Ashoka as a Buddhist

Ashoka, the great Mauryan Emperor, became a Buddhist eight years after his coronation, that is a year after his conquest of Kalinga. According to Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamasa (Great Chronicle), Ashoka was converted to Buddhism by Nigrodha, a boy monk who was just seven years old, and afterwards he came into contact with Moggaliputa Tissa who presided over the third Buddhist Council called by Ashoka in his capital Patliputra (modern Patna, the capital of Bihar). 

After the third Buddhist Council Ashoka sent Buddhist mission to several parts of India and to Sri Lanka where he sent Mahendra his son, or in some sources his brother, and daughter Sanghamitra for the spread of Buddhism. The conversion of Sri Lanka into Buddhism is unanimously ascribed to Mahendra. 

When Ashoka embraced conversion to Buddhism the other members of his family also followed suit. According to the Buddhist sources, Ashoka’s brother Tissa, his son, daughter and queen Karuvaki also became converts to Buddhism. The famous Queen’s (Minor/pillar) edict in Allahabad refres to the sacred donations made to the Buddhist Sangha (the Buddhist order) by his second queen Karuvaki. 

Ashok’a relation with the Buddhist Sangha was that of a royal patron and in this context he tried to rigidly enforce the unity of the Buddhist Sangha. In his minor Rock Edicts he repeatedly warns that “whosoever, monk or nun, breaks up the Sangha, after being clothed in white garments shall be expelled out of the Sangha.” After his conversion to Buddhism, he went on pilgrimages to various Buddhist scared places and built several stupas and viharas.

Early Life of Ashoka

We have to rely on the traditional accounts to know the early life of Ashoka, the greatest of the Indian kings. According to Buddhist accounts his mother was Janapada Kalyani or Subhadrangi. As a prince he served as a Viceroy of Ujjaini and Taxila. During his Viceroyalty he fell in love with the daughter of a merchant of Bidisha, referred to as Devi or Vedisa Mahadevi, whom he married. 

Ashoka’s two other well-known queens were Karuvaki and Asandhimitra. The second queen, Karuvaki is mentioned in the Queen’s Edict inscribed on a pillar at Allahabad, in which her religious and charitable donations are referred to. She is described as the mother of Prince Tivara, the only son of Ashoka to be mentioned by name in edicts and inscriptions erected by the Great Mauryan Emperor throughout the kingdom. 

According to the Sri Lankan Buddhist chronicle Mahavamsa, Ashoka usurped the throne by killing 99 of his brothers. Only the youngest brother named Tishya was spared.

Early Life of Ashoka

We have to rely on the traditional accounts to know the early life of Ashoka, the greatest of the Indian kings. According to Buddhist accounts his mother was Janapada Kalyani or Subhadrangi. As a prince he served as a Viceroy of Ujjaini and Taxila. During his Viceroyalty he fell in love with the daughter of a merchant of Bidisha, referred to as Devi or Vedisa Mahadevi, whom he married.

Ashoka’s two other well-known queens were Karuvaki and Asandhimitra. The second queen, Karuvaki is mentioned in the Queen’s Edict inscribed on a pillar at Allahabad, in which her religious and charitable donations are referred to. She is described as the mother of Prince Tivara, the only son of Ashoa to be mentioned by name in inscriptions.

Cheras of the Sangam Age

Cheras were one of the three famous ruling kingdoms of the Snagam Age. The rulers of these kingdoms ruled over parts of Kerala and Tamilham. Cholas and Pandyas were the other two ruling dynasties. The Tamil anthology Padirruppattu is exclusively devoted to the Chera monarchs.  

The first famous king of the Chera dynasty was Udiyanjeral (c. AD 130). He was given the titles of Vanavaramban and Perunjoram Udiyan by the poet Mudinagarayar in Puram literature. A generous ruler, he is said to have maintained a large kitchen from where he freely distributed food to the people. He was succeeded to the throne by his son Imayavaramaban Nedunjeral Adan (c. AD 155) who defeated the ruler of the Kadambas and destroyed his guardian tree. In another work, he is also credited to have captured several Yavanas, who were released only when the ruler received a heavy ransom in the form of diamonds and may utensils of fine workmanship. These Yavanas are identified with the Greek sailors. It is not known why these sailors bore the burnt of the Chera ruler. The  capital of Nedunjeral Adan was Marandai. He lost his life while fighting a war with the contemporary Chola king who also died. Their wives of both the kings performed sati. 

