Ashoka Asoca Asoka : (ruled c.273 to c.232 BC). The successor of Chandragupta Maurya was his son Bindusāra Amitraghāta (destroyer of enemies). Tradition credits him with the suppression of a revolt in Takshashilā. His empire must have embraced not only the greater part of Northern India but also a considerable portion of South India. In foreign affairs he maintained the friendly relations with the Hellenic West established by his father. He was eager to secure the services of a Greek sophist but Greek laws didn’t permit him. Of his many sons & daughters, Ashōka, seems to have held successively the important viceroyalties of Takshashilā & Ujjain. When Bindusāra emperor fell sick Asoka came to Pātaliputra, the imperial capital. According to tradition Asoka suppressed another revolt in Takshashilā, & was solemnly enthroned at Pātaliputra four years after the death of Bindusāra. Eight years later he conquered the kingdom of Kalinga which embraced the major part of Puri, Ganjam & some adjoining tracts. That conquest the Maurya Empire stretched from the land of the Yonas, Kambōja in the east & Gāndhāra in the Kabul valley & some adjoining territories in the west, down to the land of the Andhrās in the Godavari Krishna basin & the district (Āhāra) of Isila in north Mysore, & from Sopāra & Gīrnār in the west to Dhauli & Jaugaḍa in the east. In the north-west the empire touched the realm of Antiochos II, the Greek king of Syria & Western Asia, & in the south it extended as far as the kingdom of the Cholās, Pāṇdyās, Satiyaputra, & Keralaputra in South India. According to tradition Asoka’s empire also included the secluded vales of Kashmir & Nepal as well as the riparian plains of Puṇḍravardhana (North Bengal) & Samataṭa (East Bengal). ― The Kalinga war proved a turning-point in the career of Asoka & produced results of far-reaching consequence in the history of India & of the whole world. The sight of misery & bloodshed in the Kalinga campaign smote the emperor’s conscience & awakened in his breast sincere feelings of repentance & sorrow. It made Asoka intensely devoted to the practice of Dharma, the love of Dharma & the instruction of the people in Dharma. He eschewed military conquest involving slaughter & deportation of people & evolved a policy of dharma-vijaya, ‘conquest by piety’ in place of the old conquest by bows & arrows. But with all his zeal for Buddhism, Asoka never became an enemy of any other religious fraternity, never sought to impose his sectarian belief on others but showed extreme solicitude for their welfare & extended his patronage to also the communities of Jainas & Ājivikas, the followers of Gosāla. Asoka organised missions for spiritual conquest of three continents, & turned the local sect in the Ganges valley into a world religion. He sent Buddhist missionaries to western Asia, northern Africa & south-eastern Europe, there is no doubt that even long after Asoka, people in Alexandria showed interest in Buddhism, & that both Buddhist & Brāhmaṇical religion were widely prevalent in several countries of western Asia before the advent of Islam. The knowledge of Indian philosophy & literature in the West is also an undoubted fact. His Hellenistic contemporaries were Antiochos (II of Theos of Syria, c.261-246BC), Ptolemy (II, Philadelphos of Egypt, 285-247 BC), Magas (of Cyrene, c.300-258BC), & Alexander (of Epirus, 272-239BC, or, as some say, of Corinth, 252-244BC). He maintained friendly relations with the Greek kings of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, & Epirus; & established philanthropic institutions in the realms of some if these princes. Buddhism doubtless made some progress in western Asia & influenced later sects like the Manicheans, but the Greeks were not much impressed by lessons on non-violence. Within a few years of his death, Greek battalions, esp. from Bactria, poured once more into the Kabul valley, the Punjab & even the Gangetic region; & threw all these provinces into confusion. [Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al; pp. 94-96, 98- 99; 101; 103; 128; 203]
... but those who are truly spiritual keep spirituality alive. NIRODBARAN: Asoka sacrificed everything for Buddhism. SRI AUROBINDO: But he remained an emperor till the end. When kings and emperors try to spread a religion, they make the whole thing mental and moral and the inner truth is lost. Asoka succeeded in being Asoka: that's all. NIRODBARAN: Ramana Maharshi was hardly known. It was Brunton... small minority grows towards a spiritual birth and it is through them that the divine manifestation takes place. What remains of Buddhism today except a few edicts of Asoka and a few hundred thousand Buddhists? NIRODBARAN: Asoka helped in propagating Buddhism. SRI AUROBINDO: Anybody could have done that. NIRODBARAN: But didn't it become all-powerful through his aid? SRI AUROBINDO: If kings ...
