325 BC - KING ASOKA
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Words from the golden lip of Emperor Asoka 325 B.C
"May the Dhamma Last as Long as my Sons and Grandsons and the Sun and the Moon will be, and may the people follow the path of the Dhamma, for if one follows the Path, happiness in this and in the Other World will be attained"
Sashu! Sadhu! Sadhu!Asoka went through a 4 year war of succession after his father's death before recieving the throne. Then, he started conquering new lands. The turning point came during the war of Kalinga which killed thousands of people. With feelings of regret, he became a Buddhist convert. Asoka tried to convert people to Buddhism, as he had done, by leaving messages on rocks in the cities, but didn't force conversion onto anyone.
Bindusara was succeeded by his son Asoka, the best known of the Maurya emperors (see Asoka). He came to the throne in about 274 and remained in power for 42 years. More is known about Asoka's reign because of the many edicts he issued. These were often carved on rocks or pillars in public places. The empire was divided into four provinces, and at the head of each was placed a prince of the royal family. The provinces were subdivided into districts, and these in turn were divided into smaller units. The basic unit of administration was the village. Society was divided into seven castes: philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans, magistrates, and councillors. The philosophers included monks, priests, and teachers. The farmers, herdsmen, and artisans paid taxes to support the empire.
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Post from AEN
KING ASOKA TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF
Adapted from the book “Buddhist Tales 1” based on the Buddhist sutras
Publisher: Jen Chen Buddhist Book Publisher.
Author: Shih Ta-Lien.
One hundred years after BuddhaÂ’s Nirvana (liberation from Birth and Death), there appeared a great King in India by the name of Asoka.
Asoka means worriless; therefore he was known as both King Asoka and Worriless King. In his childhood, he was much disliked by his father for his fiery temper. After the old King died, there came distressing fights for the throne among these princes. In the end Prince Asoka succeeded the throne, and only one of his younger brothers, Tisya, survived from this Cain and AbelÂ’s fight.
In his initial years as a king, King Asoka was very arrogant and pitiless. He destroyed temples, banished Sanghas (Buddhist monastic community), slandered Buddha and treated his rivals cruelly. In addition, he took the evil GirikaÂ’s idea to build a huge prison filled with all sorts of inhumane instruments like the dreadful Avici Hell of the underworld. There were many different hellish rooms within the Inhumane Hell. These rooms were fully equipped with knives, iron-hammers to smash criminalsÂ’ bodies to pieces; iron-hooks to pull out the criminalsÂ’ tongues; iron-chains to circle round criminalsÂ’ necks; molten steel to pour into criminalsÂ’ mouths; burning flames and boiling oil to burn criminals to ashes; pits of urine and manure to drown criminals; iron-swords and the iron-forks to pierce through the criminalsÂ’ bodies as well as many other kinds of instruments of torture.