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Edicts of Ashoka
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/26/21



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Edicts of Ashoka
A Major Pillar Edict of Ashoka, in Lauriya Araraj, Bihar, India.
Material: Rocks, pillars, stone slabs
Created: 3rd century BCE
Present location: Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh

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The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the pillars, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE.[1] Ashoka used the expression Dhaṃma Lipi (Prakrit in the Brahmi script: [x], "Inscriptions of the Dharma") to describe his own Edicts.[2] These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and provide the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail Ashoka's view about dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of the problems that a complex society faced.[3] According to the edicts, the extent of Buddhist proselytism during this period reached as far as the Mediterranean, and many Buddhist monuments were created.

These inscriptions proclaim Ashoka's adherence to the Buddhist philosophy which, as in Hinduism, is called dharma, "Law". The inscriptions show his efforts to develop the Buddhist dharma throughout his kingdom. Although Buddhism as well as Gautama Buddha are mentioned, the edicts focus on social and moral precepts rather than specific religious practices or the philosophical dimension of Buddhism. These were located in public places and were meant for people to read.

In these inscriptions, Ashoka refers to himself as "Beloved of the Gods" (Devanampiya). The identification of Devanampiya with Ashoka was confirmed by an inscription discovered in 1915 by C. Beadon, a British gold-mining engineer, at Maski, a village in Raichur district of Karnataka. Another minor rock edict, found at the village Gujarra in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh, also used the name of Ashoka together with his titles: "Devanampiya Piyadasi Asokaraja".[4] The inscriptions found in the central and eastern part of India were written in Magadhi Prakrit using the Brahmi script, while Prakrit using the Kharoshthi script, Greek and Aramaic were used in the northwest. These edicts were deciphered by British archaeologist and historian James Prinsep.[5]

The inscriptions revolve around a few recurring themes: Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism, the description of his efforts to spread Buddhism, his moral and religious precepts, and his social and animal welfare program. The edicts were based on Ashoka's ideas on administration and behaviour of people towards one another and religion.

Decipherment

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Brahmi script consonants, and their evolution down to modern Devanagari, according to James Prinsep, as published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in March 1838. All the letters are correctly deciphered, except for two missing on the right: [x].[6]

Besides a few inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic (which were discovered only in the 20th century), the Edicts were mostly written in the Brahmi script and sometimes in the Kharoshthi script in the northwest, two Indian scripts which had both become extinct around the 5th century CE, and were yet undeciphered at the time the Edicts were discovered and investigated in the 19th century.[7][8]

The first successful attempts at deciphering the ancient Brahmi script were made in 1836 by Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen, who used the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coins of Indo-Greek king Agathocles to correctly and securely identify several Brahmi letters.[8] The task was then completed by James Prinsep, an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the East India Company, who was able to identify the rest of the Brahmi characters, with the help of Major Cunningham.[8][9] In a series of results that he published in March 1838 Prinsep was able to translate the inscriptions on a large number of rock edicts found around India, and to provide, according to Richard Salomon, a "virtually perfect" rendering of the full Brahmi alphabet.[10][5] The edicts in Brahmi script mentioned a King Devanampriya Piyadasi which Prinsep initially assumed was a Sri Lankan king.[11] He was then able to associate this title with Ashoka on the basis of Pali script from Sri Lanka communicated to him by George Turnour.[12][13]

The Kharoshthi script, written from right to left, and associated with Aramaic, was also deciphered by James Prinsep in parallel with Christian Lassen, using the bilingual Greek-Kharoshthi coinage of the Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian kings.[14][15] "Within the incredibly brief space of three years (1834-37) the mystery of both the Kharoshthi and Brahmi scripts (were unlocked), the effect of which was instantly to remove the thick crust of oblivion which for many centuries had concealed the character and the language of the earliest epigraphs".[14][16]

The Edicts

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The first known inscription by Ashoka, the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, in Greek and in Aramaic, written in the 10th year of his reign (260 BCE).[17][18][19]

The Edicts are divided into four categories, according to their size (Minor or Major) and according to their medium (Rock or Pillar). Chronologically, the minor inscriptions tend to precede the larger ones, while rock inscriptions generally seem to have been started earlier than the pillar inscriptions:

• Minor Rock Edicts: Edicts inscribed at the beginning of Ashoka's reign; in Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic.
• Minor Pillar Edicts: Schism Edict, Queen's Edict, Rummindei Edict, Nigali Sagar Edict; in Prakrit.
• Major Rock Edicts: 14 Edicts (termed 1st to 14th) and 2 separate ones found in Odisha; in Prakrit and Greek.
• Major Pillar Edicts: 7 Edicts, inscribed at the end of Ashoka's reign; in Prakrit.