... O Coïl, Coïl O Coïl, honied envoy of the spring, Cease thy too happy voice, grief's record, cease: For I recall that day of vernal trees, The soft asoca's bloom, the laden winds And green felicity of leaves, the hush, The sense of Nature living in the woods. Only the river rippled, only hummed The languid murmuring bee, far-borne and slow, Emparadised ...
... Only a small minority grows towards a spiritual birth. It is through them the Divine manifestation takes place. What remains of Buddhism today except a few decrees of Asoka and a few hundred thousand Buddhists? Disciple : Asoka helped in propagating Buddhism. Sri Aurobindo : Anybody could have done that. Disciple : But it is through his aid that it became all-powerful. Sri... kings and emperors that keep alive spirituality but people who are really spiritual that do so. Disciple : Asoka sacrificed everything for Buddhism. Sri Aurobindo : But he remained emperor till the end. When kings and emperors try to spread religion they become like Asoka i.e. make the whole thing mechanical and the inner truth is lost. Disciple : Raman Maharshi was known to no ...
... Animism, 2, 3, 57 Apala, 31 Aranyakas,66,87,89 Architecture, 56 Art, 31,56 Artha, 49 Arthashastra, 105 Arum, 68,69, 70,78,80 Aryaman, 10,11,12 Aryan,12 Ashoka, 84 Ashram, 18,34 Ashwins, 12,13 Ashvamedha, 42 Astronomy, 44 Atharva Veda, 6,105 Atheism, 61 Adantis, 1 Atman, 30, 82 Aurangzeb, 85 Avidya, 29 ...
... Page 32 The flag appears to be an economist's vision, concerned with the outer life and its beneficial, its profitable ordering. Of course, the wheel comes from a pillar erected by Asoka and carries a religio-ethical association; we may, therefore, read in its message a strain of satya, ahimsa and karuna - truth, non - violence and pity. Still, the level of the vision is not much... and faith like the spontaneous clinging of green things to the soil, white to be probity and purity and harmlessness, saffron to be austerity and courage and sacrifice. And we may understand by the Asoka wheel the unerring and eternal law of karma which Buddha held to be the secret power in the interminable world-process.Even then the depths of India remain unexpressed. No Touch of the Mystical... bring the economic values to the fore and make us see our country's fulfilment in the right production, conservation and utilisation of outward life-resources. The choice of that Buddhist emblem, the Asoka wheel, is in keeping with both the secular mood and the labourer-emphasis. For, in the first place, Buddhism, by its denial of either a personal-impersonal Godhead or a persistent soul and its refusal ...
... grandson Asoka needs must recede considerably farther into the past. The rest of the book is a thrilling venture as Sethna daringly steers his slender craft through uncharted seas crossing one insuperable barrier-reef after another to reach a destination in whose existence he firmly believes. The most important of these is the supposed linking of the Greeks with Asoka. Sethna's... this welter of confusion: Buddha's death has to be determined in terms of Asoka's accession and not the other way about. Thus, with the latter being fixed in 950 B.C., the nirvana is 218 years before that in 168 B.C. and the death of Mahavira would be in 1165 B.C. The argument of Ceylon being referred to in Asoka's inscriptions is demolished by Sethna who points out that this identification... the work that unless the Asokan epigraphs could be tackled convincingly, his new chronology would break down. Sethna proceeded to do this also over 300 pages of a closely argued thesis pushing Asoka back to 950 B.C. and allocating to the Gupta Empire the period 315 B.C. - A.D. 320. Sethna's 606 page tome, with a 15 page bibliography and a 23 page index, is an outstanding instance of ...
... the effacement of egoism seems to it to be not an effacement, but an enhancement of value and power of the true person and its greatness. Mr. Archer finds Asoka pale and featureless; to an Indian mind he is supremely vivid and attractive. Why is Asoka to be called pale in comparison with Charlemagne or, let us say, with Constantine? Is it because he only mentions his sanguinary conquest of Kalinga in... which he writes. To say that there has been no great or vivid activity of life in India, that she has had no great personalities with the mythical exception of Buddha and the other pale exception of Asoka, that she has never shown any will-power and never done any great thing, is so contrary to all the facts of history that only a devil's advocate in search of a case could advance it at all or put it... Dayananda. But there have been also the remarkable achievements of statesmen and rulers, from the first dawn of ascertainable history which comes in with the striking figures of Chandragupta, Chanakya, Asoka, the Gupta emperors and goes down through the multitude of famous Hindu and Mahomedan figures of the middle age to quite modern times. In ancient India there was the life of republics, oligarchies, ...