But the greatest of the early Chera kings was Pirakotiya Senguttuvan, also known as Red Chera, who was a contemporary of the poet Paranar, one of the most famous and long-lived poets of the Sangam Period. Paranar credits Senaguttuvan with a number of conquests. He also made a campaign to North India to get a Himalayan stone to make an idol of Goddess Kannagi (the Goddess of Chastity). According to early Tamil epic Silappadikaram, the ruler was the founder of the famous Pattini cult related to the worship of the Goddess of Chastity, which after became common in South India and Lanka.

Senguttuvan was succeeded by his half-brother Perunjeral (or Perumcheral) Adan (c.180), who was a contemporary of the great Chola monarch Karikala. We learn from the poems Puram and Aham that while fighting against the Choals in the Battle of Venni, Perunjeral Adan received a wound in the back and expiated by starving himself to death on the battlefield with his sword in hand. We learn that many eminent men gave up their lives when they came to know the Chera ruler’s demise and the reason for it. 

Kanaikkal Irumporai was another important Chera ruler who was defeated by Chola monarch Senganan in the battle of Por. The Chera king was thrown into prison where he refused to drink water which he asked and was brought to him after a deliberate delay and he fasted unto death. 

The later Chera kings were constantly at war with the Cholas. The decline of the Chera dynasty began at the beginning of the third century AD. 

The Cheras did a brisk trade with the Tamil ports. The celebrated Chera port Muziris was a great centre of Indo-Roman trade.

Last years of Akbar, the Greatest Mughal Emperor

The last days of the Mughal Emperor Akbar proved to be unhappy due to rebellion of his son Salim, who succeed him under the title of Jahangir. The death of his friend and poet Faizi in 1595 saddened Akbar. Salim was eager to ascend the throne and even entered into intrigues with Portuguese to achieve his end. He even hurt Akbar by commissioning the murder Abul Fazal (brother of Faizi), author of Akbarnama, by Vir singh Bundela. The Mughal court became divided into two factions, one favouring the succession of Salim while the other, led by Raja Man Singh, plotted to secure succession of Salim’s son Khusrav. In fact, Khusrav was also Akbar’s choice. However, before his death Akbar pardoned Salim and nominated him as his successor. Akbar died of diarrhoea on 17th October in 1605.

The Chandellas of Jejakabhukti or Bundelkhand

During the 10th and 11th century AD the territory of Jejakabhukti or modern Bundelkhand was ruled by the Rajput rulers of the Chandella dynasty under whom a great school of architecture flourished. The finest specimen of the architecture is a group of temples at Khajuraho in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Khajuraho temples have been declared World Heritage site by UNESCO. Three most important cities in the Chandella dominions were Khajuraho (Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh), Kalinjar (Banda district in Uttar Pradesh) and Mahotsavanagar (Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh). About these cities eminent historian Vincent Smith remarks, “The first-named town with is magnificent temples may be regarded as the religious, the second with its strong fortress as the military and the third with its palace as the civil capital.” 

                                                Khajuraho Temple / Image source

The Chandellas are believed to have been a clan of aboriginal chiefs related to the Gonds or Bhars and later graduated to the rank of Kshatriyas. The name of their kingdom Jejakabhukti was named after the one of the early Chandella rulers known as Jeja or Jejjaka. 

The Chandella were once the feudatories of the Partiharas of Kanauj. In fact, their chief Harshadeva (c 900-25) had helped Mahipala in regaining his kingdom. Yashovarman, son of Harshadeva, threw off the allegiance. However, the Chandellas became independent formally of the Partihara Empire under Dhanga, son and successor of Yashovarman. In AD 990 when Jayapala, the Shahi king of Udabhanda (present day Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan) invited important northern states to help him in repelling the aggression of Subuktigin, Dhanga along with other Hindu rulers promptly responded with men and money and shared the disaster suffered by the coalition army. 

Dhanga was succeeded by his son Ganda, who also joined the confederate army formed by Shahi king Anandapala (son of Jayapala) in A. D. 1008 to repel the invasion of Mahmud Ghazni (son-in - law of Subuktigin). Ganda was succeeded by his son Vidyadhara, who was the greatest ruler of the Chandella dynasty. He attacked and killed the Pratihara ruler Rajyapala in A. D. 1019 for having submitted to Mahmud Ghazni. However in 1023, when Mahmud Ghazni attacked Kalinjara, Vidyadhara was unable to defend Chandella dominions. After him, the power of the Chandellas declined. 