General content

The Minor Rock Edicts (in which Ashoka is sometimes named in person, as in Maski and Gujarra) as well as the Minor Pillar Edicts are very religious in their content: they mention extensively the Buddha (and even previous Buddhas as in the Nigali Sagar inscription), the Sangha, Buddhism and Buddhist scriptures (as in the Bairat Edict).[20]

On the contrary, the Major Rock Edicts and Major Pillar Edicts are essentially moral and political in nature: they never mention the Buddha or explicit Buddhist teachings, but are preoccupied with order, proper behaviour and non violence under the general concept of "Dharma", and they also focus on the administration of the state and positive relations with foreign countries as far as the Hellenistic Mediterranean of the mid-3rd century BCE.[20]

Minor Rock Edicts

Main article: Minor Rock Edicts

Minor Rock Edicts

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Minor Rock Edict from Maski.

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Map of the Minor Rock Edicts

The Minor Rock Edicts are often Buddhist in character, and some of them specifically mentions the name "Asoka" (Ashoka [x], center of the top line) in conjunction with the title "Devanampriya" (Beloved-of-the-gods).

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[Librarian's Comment: Contrast increased to show how the word "Ashoka" was added to the end of the first line in a rough-uneven area that the original writer was careful to avoid with respect to the entirety of the remaining inscription, that has all been rendered on the flattest-available portions of the rock face. If stones could speak, this one would cry "foul!"]
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Maski is a town and an archaeological site in the Raichur district of the state of Karnataka, India. It lies on the bank of the Maski river which is a tributary of the Tungabhadra. Maski derives its name from Mahasangha or Masangi. The site came into prominence with the discovery of a minor rock edict of Emperor Ashoka by C. Beadon in 1915. It was the first edict of Emperor Ashoka that contained the name Ashoka in it instead of the earlier edicts that referred him as Devanampiye piyadasi. This edict was important to conclude that many edicts found earlier in the Indian sub-continent in the name of Devanampiye piyadasi, all belonged to Emperor Ashoka....

The Maski version of Minor Rock Edict No.1 was historically especially important in that it confirmed the association of the title "Devanampriya" ("Beloved-of-the-Gods") with Ashoka:


[A proclamation] of Devanampriya Asoka.
Two and a half years [and somewhat more] (have passed) since I am a Buddha-Sakya.
[A year and] somewhat more (has passed) [since] I have visited the Samgha and have shown zeal.
Those gods who formerly had been unmingled (with men) in Jambudvipa, have how become mingled (with them).
This object can be reached even by a lowly (person) who is devoted to morality.
One must not think thus, — (viz.) that only an exalted (person) may reach this.
Both the lowly and the exalted must be told: "If you act thus, this matter (will be) prosperous and of long duration, and will thus progress to one and a half.

— Maski Minor Rock Edict of Ashoka.

-- Maski, by Wikipedia


The Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka (r.269-233 BCE) are rock inscriptions which form the earliest part of the Edicts of Ashoka. They predate Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts.

Chronologically, the first known edict, sometimes classified as a Minor Rock Edict, is the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, in Greek and in Aramaic, written in the 10th year of his reign (260 BCE) at the border of his empire with the Hellenistic world, in the city of Old Kandahar in modern Afghanistan.[17][18][19]

Ashoka then made the first edicts in the Indian language, written in the Brahmi script, from the 11th year of his reign (according to his own inscription, "two and a half years after becoming a secular Buddhist", i.e. two and a half years at least after returning from the Kalinga conquest of the eighth year of his reign, which is the starting point for his remorse towards the horrors of the war, and his gradual conversion to Buddhism). The texts of the inscriptions are rather short, the technical quality of the engraving of the inscriptions is generally very poor, and generally very inferior to the pillar edicts dated to the years 26 and 27 of Ashoka's reign.[21]