... representatives of Yavana and Saka of old. Did the princes of ancient India go out of their way to kneel before their throne? Was that the glory of Hinduism? Or are we witnessing a revival of the days when Asoka ruled over the Asiatic peoples? The Bharat Dharma Mahamandal aim at the revival of Hinduism but they are working for its final extinction. Minto Worship When we speak of the Notables bowing at ...
... man's voluntary effort fails. India possesses a resounding roll of great Page 92 names who endeavoured to give her this solid political and economic unity; Bharata, Yudhishthira, Asoka, Chandragupta, Akbar, Shivaji have all contributed to the evergrowing unification of Indian polity. But still what they realised was not a stable and permanent thing, it was yet fluent and uncertain; ...
... compulsion and violence, when man's voluntary effort fails. India possesses a resounding roll of great names who endeavoured to give her this solid political and economic unity; Bharata, Yudhish-thira, Asoka, Chandragupta, Akbar, Shivaji have all contributed to the evergrowing unification of Indian polity. But still what they realised was not a stable and permanent thing, it was yet fluent and uncertain; ...
... have gone through the "cantos" and I am sincerely thankful to them all. I would particularly like to mention the names of Jugal Kishore Mukherji, Georges van Vrekhem, Shyam Sunder Jhunjhunwala, Asoka K. Ganguli, Ravi, and Richard Hartz. One of my friends suggested that for the benefit of a general reader, who has not always the right resources at his disposal, I must provide the relevant material ...
... work of the Buddha, the invasion of Alexander the great, the establishment of the Mauryan empire under the lead of Chandragupta Maurya and his adviser, Kautilya (or Chanakya), the life and work of Ashoka, who provided royal sanction to Buddhism and gave a great impetus to the spread of Buddhism not only in India but even in other Asian countries, and, finally, the decline and fall of the Mauryan empire ...
... history —especially when it relates to the period of Alexander's invasion of India and the period immediately succeeding it, the time currently allotted to Chandragupta Maurya and to his grandson Asoka with his numerous informative inscriptions? Do we not have to tackle even Greek and Latin annals derived from the Indica of Magasthenes, the ambassador sent by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's... s, on being closely scrutinised, yields striking evidence of religious conditions in India which make it impossible to consider his age the age preceding that of the great Buddhist emperor Asoka who also has supplied us with information on the same subject. From Megasthenes we gather too a count of kings going hack from "Sandrocottus", to a primal ruler whose reported achievements can... these kings the latter should have to be started not in 320 A.D., as now claimed but towards the end of the fourth century B.C., soon after Alexander's Indian adventure. But, of course, Asoka with his rock edicts seems as solidly established in chronology as they in topography against any theoretical reductio ad absurdum. How, without indulging in fanciful conjectures, does one ...
... he was the incarnate life of the race, the new idea saw a divinity in the person of the King as an individual,—a conception which favoured the growth of absolutism. The monarchy of Chandragupta and Asoka seems to have been of the new type, copied perhaps from the Hellenistic empires, in which the nobles and the commons have disappeared and a single individual rules with absolute power through the i ...
... independence. There was no exclusive State religion and the monarch was not the religious head of the people. Asoka in this respect seems to have attempted an extension of the royal control or influence and similar velleities were occasionally shown on a minor scale by other powerful sovereigns. But Asoka's so-called edicts of this kind had a recommendatory rather than an imperative character, and the sovereign... order. Some of these states appear to have enjoyed a longer and a more settled history of vigorous freedom than republican Rome, for they persisted even against the mighty empire of Chandragupta and Asoka and were still in existence in the early centuries of the Christian era. But none of them developed the aggressive spirit and the conquering and widely organising capacity of the Roman republic; they ...
... the image of Delhi as it was during Emperor Akbar's time stand before your mind's eye? That is why, in speaking of the nation, we should recall the great achievements of our ancestors; then Shivaji, Asoka and Akbar at once become an integral part of our nationhood. So too the ancient Rishis. This is taken for granted. If we look at Japan, we see that the Japanese people never forget their ancestors who... into practice. Not that the system of National Education we have started is altogether new; it was started long ago by our forefathers. Through this system Shivaji's greatness will remain eternal, Asoka's fame and Akbar's glory will spread across the earth and the grandeur and majesty of our ancient Rishis will be made known throughout the world. From our National Education programmes, nothing useful ...
... splendid abundance of noble vitality took birth and sent its emissaries across the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. Was that the work of "doped" cowards and weaklings and sluggards? Can we brand Asoka as such— Asoka with his imperial energy, his endless zeal to harmonise his far-flung kingdom and send the light of Asia to all the continents? Can we stigmatism as anemic and impotent the enthusiastic souls ...
