refuge in the Buddha, the Law, and the Order; I have avowed myself a lay disciple of the doctrine of the son of the Sâkyas. Imbue your mind also with faith in this Triad, in the highest religion of the Jina; take refuge in the Teacher.'
After the close of the Third Council, which remained in session for nine months, Tishya the son of Moggali resolved that the law of Buddha should be communicated to foreign countries, and dispatched missionaries to Kashmîr and Gandhâra; to Mahîshamandala (Mysore); to Vanavâsi (North Kanara); to Aparântaka (coast north of Bombay); to Mahârâshtra; to the Yavana country (on the north-western frontier); to the mountain regions of the Himâlaya; to Suvaṇṇabhûmi (? Pegu); and to Ceylon.
The mission to Ceylon consisted of Prince Mahendra and five colleagues, of whom one was Sumana, his sister's son.
Mahendra resolved, with the king's permission, to visit his mother and her relations on his way to Ceylon, and devoted six months to this purpose.
He found his mother at her home in Vedisagiri, and, having been received with great joy, was accommodated in the splendid monastery at that place which she had erected[6]. The preaching of Mahendra converted Bhandu, a grandnephew of his mother. After this event Mahendra lingered for another month, and then with his companions, to whom Bhandu attached himself, rose aloft into the air, and flying, 'as flies the king of swans,' arrived in Ceylon, and alighted upon the Missa mountain.
The first discourse pronounced by the leader of the mission converted the king, with forty thousand of his followers. The princess Anula, with five hundred of her attendants, desired to enter the Order, but was told that the male missionaries had no power to ordain females, Who, however,_might be ordained by the princess Sanghamitrâ.
The king of Ceylon, after due deliberation, again dispatched his nephew to King Asoka, with instructions to bring back Sanghamitrâ and a branch of the sacred bo-tree. King Asoka, although grieving sorely at the separation from his beloved daughter, gave his consent to her deputation to Ceylon, and proceeded with much ceremony to sever a branch of the holy tree.
The severance was effected, signalized by many miracles, and the envoys, accompanied by Sanghamitrâ, were dispatched to the port of T-fimalipti, escorted by an army commanded by King Asoka in person.
'The vessel in which the bo-tree was embarked briskly dashed through the Water; and in the great ocean, through the circumference of a league, the waves were stilled; flowers of the five different colours blossomed around it, and various melodies of music rang in the air.' The holy branch, thus miraculously wafted to the shore of the island, was received with due honour, and was planted in the Mahâmegha garden, which the king had dedicated to the use of the Order. The branch threw off eight vigorous shoots, which were distributed and planted in as many localities.
In those days also the king of Ceylon built for Mahendra the Mahavihara, the first monastery of the island, and the construction of the Chetiyagiri (Mihintalé) monastery followed soon after.
The princess Anulâ, in company with five hundred virgins and five hundred women of the palace, was duly ordained as a nun by Sanghamitrâ, and straight-way attained the rank of Aralhat. The king erecteda nunnery for Sanghamitrâ, who there abode in peace, until she died in the fifty-ninth year after her ordination, that being the ninth year of the reign of the Ceylonese King Uttiya. Her brother Mahendra had passed away in the previous year, while observing the sixtieth 'retreat' since his ordination.
While King Asoka was engaged in the festivals connected with the dispatch of the branch of the bo-tree, another mission, headed by his grandson Suinana, arrived from Ceylon to_ beg for relics to be enshrined in the great stûpa by the island king. The request of this second mission also was granted by King Asoka, who bestowed upon his ally a dishful of holy relics, to which Sakra, lord of the Devas, added the right collar-bone of Buddha, extracted from the Chulâmani stûpa. The relics were received with extreme honour, and enshrined with due ceremony in the Thûarâtmâ stûpa, the moment being marked by a terrific earthquake. Witnessing this miracle, the people were converted in crowds, and the king's younger brother joined the Order, which in those days received an_ accession of thirty thousand monks.
THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD CHURCH COUNCIL[7]
When, as has been related, the heretics waxed great in numbers and wrought confusion in the Church, so that for seven years the rite of confession and other solemn rites remained in abeyance, King Asoka determined that the disorder should cease, and sent a minister to the Asokârâma to compel the monks to resume the services. The minister, having gone there, assembled the monks and proclaimed the royal commands. The holy men replied that they could not perform the services while the heretics remained. Thereupon the minister, exceeding his instructions, with his own hand smote off the heads of several of the contumaeious eeclesiastics as theysat in convocation. The kings brother Tishya interfered, and prevented further violence.
The king was profoundly horrified and greatly alarmed at the rash act of his minister, and sought absolution. In accordance with the advice of the clergy, the aged Tishya, son of Moggali, was summoned from his distant retreat, and conveyed by boat down the Ganges to the capital, where he was received by the king with extraordinary honour and reverence.
Asoka, desiring to test the supernatural powers of the saint, begged that a miracle might be performed, and specially requested that an earthquake confined to a limited space might be produced. The saint placed a chariot, a horse, a man, and a vessel filled with water, one on each side of a square space, exactly on the boundary lines, and produced an earthquake which caused the half of each object within the boundary line to quake, while the other half of each remained unshaken. Satisfied by this display of power, Asoka inquired if the sacrilegious murder of the priests by the minister must be accounted as the king's sin. The saint ruled that where there is no wilful intention, there is no sin, and, accordingly, absolved Asoka, whom be instructed fully in the truth.
The king commanded that all the priests in India, without exception, should be assembled, and taking his seat by the side "of his spiritual director, examined each priest individually as to his faith. The saint decided that the doctrine of the Vaibâdyavâdin school was the true primitive teaching of the master, and all dissenters were expelled, to the number of sixty thousand[8]. A thousand orthodox priests of holy character were then selected to form a convocation or Council. To these assembled priests, Tishya, son of Moggali, recited the treatise called Kathâvatthu in order to dissipate doubts on points of faith[9]. The Council, following the procedure of the First Council at Râagriha and the Second Council at Vaiszili, recited and verified the Whole body of the scriptures, and, after a session lasting nine months, dispersed. At the conclusion of the Council tl1e earth quaked, as if to say 'Well done,' beholding the re-establishment of religion. Tishya, the son of Moggali, was then seventy-two years of age.
THE STORY OF TISHYA, THE VICEGERENT
One day, Tishya, the younger brother of Asoka, and Vicegerent of the empire, happened to be in a forest, and watched a herd of elk at play. The thought occurred to him that when elks browsing in the forest divert themselves, there seems to be no good reason Why monks well lodged and well fed in monasteries should not amuse themselves. Coming home', 'the vieegerent told his thoughts to the king, who, in order to make him understand the reason why, conferred upon him the sovereignty for the space of seven 'days, saying, 'Prince, govern the empire for seven days, at the end of which I shall put thee to death.' At the close of the seventh day the king asked the prince:—'Why art thou grown so Wasted?' He replied, 'By reason of the horror of death.' The king rejoined, 'Child, thou hast eeased to amuse thyself, because thou thinkest that in seven days than wilt be put to death. These monks are meditating Without ceasing on death; how then can they engage in frivolous diversions?'[10]
The prince understood, and became a convert. Some time afterwards he was on a hunting expedition in the forest, when he saw the saint Mahâdharmarakshita, a man of perfect piety and freed from the bonds of sin, sitting under a tree, and being fanned with a branch by an elephant. The prince, beholding this sight, longed for the time when he might become even as that saint and dwell at peace in the forest. The saint, in order to incline the heart of the prince unto the faith, soared into the air and alighted on the surface of the water of the Asokârâma tank, wherein he bathed, while his robes remained poised in the air. The prince was so delighted with this miracle that he at once resolved to become a monk, and begged the king for permission to receive ordination.
The, king, being unwilling to thwart his pious desire, himself led the' prince to the monastery, where ordination was conferred by the saint Mahâdharma-rakshita. At the same time one hundred thousand other persons were ordained, and no man can tell the number of those who became monks by reason of the example set by the prince.