There are several slight variations in the content of these edicts, depending on location, but a common designation is usually used, with Minor Rock Edict N°1 (MRE1)[22] and a Minor Rock Edict N°2 (MRE2, which does not appear alone but always in combination with Edict N°1), the different versions being generally aggregated in most translations. The Maski version of Minor Rock Edict No.1 is historically particularly important in that it confirmed the association of the title "Devanampriya" with the name "Asoka", thereby clarifying the historical author of all these inscriptions.[23][24] In the Gujarra version of Minor Rock Edict No.1 also, the name of Ashoka is used together with his full title: Devanampiya Piyadasi Asokaraja.[4]

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The full title Devanampiyasa Piyadasino Asokaraja ([x]) in the Gujarra inscription.[25]

There is also a unique Minor Rock Edict No.3, discovered next to Bairat Temple, for the Buddhist clergy, which gives a list of Buddhist scriptures (most of them unknown today) which the clergy should study regularly.[26]

A few other inscriptions of Ashoka in Aramaic, which are not strictly edicts, but tend to share a similar content, are sometimes also categorized as "Minor Rock Edicts". The dedicatory inscriptions of the Barabar caves are also sometimes classified among the Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka.

The Minor Rock Edicts can be found throughout the territory of Ashoka, including in the frontier area near the Hindu Kush, and are especially numerous in the southern, newly conquered, frontier areas of Karnataka and southern Andhra Pradesh.

Minor Pillar Edicts

Main article: Minor Pillar Edicts

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Minor Pillar Edict on the Sarnath pillar of Ashoka, and the Lion Capital of Ashoka which crowned it.

The Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka refer to 5 separate minor Edicts inscribed on columns, the Pillars of Ashoka.[27] These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts and may have been made in parallel with the Major Rock Edicts.

The inscription technique is generally very poor compared for example to the later Major Pillar Edicts, however the Minor Pillar Edicts are often associated with some of the artistically most sophisticated pillar capitals of Ashoka, such as the renowned Lion Capital of Ashoka which crowned the Sarnath Minor Pillar Edict, or the very similar, but less well preserved Sanchi lion capital which crowned the very clumsily inscribed Schism Edict of Sanchi.[28] According to Irwin, the Brahmi inscriptions on the Sarnath and Sanchi pillars were made by inexperienced Indian engravers at a time when stone engraving was still new in India, whereas the very refined Sarnath capital itself was made under the tutelage of crafstmen from the former Achaemenid Empire, trained in Perso-Hellenistic statuary and employed by Ashoka.[29] This suggests that the most sophisticated capitals were actually the earliest in the sequence of Ashokan pillars and that style degraded over a short period of time.[28]

These edicts were probably made at the beginning of the reign of Ashoka (reigned 268-232 BCE), from the year 12 of his reign, that is, from 256 BCE.[30]

The Minor Pillar Edicts are the Schism Edict, warning of punishment for dissent in the Samgha, the Queen's Edict, and the Rummindei Edict as well as the Nigali Sagar Edict which record Ashoka's visits and Buddhist dedications in the area corresponding to today's Nepal. The Rummindei and Nigali Sagar edicts, inscribed on pillars erected by Ashoka later in his reign (19th and 20th year) display a high level of inscriptional technique with a good regularity in the lettering.[29]

Major Rock Edicts

Main article: Major Rock Edicts

Major Rock Edicts

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Rock edicts of Khalsi

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Map of the Major Rock Edicts


The Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka refer to 14 separate major Edicts, which are significantly detailed and extensive.[31] These Edicts were concerned with practical instructions in running the kingdom such as the design of irrigation systems and descriptions of Ashoka's beliefs in peaceful moral behavior. They contain little personal detail about his life.[32] These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts.

Three languages were used, Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic. The edicts are composed in non-standardized and archaic forms of Prakrit. Prakrit inscriptions were written in Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts, which even a commoner could read and understand. The inscriptions found in the area of Pakistan are in the Kharoshthi script. Other Edicts are written in Greek or Aramaic. The Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka (including portions of Edict No.13 and No.14) is in Greek only, and originally probably contained all the Major Rock Edicts 1-14.[33]

The Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka are inscribed on large rocks, except for the Kandahar version in Greek (Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka), written on a stone plaque belonging to a building. The Major Edicts are not located in the heartland of Mauryan territory, traditionally centered on Bihar, but on the frontiers of the territory controlled by Ashoka.[34]

Major Pillar Edicts

Main article: Major Pillar Edicts

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Major Pillar Edicts (Delhi-Topra pillar), and one of the capitals (from Rampurva) which crowned such edicts.