... Lopamudra, Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi Part II (i) Buddha and Mahavira (ii) Buddhism and Jainism (iii) Invasion of Alexander the Great (iv) Chandragupta Maurya (v) Ashoka III (i) Kushans and Kanishka (ii) Chandragupta, Samundragupta and Vikramaditya (iii) Gupta Period: the Golden Age of India (iv) Kalidasa, Varahamihira, Aryabhatt, ...
... BC), came closer to uniting India than had any earlier ruler; only the extreme south escaped his domination. The third Mauryan king, Asoka (ca. 273-ca. 232 BC), became a Buddhist, and with his support Buddhism developed into the first great missionary religion. In Asoka's days Buddhism was accepted in most parts of India and throughout Ceylon. Later it spread to the countries of Southeast Asia and across... across the mountains into China. And with Buddhism went Indian art, literature, and philosophy. The influence that India still exercises in eastern Asia began with this cultural expansion under Asoka. Suggestions for further reading Arnold, Sir Edwin. The Light of Asia (Many editions). Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism. New York: Verry, 1964. David-Neel ...
... Augustus, a Napoleon, a Chandragupta, Asoka or Akbar, can do no more than fix certain new institutions which the time needed and help the emergence of its best or else its strongest tendencies in a critical era. When they attempt more, they fail. Akbar's effort to create a new dharma for the Indian nation by his enlightened reason was a brilliant futility. Asoka's edicts remain graven upon pillar and ...
... political power or position, and the people at large exercised only an indirect control by the pressure of a public opinion which no ruler could afford to neglect. Afterwards when Chandragupta and Asoka had created the tradition of a powerful absolutism Page 779 with a strong bureaucratic organisation to support it, things changed, but not in the direction of a polity based on caste. On ...
... merely the conscious attempt to fulfil the great centripetal tendency which has pervaded the grandiose millenniums of her history, to complete the work which Srikrishna began, which Chandragupta and Asoka and the Gupta Kings continued, which Akbar almost brought to realisation, for which Shivaji was born and Bajirao fought and planned. The organization of our villages is an indispensable work to which ...
... because he followed the art of war in accordance with laws and canons set down by military experts; neither did Buddha become the Enlightened because of his scrupulous adherence to the edicts which Asoka engraved centuries later on rocks and pillars, nor was Jesus the Christ because of his being an exemplar of the Sermon on the Mount. The truth of the matter is that the spirit bloweth where it ...
... apply it and cast it into elaborate form and detailed law of arrangement and rule of life. There appears to be no historical parallel for such an intellectual labour as we find during the period from Ashoka well into the Mohammedan epoch. Prior to the invention of printing and facilities of modern science, India produced colossal literature, which certainly dealt with philosophy and theology, and religion ...
... nations. No amount of mental and moral teaching, preaching and practice can bring about a change of the human vital nature. Since the time of the Buddha, non-violence has been preached. The emperor Asoka banned all wars and killings in his dominion but human nature has not changed. The frantic efforts made by statesmen and politicians after the First World War did not in the least succeed in bringing ...
... is something less mental, a new and more vibrant note. I have gone through Surawardy. He has certainly a fine poetic vein, but his success is less than his capacity—The two poems, China Sea and Asoca Tree are very fine—the rest are in a lower pitch; there are fewer deliberate descents into the commonplace than in the old man poems, but also not so frequent, intense felicities of expression and powerful ...
... them for his own reasons. But soon he understands the nature of the task they are engaged in. Seeing their helpless plight Sampati tells them that he could easily see the presence of Sita in the far Ashoka Vane in the south some 100 yojanas (1200 km) away from that place. He also tells them that he could spot her there unmistakably, for he belongs to that class of birds whose flight is the highest in ...
... of essential consciousness. Is a modern scientist more evolved in consciousness than Aristotle or Leonardo da Vinci? Is Stalin on a higher plane of being than Draco or Lycurgus or our own Buddhist Asoka whom H. G. Wells, himself a scientific mind, calls the most enlightened ruler the world has seen? Not the outer mould but the inner reality determines progress. Monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, plutocracy ...
... of the enchanted globe became A storm of sweetness and of light and song, A revel of colour and ecstasy, A hymn of rays, a litany of cries." "A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours Asocas burned in Grimson spots of flame, Pale mango blossoms fed the liquid voice of the love maddened coil ...... __________________ 11 Book I. Canto 4 12 p. 277 13. p. 288 ...
... 3.Selected from R.A. Jairazbhoy, Foreign Influence in Ancient India (Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1963), pp. 14-15. 4."Cultural Interrelation between India and the Outside World before Asoka", The Cultural Heritage of India, I, p. 148. 5. The Aryans (London, 1926), p. 19. 6."The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 80, No. 4 ...