THE LAST DAYS OF ASOKA
The branch of the holy bo-tree, brought to Ceylon in the manner above related, was dispatched in the eighteenth year of the reign of Asoka the Pious, and planted in the Mahâmeghavana garden in Ceylon.
In the twelfth year after that event, Asandhimitrâ, the beloved queen of Asoka, who had shared his devotion to Buddhism, died. In the fourth year after her deeease, the king, prompted by sensual passion, raised the princess Tishyarakshitâ to the dignity of queen-consort. She was young and vain, and very sensible of her personal charms. The king's devotion to the boatree seemed to her to be a slight to her attractions, and in the fourth year after her elevation her jealousy induced her to make an attempt to destroy the holy tree by art magic. The attempt failed. In the fourth year after that event, King Asoka the Pious fulfilled the lot of mortality, having reigned thirty-seven years[11].
- ↑ The legends have been compiled by combining the narratives of the Dîpavaṁsa and the Mahâvaṁsa, both of which are derived from the traditions preserved at the Mahâvihâra monastery. Wijesinha's revision of Turnour's translation of the Mahâvaṁsa (Colombo, Government Record Office, 1889), and Geiger's version (1912) have been used. Their corrections of Turnour are material. For the Dîpavaṁsa, Oldenberg’s edition and translation have been used. The indexes to Turnour's Mahavâvaṁsa and Oldenberg's Dîpavaṁsa, and Still's Index to the Mahawansa (Colombo, 1907), make easy the verification of particular statements. For another summary of the legends see Hardy's Eastern Monachism.
- ↑ Turnour omits the Words the Nandas.' The Dipavariisa substitutes Susunâga for Kâlâsoka, makes Asoka to be the son of Susunâga and omits all mention of the nine Nanda brothers, and their reign of twenty-two years (Dip. v. 25, 97-99). These discrepancies prove the untrustworthiness of the chronicles.
- ↑ Not 'thirty-four years,' as given both by Turnonr and Wijesinha. The figure 34 is a copyist’s blunder; see commentary quoted by Turnour, p. iii (Rhys Davids, Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 41, note).
- ↑ Turnour's text reads 'Chetiyagiri.'
- ↑ This date is given by the Dîpavaṁsa, vi. 20, 21.
- ↑ The allusion seems to be to the splendid buildings at Sânchî, about five miles south-west from Besnagar.
- ↑ See especially Dîpavaṁsa, i.,25; v. 55; vii. 37, 41, 56-59. The dates do not seem all to agree, but the intention evidently is to place the Third Council in 236, and the Second Council in 118 Anno Buddhae, the two intervals of [[8 years being exactly equal. One or the Chinese dates for Asoka is 118 a. b. (I-tsing, ed. Ta-kakusu, p. 14).
- ↑ Mahâvaṁsa, ch. v. The classifications of the Buddhist schools vary much. I-tsing (pp. xxiii, 7) says that all Ceylon belonged to the Ârya-stharira nikâya, which had three subdivisions. Tibetan authorities (Rockhill, pp. 187 seqq.) make two main divisions of Buddhists, Stharira, (ii) Mahâisanghika. The Sarvâstivâdin school was a subdivision of the Sthavira, and the Vaibdâdyarâdin was a sect of the Sarvâstivâdin. The Vaibâdyavâdin sect again was subdivided into four sections, Mahîśâka,Dharmaguptakapp, Tanmaśatiya, and Kâśyapiya. This explains how Fa-hien was able to obtain in Ceylon a copy of the Vinaya according to the Mahîśâka school (ch. xl).The legends have probably been much influenced by sectarian bias.
- ↑ Turnour's translation is corrected by Wijesinha.
- ↑ Compare the legend of Mahendra. in chapter vii, post.
- ↑ Compare the legend of the 'Dotage of Asoka' in chapter vii,post. According to the Tibetan tradition, Asoka reigned for fifty—four years (Rockhill, p. 2 33).