There was a revival of the fortunes under Kirtivarman who successfully resisted an invasion of the Chandella territory by a Ghazanvid army in A. D. 1090. Kirtivarman was the patron of famous poet Krishna Misra. Among later Chandella rulers, Madanavarman (c.1129-63) and Parmardi or Parmal (c1165-1203) were the most important kings. Madanavarman defeated the Parmara ruler of Dhara, the Chedi king of Tripuri and the Gahadavala king Vijayachandra. But during the reign of Parmardi, the Chandella power began to decline. He was defeated in 1182-83 by Prithviraj III, the Chauhan king of Ajmer and Dlehi. Mahoba came under the control of the Chauhan rulers. Subsequently in 1203, he suffered comprehensive defeat at the hands of Qutb-ud-din Aibak (the first Muslim ruler of India) during the latter’s invasion of the Kalinjar. Parmardi was killed and Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied Mahoba. 

A. L. Bhasham writes, “The conservative kings of India had learnt no lessons from Mahmud’s raids. They were still incapable of serious co-operation, and their enormous armies were slow and unwieldy. At the end of the twelfth century, the three chief kings of northern India - Prithviraj of Chauhan dynasty, Jayachandra Gahadavala and Parmardi of Chandella dynasty- were in a state of tripartite war.”

Life of the Buddha

Buddha Statue-Bodhgaya

The Buddha ( the enlightened or Awakened), also known as Sakyamuni or Thathagata, was born in 563 B. C. on the Vaihsakha Purnima day in the royal grove at Lumbini, near Kapilavastu, capital of the Sakyan republic, where his father Suddhodana was at the time ruling.

At birth the Buddha stood upright, took seven strides, and spoke: “This is my last birth-henceforth there is no more birth for me.” His mother, Mahamaya, died seven days after the birth. So the child, named Siddhartha, was brought up by his stepmother Gautami. Gautama as a child led a sheltered life and was given every kind of luxury. He was married at the age of 16 to Yasodhara, his cousin and the beautiful daughter of a neighboring chieftain whom he won at a contest where he defeated all the contenders including his envious cousin Devadatta. Gautama enjoyed family life for thirteen years and had a son Rahula.

Since one of the soothsayers had prophesied that Siddhartha is destined to be a Universal teacher, his father Suddhodana made every effort to keep Siddhartha virtually a prisoner in the palace. However, Siddhartha got out by stealth. The four signs he saw outside made a deep impression on him. He is said to have seen an aged man, completely decrepit and ugly and then a sick man who was covered with boils and shivering. Thirdly he saw a corpse; being carried to the cremation ground: all of which deeply depressed him because they showed that there is nothing but sorrow and suffering in the world and death comes to all of us, Finally he saw a religious beggar, clad in a simple yellow robe, an ascetic who devoted himself to religion. This man looked to be quite composed and serene and was inwardly joyful. This sort of life appealed to him. And therefore, he left his palace at night at the age of 29, to seek mental peace in the homeless life of an ascetic. Before leaving the palace, the Buddha went to the room of his son Rahul where his wife Yasodhara was sleeping with one of his hands on the head of the child. He silently left the palace since he feared that her awakening will prove to be an obstacle to his going away. This event is known as “Great Going Forth” (Mahabhiniskramana) in the Buddhist phraseology.

For full six years Gautama sought the solution to the world’s ills. He learnt the technique of ecstatic mediation (samapatti) from Alara Kalama. During the period, he searched, scrutinized and examined in detail the prevalent schools of thought. Ultimately, one fine morning of Vaisakha Purnima at the age of 35, he attained Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya under the bodhi tree (Tree of Wisdom) in Bihar.

The Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath (Isipatana) near Varanasi before the five ascetics who had been earlier his colleagues. Thereafter for forty five years the Buddha went about the country, from town to town, from village to village, disseminating spiritual illumination for the benefit of the suffering of humanity. He attained the final blowing out (mahaparinirvana) at Kushinara in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh) in 483 BC at the age of 80. The last words of the Buddha were: “All composite things decay. Strive diligently!”