... and the sepoys and the sowars. The Raja poked its body with his finger. Only its inner stuffing of book-leaves rustled. Outside the window, the murmar of the spring breeze amongst the newly budded asoka leaves made the April morning wistful." The second essential point to be noted is that the child is like a closed bud that grows slowly or swiftly and opens Page 55 natural ...
... pillars. Books cannot last long. Their paper rots away and gets moth-eaten. But stones last much longer. Perhaps you remember seeing the great stone pillar of Ashoka in the Allahabad Fort. On this is cut out in stone a proclamation of Ashoka who was a great king of India many hundreds of years ago. If you go to the museum in Lucknow you will find many stone tablets with words engraved on them. ...
... the sepoys and the sowars. The Raja poked its body with his finger. Only its inner stuffing of book- leaves rustled. Outside the window, the murmur of the spring breeze amongst the newly budded asoka leaves made the April morning wistful. From Boundless Sky (Calcutta: Visva-Bharati, 1964), pp. 84-88. The following is a list of a few selected works by Rabindranath Tagore with ...
... Shelley. We may cite two more occurrences which also seem not sufficiently impressive, though the second is part of a charming line-rhythm: For I recall that day of vernal trees, The soft asoca's bloom, the laden winds... And shy as violets in the vernal grass... The usages make poetry, but on a fair level only. Perhaps just a lift above it is felt in a phrase like Attending ...
... 128, 182,219,322 Arjuna, 60, 188-9,384-5, 391 Arminius, 88 Arnold, Matthew, 68, 192, 240, 272 Artemis, 195 Asia, 16, 48, 70, 101, 148, 152-3, 240, 245 Asoka,93,195 Asura, 18, 69-74, 186, 201, 234, 267, 272, 291, 376, 382-3, 386 Aswatthama, 298 Aswins, 9 Athena, 222 Atlantic, 210 Atlantis, 223 Augustan ...
... system was in its vigour, he could not with impunity defy or ignore the opinion and will of the ministers and council. Even, it seems, so powerful and strong-willed a sovereign as the great emperor Asoka was eventually defeated in his conflict with his council and was forced practically to abdicate his power. The ministers in council could and did often proceed to the deposition of a recalcitrant or... partners in the sovereignty and its powers were inherent in them and even those could be exercised by them on extraordinary occasions which were not normally within their purview. It is significant that Asoka in his attempt to alter the Dharma of the community, proceeded not merely by his royal decree but by discussion with the Assembly. The ancient description seems therefore to have been thoroughly justified ...
... and ally of Sugriva. Hanuman, who has found in Sri Rama the Supreme Lord of his heart and being, succeeds in his bid to find Sita by crossing the ocean between India and Lanka and discovers Sita in Ashoka Vatika in Ravana's palace.) 4. Sri Rama vanquishes and kills Ravana. (Having received Hanuman's report of his meeting with Sita in Lanka, Sri Rama prepares for invasion of Lanka with a huge ...
... Your final question is on quite a different plane: "In the spiritual map of India Burma is included. When and how long was Burma a part of ancient India?" I have the impression that in the times of Asoka and of the Gupta emperors India had suzerainty over Burma just as over Ceylon, at least Samudragupta speaks of all the islands acknowledging his authority. In any case, the Mother does not seem to ...
... eight hundred miles broad, (that parted the mainland of India from Lanka). (72) Duly reaching the city of Lanka, ruled over by (the demon king) Ravana, he found there Sī ta confined in a grove of Asoka trees, contemplating (on the feet of Sri Rama). (73) Presenting (to her) the souvenir (in the shape of a signet ring handed over to him by Sri Rama) and relating the news (about Sri Rama's alliance ...
... Valley Civilization", in The Vedic Age, ed. R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Pusalker (Allen & Unwin, London, 1952). "Editors' Prefaces", "Interrelation of Culture between India and the Outside World before Asoka", in The Cultural Heritage of India Vol. I (Calcutta, Ramakrishna Mission, 1958). jt. ed., The Age of Imperial Unity, ed. R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Pusalker (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay ...
... present. In this third period the curious elaboration of all life into a science and an art assumes extraordinary proportions. The mere mass of the intellectual production during the period from Asoka well into the Mahomedan epoch is something truly prodigious, as can be seen at once if one studies the account which recent scholarship gives of it, and we must remember that that scholarship as yet ...
... ecstasy, A hymn of rays, a litany of cries: A strain of choral priestly music sang And, swung on the swaying censer of the trees, A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours. Asocas burned in crimson spots of flame, Pure like the breath of an unstained desire White jasmines haunted the enamoured air, Pale mango-blossoms fed the liquid voice Of the love-maddened ...
