Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
self-realisation on his own part. It is also possible that the experience of actual bloodshed on a large scale, merely to gratify his ambition and to enrich the kingdom, served to crystallize into conviction the impressions that had been slowly forming in his mind.
Strange enough, however, no literature-Buddhist, Jaina or Brahmanic, and also no epigraphs other than those of Asoka himself, refer to this deadly war and subsequent annexation of Kalinga to the Magadhan Empire. The Pali Chronicles ascribe the conversion of Asoka to the Faith of the Buddha to a gifted novice of seven years of age by name Nyagrodha,' who was his nephew, viz., son of Asoka's elder brother Sumana. Another person credited with the conversion is the Venerable Samudra. The date of Kalinga-vijaya and the conversion of Aśoka to Buddhism is, curiously enough, confirmed by a passage in the Mahāvāṁsa referring to the above novice." But if we take Asoka at his own words, neither coercion nor temptation was a factor in his conversion. It was, rather, the profound reflection on the after-effects of the aggressive war waged against the Kalinga country, which served to produce in him an ardent desire (Dham mavāye), intense longing (Dhammakāmatā) and also imparting of instructions in the Law of Piety (Dhammānusathi). He felt remorse for the violence, death, separation and sufferings caused to the people of Kalinga. But the matter of deeper regret was that the cause of society, culture and civilization greatly suffered thereby. By these reflections, Asoka perceived the truth and came to certain conclusions as to what should
1. Cf. Tradition in the Buddhist literature that Asoka was converted to Buddhism by the venerable monk Upagupta shortly after the Kalinga war-AIU., Ch. V, p. 74.
2. Malalsekera, DPPN, I, p. 217; Barua, Asoka, I, pp. 19.34. 3. V, 37-38; Qtd. Mookerji, Asoka, p. 18 fn.