Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 179

SEPTEMBER, 1933)
PROCLAMATION OF ASOKA AS A BUDDHIST
167
PROCLAMATION OF ASOKA AS A BUDDHIST, AND HIS JAMBUDVIPA.
BY K. P. JAYASWAL, M.A. (Oxon.), BAR--AT-Law.
(a) Explanation of the phrase "gods made mingled with men.' THE Rūpnåth Series Proclamation (Hultzsch, pp. 166, 228), miscalled 'Minor Inscriptions,' is the most important proclamation of the emperor. In this he issues his proclamation as an open Buddhist' (praksa Sake; Maski-Budha Sake). He has no more hesitation in openly owning his religion which formerly the traditional constitutional position of the Hindu monarch prevented him from owning. He had preached the positivism of the Buddha's system, calling it his own, but now his conscience was moved to make a public declaration ; and this declaration he couples with the result of his positive propaganda, summed up in one sentence :
“Those gods who during that time [i.e., his pre-conversion tirae) had been un. mingled (with men) in Jambudvípa have now been made (by me) mingled (with them)."
(Hultzsch, p. 168.) Hultzsch calls this enigmatical, and seeks to explain it by reference to Rock Proclamation IV, where the king mentions his shows of divine scenes (divyani rúpáni-Girnar). Prof.F.W. Thomas (C.H.I., i. 505) takes it to signify that the king " brought the Brahman gods to the knowledge of those people in India, i.e., the wild tribes, who had formerly known nothing of them."
The meaning is, as we shall presently see, something different. The sentence is a masterpiece of epigrammatic statement, disclosing the great literary power of the emperor and at the same time intimate acquaintance with the traditional lore of the orthodox Hindu system. Asoka turned back, surveying in the simharaloka fashion, and saying to his orthodox countrymen, I, your king, have brought about the treta-yuga in Jambudvi pa.' His sentence puts in a summary form the Puranic description of the Golden Age of morality :
Cf.
Saptarshayo Manus chaiva adau manvantarasya ha, prárambhante cha karmmani manushya daivataih saha
-Váyu, i. 61. 164. Men acting with the Devas (manushya daivataih saha) initiate an order of perfect Dharma :
Manvantaradau prägeva tretäyuga-mukhe tatah púrvan devds tatas te vai
sthite dharme tu sarvasah || (165). The same orthodox Hindu tradition is to be found in the Dharma-sútra of Åpastamba (2. 7. 16): saha deva-manushya asmil-loke pura babhivuh. In other words, Asoka points out that he has brought about a new epoch, the ideal epoch. This was obtained through his approaching the Buddhist Samgha and by his own prowess' or 'exertion' (parakrama).
And this revolution was brought about not only in India but over a larger area, Jambudvipa, which obviously included the countries of some of bis non-Indian international neighbours and the countries which had not the privilege of receiving his envoys, where his dharmanusasti, dharma-vutan, and his vidhana or dharma-vidhana were being followed, and which had become subject to that form of his conquest which alone gave the emperor pleasure and satisfaction, i.e., his Conquest of Dharma (Rock P. XIII). The Jambudvipa of Asoka thus meant an area larger than India, and it certainly included his own people on the Oxus.
2 Jayaswal, Hindu Polity, ii. 45. He was bound by his coronation oath to protect the orthodox traditional religion. 2 Tretdyuga was essentially an imperial period :
serat fra TH Thart: 1 MB., Bioma, X. 11.