... and of ecstacy, A hymn of rays, a litany of cries: A strain of choral priestly music sang And, swung on the swaying censer of the trees, A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours. Asocas burned in crimson spots of flame, Pure like the breath of an unstained desire White jasmines haunted the enamoured air, Pale mango-blossoms fed the liquid voice Of the love-maddened ...
... pronounced, and it needed Gautama Siddhartha the Buddha, with his message of freedom and gospel of compassion, to restore dhamma and re-establish sangha. The Buddha made Asoka possible, and even after Asoka, in the Age of the imperial Guptas, India retained much of her vitality, strength and mastery of the arts of life and the key to the kingdoms of the Greater Life. For about 1,000 years ...
... large number of small kingdoms. In some areas tensions led to continual feuding and raiding between kingdoms. Yet occasionally, for example under the great Emperor Ashoka (268-231 BC), large areas of India were united under one leader. Ashoka, Emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, whose empire covered some two-thirds of the Indian sub-continent, began his rule as a warrior king, but after his conversion to Buddhism ...
... In justification of the last statement, which echoes the view of Keith, Mookerji elsewhere explains: "A part of the 25."Cultural Interrelation between India and the Outside World before Asoka", The Cultural Heritage of India (The Ramakrishna Mission, Calcutta, 1958), I, p. 144. 26.Op. dr., I, pp. 182-3. Page 15 Rigveda, the hymns to Ushas, recalls the splendours of ...
... in his heart born out of conjugation with Sri Sītā? Why does not Śrī Rāma censure her, who formerly had been forcibly carried away by Rāvana, placed in his lap and taken to Lankā, who went into the Asoka grove and remained under the control of the Rāksasas. Such conduct of our wives shall have to be suffered by us also, since whatever a king does, the subjects follow.' (17-19) Thus, 0 King, the citizens ...
... frequent exchanges between the cultures and religions of those times. Persons on a quest of spiritual truth were in most cases also adventurous travellers. And missionaries, e.g. those sent by Emperor Ashoka, were a well-known phenomenon. (There was a Judeo-Buddhist group of Therapeutae in the neighbourhood of Alexandria.) How close Christianity has been to Gnosticism is shown by the furore with which ...
... status: we speak of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna but not of Sri Dasaratha (Rama's father) or Sri Arjuna (Krishna's close companion in the Battle of Kurukshetra) - or even, for that matter, of Sri Asoka though the Buddhist emperor happened to be a highly religious figure. And, most of all, we must remember that "Sri" was adopted by our Master himself at a certain point of time in the course of ...
... also in keeping with the view that the bulk of the Rigveda was composed in the Upper Ganges-Jumna doab and plain. 26. "Cultural Interrelation between India and the Outside World before Asoka", The Cultural Heritage of India (The Ramakrishna Mission, Calcutta, 1958), I, p. 144. Page 471 The Rigveda holds the Sarasvati especially sacred, and als< knows the Sarayu, ...
... ce and the continuously increasing ingenuities of the ritualist, the grammarian and the sectarian polemical disputant. When after the fall of the Buddhistic Mauryas, feeble successors of the great Asoka, first under Pushyamitra and his son and afterwards under the Guptas, Hinduism revived, a return to the old forms of the creed and the old Vedic scholarship was no longer possible. The old pre-Buddhistic... ce and the continuously increasing ingenuities of the ritualist, the grammarian and the sectarian polemical disputant. When after the fall of the Buddhistic Mauryas, feeble successors of the great Asoka, first under Pushyamitra and his son and afterwards under the Guptas, Hinduism revived, a return to the old forms of the creed and the old Vedic scholarship was no longer possible. The old pre-Buddhistic ...
... herself:) "Oh, shame! What a pity that I held (all this converse with him. Indeed he is the same Rāvana who has come here assuming another guise." (10) Letting go that Page 161 branch of the Asoka tree, Sītā, of flawless limbs, sank down on that very ground (on which she stood), exhausted as she was through grief. (11) Thereupon Hanūmān (of mighty arms) saluted the daughter of Janaka. Sore stricken... thinking that (only) a small fraction of his duty remained to be performed, he mentally sought the northern direction. (25) Page 186 Rāvana with two attendants visits Sita in the Asoka grove where she is guarded by three rakshasis. Page 187 Submisson of the Ocean King before Rama, Kangra, early 19th century Courtesy: Govt. Museam and Art Gallary, ...
