One of you listeners specifically requested we do an episode on Ashoka. So here we are!
In this show, we mostly talk about mythology, legends and folktales, and sometimes real history. Today’s episode is firmly in the history category. Though you could also argue that Ashoka was a legend. Regardless, as the reservoir of all human knowledge of the past, you can trust that what I’m about to relate is as close to a ringside seating as you can expect.
Sometimes I just wish my powers of recollection were as perfect as everything else about me.
Now, where was I? Oh yes, what follows is close to an eyewitness account I could manage. I had to travel through time a few times to get things reasonably right. I just hope I didn’t mess anything up on those time-traveling trips. Like if I accidentally made the rainbow-colored bunnies extinct or something. That would be a terrible loss for the world.
We’ll start today’s episode, not with Ashoka but his father, Bindusara. You might have expected us to start with Ashoka’s grandfather – Chandragupta Maurya who was also the founder of the dynasty. But it’ll be best to reserve Chandragupta’s story and that of his famous advisor Chanakya for a future episode. Bindusara was Chandragupta’s son and took to the throne at the early age of 22 when Chandragupta discovered the virtues of Jain and retired into a secluded life.
Bindusara, despite his inexperience, did a fairly decent job expanding the huge Empire he inherited from Chandragupta. But much of the credit for that goes to Chanakya who continued to serve as Prime Minister.
It was in Champapuri, a small town in this huge empire, that there lived a girl, Subhadrangi.
She is described as extremely beautiful in a way that clearly is not talking about inner beauty. When she was a reasonable age, her father did what was expected of any father in those days. He consulted a fortune-teller or career counselors as they preferred to be called.
The very first fortune teller predicted that she would marry a King. And that her son would be King.
“Duh!” said Subhadrangi. “If my husband is a King, it’s only logical that my son will be King too”
“Not necessarily,” said the fortune-teller. Sorry, career counselor. “Most Kings have lots of wives and lots of sons. Usually only one of them succeeds to the throne”
“To that throne, yes. But most of the sons are given small provinces of their own to play with still within the father’s Empire. They call themselves Kings but they’re really governors”
“Anyway, I have a better one. Your other son will become a religious guy”
“It’s ancient India, everyone is religious!”
“No, I meant he’ll become a really religious guy. Like a priest, or a monk or something”
Subhadrangi’s family was excited by the prospect of her marrying a King. She certainly looked the part from their perspective. They decided to hurry matters along by taking her to the Emperor in nearby Pataliputra. Why not go straight to the top instead of starting at a low-key or mid-level King?
Bindusara received them and heard them on his court day. The Emperor made a quick mental classification.
And on every court day, he would get his share of Charmers, Confidence tricksters, Crackpots, and Cold callers. Bindusara decided Subhadrangi’s family seemed to check all of the boxes if they were really expecting him to marry her.
Chanakya had taught him he needed to be decisive. “Do, Delegate or Dump” but don’t delay.
He thanked the family and offered her a position in the palace which she accepted.
Satisfied with the outcome, Subhadrangi’s parents returned to Champa. They had seen the look in the Emperor’s eyes when he looked at their daughter. Love would blossom there in time.
When one of Bindusara’s Queens who also was the head of employment services in the palace took one look at Subhadrangi, she decided the girl was so beautiful she was going to be a major risk. She decided Subhadrangi could not be allowed to get up close and personal with the Emperor. So she offered Subhadrangi the position of the Emperor’s barber.
You might be puzzled at why Subhadrangi would be put in such close proximity with the Emperor if the goal was to keep them apart. So let me explain. Yes, it was true back then, just as it is now, that some people spill their deepest, innermost secrets to their barbers.
And yet, there was one major barrier that the Queen was relying on. The Class barrier. A Barber belonged to the worker class and rules strictly forbade anything more than a casual acquaintanceship with the ruling class.
That was her intention but it backfired pretty quickly when the Emperor, impressed by Subhadrangi’s skill at shaving and learning of her birth decided to make her his Queen after all. The loophole he was exploiting was based on the fact that in Ancient India your class was decided by birth and not by what you did. A warrior could start doing construction work and laying bricks, but they would remain a warrior.
“It was a prophecy. It’s not like I have a choice. I have to marry her.” He lied to his Queen who was rather upset when he announced the news.
“This is the 16th one in 2 years” replied the Queen. “You carry on like this and you’ll have major problems to deal with when you want to retire”.
She was not wrong. In time Ashoka and Vitashoka were born to Subhadrangi. But another 99 sons were born across all the queens Bindusara had.