The Major Pillar Edicts of Ashoka refer to seven separate major Edicts inscribed on columns, the Pillars of Ashoka, which are significantly detailed and extensive.[27]

These edicts are preceded chronologically by the Minor Rock Edicts and the Major Rock Edicts, and constitute the most technically elegant of the inscriptions made by Ashoka. They were made at the end of his reign, from the years 26 and 27 of his reign, that is, from 237-236 BCE.[30] Chronologically they follow the fall of Seleucid power in Central Asia and the related rise of the Parthian Empire and the independent Greco-Bactrian Kingdom circa 250 BCE. Hellenistic rulers are not mentioned anymore in these last edicts, as they only appear in Major Rock Edict No.13 (and to a lesser extent Major Rock Edict No.2), which can be dated to about the 14th year of the reign of Ashoka circa 256–255.[35] The last Major Pillar Edicts (Edict No.7) is testamental in nature, making a summary of the accomplishments of Ashoka during his life.

The Major Pillar Edicts of Ashoka were exclusively inscribed on the Pillars of Ashoka or fragments thereof, at Kausambi (now Allahabad pillar), Topra Kalan, Meerut, Lauriya-Araraj, Lauria Nandangarh, Rampurva (Champaran), and fragments of these in Aramaic (Kandahar, Edict No.7 and Pul-i-Darunteh, Edict No.5 or No.7 in Afghanistan)[36][37]

Lauriya-Araraj (Radiah) – Alexander Cunningham named this pillar as Radhia as it was close to the village of the same name. These days, this pillar is better known as Lauriya-Araraj as it is located in a small village named Lauriya, 1.5 km south west of the Araraj-Mahadev temple. Lauriya village is about 6 km east of south east of the village Radhia (Radhiah).

The pillar has no capital at present.

Lauriya-Nandangarh (Mathia) – Lauriya Nandangarh is a small village 14 km from Shikarpur and 28 km from Bettiah in Bihar state. The pillar is about 4.5 km north of Mathia and very close to the ancient site of Nandangarh which has a huge brick stupa of 26 m height. The pillar has lion capital on top.

Dr Bloch suggests that this is the site of the ‘Charcoal Stupa’ of Pippalvana. V A Smith suggests that these two pillars, Lauriya Araraj and Lauriya Nandangarh, were on the course of a royal road from the northern bank of Ganga to the Nepal valley.

-- Edicts of Ashoka – Pillar Edicts, by Saurabh Saxena, July 22, 2012, https://puratattva.in/


However several pillars, such as the bull pillar of Rampurva, or the pillar of Vaishali do not have inscriptions, which, together with their lack of proper foundation stones and their particular style, led some authors to suggest that they were in fact pre-Ashokan.[38][39]

The Major Pillar Edicts (excluding the two fragments of translations found in modern Afghanistan) are all located in central India.[40]

The Pillars of Ashoka are stylistically very close to an important Buddhist monument, also built by Ashoka in Bodh Gaya, at the location where the Buddha had reached enlightenment some 200 years earlier: the Diamond Throne.[41][42] The sculpted decorations on the Diamond Throne clearly echoe the decorations found on the Pillars of Ashoka.[43] The Pillars dated to the end of Ashoka's reign are associated with pillar capitals that tend to be more solemn and less elegant than the earlier capitals, such as those of Sanchi or Sarnath. This led some authors to suggest that the artistic level under Ashoka tended to fall towards the end of his reign.[44]

Languages of the Edicts

Three languages were used: Ashokan Prakrit, Greek (the language of the neighbouring Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Greek communities in Ashoka's realm) and Aramaic (the official language of the former Achaemenid Empire). The Prakrit displayed local variations, from early Gandhari in the northwest, to Old Ardhamagadhi in the east, where it was the "chancery language" of the court.[45] The language level of the Prakrit inscriptions tends to be rather informal or colloquial.[46]

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The four scripts used by Ashoka in his Edicts: Brahmi (top left), Kharoshthi (top right), Greek (bottom left) and Aramaic (bottom right).