... everywhere dwarfed and depreciated; one solitary great character, Gautama Buddha, who "perhaps never existed," is India's sole contribution to the world's pantheon, or for the rest a pale featureless Asoka. The characters of drama and poetry are lifeless exaggerations or puppets of supernatural powers; the art is empty of reality; the whole history of the civilisation makes a drab, effete, melancholy ...
... Page 20 was austere and rich, robust and minute, powerful and delicate, massive in principle and curious in detail. The mere mass of the intellectual production during the period from Ashoka well into the Mohammedan epoch is something truly prodigious. This can be seen from the account which recent scholarship gives of it. And while evaluating this account, it must be noted that what has ...
... and completer method. India was well equipped in surgery and her system of medicine survives to this day and has still its value. The mere mass of intellectual periods extending from the period of Ashoka well into the Mohammedan epoch is something truly prodigious. There is no historical parallel of such an intellectual labour and activity before the invention of printing and the facilities of modern ...
... sufficient spiritual or moral check and there was a coarsening of the national mind in the ethics of politics and government already evidenced in the draconic penal legislation of the Maurya times and in Asoka's sanguinary conquest of Orissa. The deterioration, held in abeyance by a religious spirit and high intelligence, did not come to a head till more than a thousand years afterwards and we only see it ...
... momentous question: "Can we not find from post-Rigvedic literature, in combination with Mesopotamian 7. Pusalker, A.D., "Interrelation of Culture between India and the Outside World before Asoka", The Cultural Heritage of India , Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1958. Page 158 sources, who the authors were of the Harappa Culture?" (KPI: 64) And these were known ...
... check and there was a coarsening of the national mind in the ethics of politics and government. The signs of these were already in evidence in the draconic penal legislation of the Maurya times and in Asoka's sanguinary conquest of Orissa. The deterioration was held in abeyance by a religious spirit and high intelligence for a long time and did not come to a head till more than a thousand years later. It ...
... continuity" the finest thoughts from the sages of all times grouped under "The Song of Wisdom" and "Wisdom and the Religions" - a veritable universal congress of the world's seers, saints and savants like Asoka, Carlyle, Porphyry, Seneca, Emerson, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Voltaire, Tseu-Tse, Confucius, Minamoto Sanetomo, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Epictetus, Lao-Tse, Leibnitz, Hermes, Schopenhauer, Sadi ...
... this intellectuality was austere and rich, robust and minute, powerful and delicate, massive in principle and curious in detail. The mere mass of the intellectual production during the period from Ashoka well into the Mohammadan epoch is something truly prodigious. This can be seen from the account which recent scholarship gives of it. And while evaluating this account it Page 91 must ...
... difference between their symbols and those of Savitri: "It is the difference between a magic hill-side woodland of wonder and a great soaring mountain climbing into a vast purple sky...." 67 Asoka K. GANGULI 67 Ibid., p. 798. Page 440 ...
... Indian flag. From the Ashram Jayantilal-da sent the Mother's flag. Finally the Indian government chose the tricoloured Congress flag to represent the country. The central "charkha" was replaced by the "Ashoka-chakra". The tricoloured flag was orange on top, white in the centre and green below. The three colours symbolised freedom, peace and progress. The dharma-chakra at the centre symbolised movement and ...
... ornaments. Let there be no delay." (7) Hurriedly penetrating deep into the gynaeceum, when commanded thus by Śrī Rāma, Vibhīsana for Page 230 his part communicated his presence to Sīta (in the Asoka grove) through his own women. (8) Forthwith beholding the blessed Sīta, the glorious Vibhīsana, the ruler of Rākshasas , humbly submitted (as follows) to her, with palms joined over his head: — (9) ...
... place in all plans of agricultural improvement. This importance of irrigation has been recognised by the successive rulers of this country from the times of the ancient Hindu kings. From the days of Asoka, and before him, the digging of wells and tanks had been the subject of royal edicts and one of the first religious duties of Page 705 princes, zemindars and wealthy philanthropists. The ...
... lives Keeps ever new the thrill that made the world. 103 In Sri Aurobindo's description there are also birds and beasts, flowers and insects that make spring glorious and vocal: Asocas burned in crimson spots of flame, Pure like the breath of an unstained desire White jasmines haunted the enamoured air, 102 Ibid , 3.29. 103 Savitri , p. 351. Page ...