Bindusara had long pondered over how he would solve this problem. Imagine how Akbar would have felt without Birbal or Bertie Wooster without Jeeves. That’s how Binduara was feeling without Chanakya by his side. The Emperor decided he needed to do what Subhadrangi’s father had done. He had a career counselor brought over. And the fortune teller was pretty sure that Ashoka would make it to the throne.
Bindusara was not happy. “Ashoka? He’s the ugliest of the lot,” said the Emperor. “I know it shouldn’t matter. But can you imagine Ashoka’s face on all our currency?”
“I don’t get it with you narcissistic Emperors” replied the fortune-teller. “And why do you want his face on your currency anyway? Just put a symbol. Like maybe a fierce apex predator that strikes fear in our enemies and will give our citizens more courage”
“I know what to do. I’m going to throw the boy to the wolves. There’s a revolt in Takshashila. I’ll send Ashoka to deal with it. If he can’t deal with it, he’ll probably be killed. If he does deal with it, it must mean he’s capable. Either way, it’s a win-win for me” said the Emperor.
Well, he was right but not exactly. Because Ashoka gladly accepted the task. Even though Bindusara did not provide him adequate weapons or soldiers.
But Ashoka managed to deal with the revolt. Because he got lucky. All there had been was a misunderstanding. And when he reached there, he found the red carpet laid out for him and everything ready at the negotiating table. It turned out Takshashila citizens were rather happy with the Emperor. It was the governor they could not stand.
This was just a game of Telephone gone horribly wrong. But this was to Ashoka’s advantage.
He came back with a signed treaty all in exchange for a simple transfer order. The governor of Takshashila who was so unpopular was now no longer the governor. He had been encouraged to take up a Voluntary Retirement Scheme.
Impressed by his achievement but still unable to come to terms with Ashoka’s appearance, Bindusara decided to make him governor of Ujjain. Anything to keep him out of sight he thought.
Ashoka was not the crown prince. That honor instead was given to Susima, the eldest of Bindusara’s sons. That may not have been a wise decision. Susima was not a very people person, and certainly lacked a certain kind of maturity that prevented you from slapping your dad’s minister’s bald head. Well, the minister did not forget that as a playful incident especially as Susima was decades past the toddler age. He rallied other ministers to his cause and they decided Ashoka was a much better choice than Susima.
Soon another revolt broke out in Takshashila and Bindusara this time asked Susima to deal with it. Susima made a hash of it. No doubt, he went about slapping all the bald heads at the negotiating table that the Takshashila citizens had graciously welcomed him with.
Hearing through the same distorted Telephone line from Takshashila about a vastly amplified pessimistic outlook of the negotiations, Bindusara decided it was time to pull in Ashoka.
Bindusara, who was in poor health by this time, decided to recall Susima and let Ashoka deal with this. Maybe this time he would fail, just like Bindusara had always wanted.
Meanwhile, the minister, his bald head still remembering Sushima’s ignominious slap, thought this was the right opportunity to convince Bindusara to put Ashoka on the throne instead.
That did not work very well. But Ashoka did not go to Takshashila. And when Bindusara passed away shortly afterward, Ashoka declared himself Emperor. He had the support of the ministers and that helped him in his struggle for the throne against all his brothers. In what was a very dark time for the family, Ashoka emerged as the victor. Those who did not join him were destroyed. The fratricide count estimates vary from as low as 6 to as high as 99.
When he took over as Emperor, Ashoka finally saw the map of India and all the portions that he had inherited. Everything on the map that the light touched was his! Except one. “What’s that shadowy place?” He asked
“Why that’s Kalinga,” said his minister. “We don’t deal with them. We leave them alone”
“But I want to collect the whole set. Why let them be separate? I want to be emperor of all of India”
“Even if you got Kalinga, you wouldn’t be. There’s still the very southern tip of India, the Pandyas, Cholas, Cheras and then there’s Sri Lanka”.
“We’ll start with Kalinga and work our way south,” said the Emperor and ordered his troops to march on the Kingdom.
It took a while but Kalinga was defeated. But at too great a cost. Ashoka had not been on the front lines before and when he visited the scene, he was disgusted. The scene at the battlefield managed to shake him in a way that slaying his own brothers had not.
A hundred thousand soldiers lying dead in the goriest way possible. Women and children grieving for their husbands, their fathers, their brothers, their sons. And he had caused it all. Just to make his map look a little prettier. What his Queen Asandhimitra had been saying all along was starting to make sense to him now about the Buddhist teachings, the value of life, Karma.