Four scripts were used. Prakrit inscriptions were written in the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts, the latter for the area of modern Pakistan. The Greek and Aramaic inscriptions used their respective scripts, in the northwestern areas of Ashoka's territory, in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While most Edicts were in Ashokan Prakrit, a few were written in Greek or Aramaic. The Kandahar Rock Inscription is bilingual Greek-Aramaic. The Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka is in Greek only, and originally probably contained all the Major Rock Edicts 1-14. The Greek language used in the inscription is of a very high level and displays philosophical refinement. It also displays an in-depth understanding of the political language of the Hellenic world in the 3rd century BCE. This suggests the presence of a highly cultured Greek presence in Kandahar at that time.[47]

By contrast, in the rock edicts engraved in southern India in the newly conquered territories of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Ashoka only used the Prakrit of the North as the language of communication, with the Brahmi script, and not the local Dravidian idiom, which can be interpreted as a kind of authoritarianism in respect to the southern territories.[48]

Ashoka's edicts were the first written inscriptions in India after the ancient city of Harrapa fell to ruin.[49] Due to the influence of Ashoka's Prakrit inscriptions, Prakrit would remain the main inscriptional language for the following centuries, until the rise of inscriptional Sanskrit from the 1st century CE.[46]

Content of the Edicts

The Dharma preached by Ashoka is explained mainly in term of moral precepts, based on the doing of good deeds, respect for others, generosity and purity. The expressions used by Ashoka to express the Dharma, were the Prakrit word Dhaṃma, the Greek word Eusebeia (in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription and the Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka), and the Aramaic word Qsyt ("Truth") (in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription).[50]

Moral precepts

Right behaviour


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The Prakrit word "Dha-ṃ-ma" ([x], Sanskrit: Dharma) in the Brahmi script, as inscribed by Ashoka in his Edicts. Topra Kalan pillar, now in New Delhi.

Dharma is good. And what is Dharma? It is having few faults and many goods deeds, mercy, charity, truthfulness and purity. (Major Pillar Edict No.2)[51]

Thus the glory of Dhamma will increase throughout the world, and it will be endorsed in the form of mercy, charity, truthfulness, purity, gentleness, and virtue. (Major Pillar Edict No. 7)[27]


Benevolence

Ashoka's Dharma meant that he used his power to try to make life better for his people and he also tried to change the way people thought and lived. He also thought that dharma meant doing the right thing.

Kindness to prisoners

Ashoka showed great concern for fairness in the exercise of justice, caution and tolerance in the application of sentences, and regularly pardoned prisoners.

But it is desirable that there should be uniformity in judicial procedure and punishment. This is my instruction from now on. Men who are imprisoned or sentenced to death are to be given three days respite. Thus their relations may plead for their lives, or, if there is no one to plead for them, they may make donations or undertake a fast for a better rebirth in the next life. For it is my wish that they should gain the next world. (Major Pillar Edict No. 4)[27]

In the period [from my consecration] to [the anniversary on which] I had been consecrated twenty-six years, twenty-five releases of prisoners have been made. (Major Pillar Edict No. 5)[27]


Respect for animal life

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Animals pervade imperial Mauryan art. Rampurva bull capital established by Ashoka, 3rd century BCE. Now in the Rashtrapati Bhavan Presidential Palace, New Delhi.

The Mauryan empire was the first Indian empire to unify the country and it had a clear-cut policy of exploiting as well as protecting natural resources with specific officials tasked with protection duty. When Ashoka embraced Buddhism in the latter part of his reign, he brought about significant changes in his style of governance, which included providing protection to fauna, and even relinquished the royal hunt. He was perhaps the first ruler in history to advocate conservation measures for wildlife. Reference to these can be seen inscribed on the stone edicts.[52][53]

This rescript on morality has been caused to be written by Devanampriya Priyadarsin. Here no living being must be killed and sacrificed. And also no festival meeting must be held. For king Devanampriya Priyadarsin sees much evil in festival meetings. And there are also some festival meetings which are considered meritorious by king Devanampriya Priyadarsin. Formerly in the kitchen of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin many hundred thousands of animals were killed daily for the sake of curry. But now, when this rescript on morality is caused to be written, then only three animals are being killed (daily), (viz.) two peacocks (and) one deer, but even this deer not regularly. But even these three animals shall not be killed (in future). (Major Rock Edict No.1)[54][27]