... कंकरोलः Alangium Hexapetalum कंकलोडा a kind of drug कंकुः a kind of corn कंकुष्ठः, -ष्ठं, कंगुष्ठः, -ष्ठं a kind of medicinal earth कंकेल्लः, ल्लि Asoca tree कंकोली see कंक्कोली कंख् not used कंखं enjoyment; fruition (desire, enjoy) कंग् not in use कंगु, कंगुनी a kind of Panic(?) seed कंगुलः the hand... ancient; nobly born; hereditary. मौलः hereditary minister. मौलि head, foremost, best. मौलिः head, crown of the head; top; crown, tiara; hair on crown, tuft, lock, braid; earth; Asoca. मौली earth. मौलिक radical; chief, prime; inferior. मौलिकः dealer in roots, root-digger. मौलिन् crowned. मौल्यम् price. Contracted roots of the Class मल्क्ष् ...
... 726; atmosphere of, 727; "cave of Tapasya", 727; K. M. Munshi on, 750-1; the "Golden Day", 757; expansion of activities, 758ff; Delhi Branch, 760ff; establishment of University Centre, 763ff Asoka Vardhana, 7, 293 Attlee, Clement, 260fh AUROBINDO, SRI, 16ff; on Rajnarain Bose, 26, 38, 52; on his father Krishnadhan, 26-27; birth, 28; name, 28, 30, 38; at the Darjeeling ...
... his warlike lance. A soldier And conqueror,—what has the earth more noble? And he is of the great Cushanian stock That for these centuries bestride the hills Against all comers. World-renowned Asoca Who dominated half our kingly East, Sprang from a mongrel root. VISALDEO Rana, you'll wed Your daughter to Prince Toraman? CURRAN I'm troubled By Ajmere's strong persistence. He controls ...
... merely the conscious attempt to fulfil the great centripetal tendency which has pervaded the grandiose millenniums of her history, to complete the work which Srikrishna began, which Chandragupta and Asoka and the Gupta Kings continued, which Akbar almost brought to realisation, for which Shivaji was born and Bajirao fought and planned.... The day of the independent village or group of villages has ...
... the Maurya empire whose founder Chandragupta (reign: 322 to 298 B.C.) left everything at the height of his power, went down south to Sravanabelgola (Karnataka), and became a Jain monk. His grandson Asoka was the emperor who proclaimed, "All men are my children." The boundaries of the Maurya empire stretched from the river Brahmaputra to the east to the Arabian Sea to the west, and included Kabul, Kandahar... Nepal. Just as his forefathers, through their colonies, had spread India's arts and epics and creeds in the Archipelago (the Aegean Page 40 Sea), so now the message of Buddha which Asoka sent conquered China and Japan and spread westward as far as Palestine and Alexandria, and the figures of the Upanishads and the sayings of the Buddhists were re-echoed on the lips of Christ. P ...
... and the history of her great men is not a record of saints and ecstatics alone, but includes also poets, sculptors, painters, scientists, polymaths, rulers, statesmen, conquerors, administrators. Asoka, Chanakya, Chandragupta, Akbar, Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh, these are in the golden roll-call as much as Gautama Buddha, Mahavira, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya, Nanak: All this mass of action ...
... arrows. (68) Pierced with arrows all over his body, blood flowing from his limbs, Rāvana (the ruler of Rākshasas), standing in the midst of a gathering (of Rākshasas), Page 208 shone like an Asoka tree in blossom. (69) His limbs abnormally pierced with the arrows of Śrī Rāma and his body bathed in blood, the ruler of Rākshasas (lit., rangers of the night) felt exhausted in the midst of his army ...
... History of Sanskrit Literature, 2nd Edition (Williams and Norgate, (London) Murphy, Rhoads, In The Journal of Asian Studies, XVI, No. 2, February 1957 Nagaswamy, R., "Asoka and the Tamil Country", The Sunday Express, Magazine Section (Madras), December 6, 1981 Narain, A. K., In The Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, 1949, II The Indo-Greeks ...
... sowars. The Raja poked its body with his finger. Only its inner stuffing of book-leaves rustled. Page 585 Outside the window, the murmar of the spring breeze amongst the newly budded asoka leaves made the April morning wistful." The second essential point to be noted is that the child is like a closed bud that grows slowly or swiftly and opens. * * * Page 586 ...
... isolating it from other parts of the world, argues its separate national existence. Italy, which is isolated like India, achieved national independence within a space of thirty years. Shivaji, Akbar, Ashoka as well as the Rishis of old are amongst the component parts of the Indian nation. Let us learn from Japan how to awaken the national spirit among the people by a contemplation of the heroic deeds ...
... Avestan rather than later Irānian. And their presence 1.Section IV, ibid., p. 42. 2. Ibid., p. 43. 3.Section III, ibid., pp. 22-23 4.Section II, ibid., pp. 36-37. 5. Asoka, p. 244. Page 315 indicates not only the former's general prevalence we have spoken of: it indicates also the antiquity of the Aśokan dialects involved. Can the Greek Text ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.