Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King

Description

An illuminating biography reconstructing the life and legacy of a unique king in world history and the most famous emperor in South Asian history There are few historical figures more integral to South Asian history than Emperor Ashoka, a third-century BCE king who ruled over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent than anyone else before British colonial rule. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vastly heterogeneous empire not by a cult of personality but by the cult of an idea—“dharma”—which served as the linchpin of a new moral order. He aspired to forge a new moral philosophy that would be internalized not only by the people of his empire but also by rulers and subjects of other countries, and would form the foundation for his theory of international relations, in which practicing dharma would bring international conflicts to an end. His fame spread far and wide both in India and in other parts of Asia, and it prompted diverse reimaginations of the king and his significance. In this deeply researched book, Patrick Olivelle draws on Ashoka’s inscriptions and on the art and architecture he pioneered to craft a detailed picture of Ashoka as a ruler, a Buddhist, a moral philosopher, and an ecumenist who governed a vast multiethnic, multilinguistic, and multireligious empire. Title Page Dedication Table of Contents Abbreviations Series Editor’s Foreword Preface Prologue The Many Ashokas Ashoka by Any Other Name Part One Rājā: Ashoka the King 1. Maurya 2. Ruler Territory and Population Governance The Imagined Community Diplomacy Society 3. Writer 4. Builder Part Two Upāsaka: Ashoka the Buddhist 5. Deepening the Faith Becoming a Buddhist Going on Pilgrimage 6. Exhorting the Sangha Instructing the Sangha Admonishing the Sangha 7. Spreading the Faith Ashoka’s Buddhism Part Three Dharma: Ashoka the Moral Philosopher 8. Pivoting to Dharma Dharma before Ashoka 9. Dharma as Moral Philosophy Ahimsa as Dharma Ashoka’s Dharma Gleaning from Silence 10. Preaching Dharma Audience for Dharma: Gender and Class Writing to Promote Dharma Governance and Diplomacy in the Service of Dharma Exemplar of Dharma Part Four Pāṣaṇḍa: Ashoka the Ecumenist 11. Religious Diversity Ashoka and Pasandas Ashoka and Popular Religion 12. Ecumenism 13. Civil Religion Epilogue: Ashoka’s Legacy and the Unravelling of the Ashokan Experiment Appendix: Ashoka’s Inscriptional Corpus Glossary Bibliography Index About the Book About the Author Copyright