No more conquests he thought. That did not mean he dismantled the army. That would have been foolish and an invitation for invaders. He did keep the army well-funded but for defense only. He did keep his very infamous torture prison going as well. But because he was starting to value life, he just didn’t want to hear any more details of it. He had decided to be peaceful but peaceful on his own terms. His situation was not unlike some recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize who have done some things that completely challenge the idea that they had peaceful intentions in the first place.
The stories vary as to his actual conversion to Buddhism. If the Kalinga war was not fully responsible for his switch to Buddhism, it took him to the edge. What pushed him over it was a conversation he had with a young boy. He passed the boy on the road one day and was struck by how calm he looked. The boy had a certain aura.
He stopped the boy and asked him who he was. The boy introduced himself as his nephew. Yes, I’m Nigrodha, one of the sons of your 99 brothers. Never mind which one. We haven’t named them in the episode. It’ll just be another name easy to forget.
But unfortunately for Ashoka, he had made the connection already in his mind. The boy looked remarkably like brother number 37, the one whom he killed by the poolside after dinner.
“Aren’t you angry with me? Don’t you want revenge? Or something?” the Emperor asked the boy cautiously.
“No. Do you think this is a Bollywood movie? I don’t want revenge. If you think that I might, you haven’t grasped the idea of Buddhism”
“So teach me,” said the Emperor of India to this 12-year-old boy
And the boy did. And what’s more, he directed him to a Buddhist monastery where Ashoka learned more.
The Emperor never stopped being Emperor, but he tried to learn as much as he could.
His son and daughter both converted to Buddhism and left home to spread the Buddha’s teachings in Sri Lanka.
Ashoka in his old age was fervently trying to do more. He was already donating large portions of taxpayer money to Buddhist monasteries. His ministers did not like the idea of him bankrupting the state like this. Even though they could have just minted more money.
Ashoka continued to donate his personal wealth until his ministers cut off his access to that too.
Ultimately when Ashoka lay on his deathbed, he died penniless. He had only half an amla left. And that too he donated to the monastery
That’s all for now
Some notes on Ashoka
Ashoka was one of the greatest emperors of India. If not the greatest.
Despite his very violent rule in the beginning he’s most famous for having switched to peaceful ways. He helped spread Buddhism throughout the country, as well as in Sri Lanka.
He championed the creation of thousands of Pillars all over the country and helped spread the Buddha’s teachings. Yeah, the pillars performed the same function as books do in today’s world. Or podcasts for that matter.
The pillars are themselves a fine work of art. At the top of the most famous pillar is a sculpture of 4 lions. This is the one you’ll find on all Indian currency notes and most coins.
Under the lions’ feet is the Ashoka Chakra, a navy blue wheel with 24 spokes that represent 12 stages of suffering in forward and reverse. This one’s on the Indian national flag.
Check out some pictures of Ashoka’s symbols:
Postage stamps!
A replica of the Ashoka pillar in Thailand
The original version
The Ashoka Chakra on the flag
Some more info: http://teachindiaproject.org/The_national_emblem_and_Ashoka_Chakra.htm
Now, Ashoka could have switched to Jainism, like his grandfather did, which also similarly preaches non-violence. But he chose Buddhism probably because Buddhist spiritual teachers were available to him.
There are many sources of Ashoka’s stories. And they all are inconsistent. Some of them make him out to be a particularly evil guy, probably to make his subsequent conversion to Buddhism all the more impressive.
Bindusara had a hundred sons as well. Just like Dhritarashtra and Gandhari in the Mahabharata. Though in both cases, it’s unlikely there were exactly a hundred sons. I mean the many times I visited Hastinapur, I tried counting but I don’t think I saw an exact hundred. The word was likely just a substitute for “several”. Either way, the situation with a hundred or several sons was very different. In the Mahabharata case, all but one of those sons was united in their choice of Duryodhan as their nominee for the throne. In Ashoka’s case though, he had to fight his brothers for the throne. Maybe they had learned from the Mahabharata. Or maybe when there is no external competition to the throne all the infighting begins.
Ashoka was also Character of the Week in Episode 27 – The Rise of Shukra. Back when we used to do Character of the Week features on the show.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll do a Vikram and Betaal story. Some of you have asked for one, so we’ll see the Betaal present yet another lateral thinking puzzle. Will we finally see Vikram stumped? Find out next week.