King Devanampriya Priyadansin speaks thus. (When I had been) anointed twenty-six years, the following animals were declared by me inviolable, viz. parrots, mainas, the aruna, ruddy geese, wild geese, the nandimukha, the gelata, bats, queen-ants, terrapins, boneless fish, the vedaveyaka, the Ganga-puputaka, skate-fish, tortoises and porcupines, squirrels (?), the srimara, bulls set at liberty, iguanas (?), the rhinoceros, white doves, domestic doves, (and) all the quadrupeds which are neither useful nor edible. Those [she-goats], ewes, and sows (which are) either with young or in milk, are inviolable, and also those (of their) young ones (which are) less than six months old. Cocks must not be caponed. Husks containing living animals must not be burnt. Forests must not be burnt either uselessly or in order to destroy (living beings). Living animals must not be fed with (other) living animals. (Major Pillar Edict No.5)[55][27]


Ashoka advocated restraint in the number that had to be killed for consumption, protected some of them, and in general condemned violent acts against animals, such as castration.

However, the edicts of Ashoka reflect more the desire of rulers than actual events; the mention of a 100 'panas' (coins) fine for poaching deer in royal hunting preserves shows that rule-breakers did exist. The legal restrictions conflicted with the practices then freely exercised by the common people in hunting, felling, fishing and setting fires in forests.[53]

Religious precepts

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Ashoka and his two queens, visiting the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, in a relief at Sanchi (1st century CE). The identification with Ashoka is confirmed by the similar relief from Kanaganahalli inscribed "Raya Asoka".[56][57]

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The words "Bu-dhe" ([x], the Buddha) and "Sa-kya-mu-nī " ( [x], "Sage of the Shakyas") in Brahmi script, on Ashoka's Rummindei Minor Pillar Edict (circa 250 BCE).

Buddhism

Explicit mentions of Buddhism or the Buddha only appear in the Minor Rock Edicts and the Minor Pillar Edicts.[20] Beyond affirming himself as a Buddhist and spreading the moral virtues of Buddhism, Ashoka also insisted that the word of the Buddha be read and followed, in particular in monastic circles (the Sanghas), in a unique edict (Minor Rock Edict No.3), found in front of the Bairat Temple[58]

I have been a Buddhist layman ("Budha-Shake" in the Maski edict, upāshake in others)[59] for more than two and a half years, but for a year I did not make much progress. Now for more than a year I have drawn closer to the Order and have become more ardent. (Minor Rock Edict No.1)[27]

The king of Magadha, Piyadassi, greets the Order and wishes it prosperity and freedom from care. You know Sirs, how deep is my respect for and faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Samgha [i.e. the Buddhist creed]. Sirs, whatever was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well spoken. (Minor Rock Edict No.3)[27]

These sermons on Dhamma, Sirs - the Excellence of the Discipline, the Lineage of the Noble One, the Future Fears, the Verses of,the Sage, the Sutra of Silence, the Question, of Upatissa, and the Admonition spoken by the Lord Buddha to Rahula on the subject of false speech - these sermons on the Dhamma, Sirs, I desire that many monks and nuns should hear frequently and meditate upon, and likewise laymen and laywomen. (Minor Rock Edict No.3)[27]


Ashoka also expressed his devotion for the Buddhas of the past, such as the Koṇāgamana Buddha, for whom he enlarged a stupa in the 14th year of his reign, and made a dedication and set up a pillar during a visit in person in the 20th year of his reign, as described in his Minor Pillar Edict of Nigali Sagar, in modern Nepal.[60][61]

Belief in a next world

By doing so, there is gain in this world, and in the next there is infinite merit, through the gift of Dhamma. (Major Rock Edict No.11) [27]

It is hard to obtain happiness in this world and the next without extreme love of Dhamma, much vigilance, much obedience, much fear of sin, and extreme energy. (Major Pillar Edict No. 1)[27]


Religious exchange

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The Barabar caves were built by Ashoka for the ascetic sect of the Ajivikas, as well as for the Buddhists, illustrating his respect for several faiths. Lomas Rishi cave. 3rd century BCE.

Far from being sectarian, Ashoka, based on a belief that all religions shared a common, positive essence, encouraged tolerance and understanding of other religions.

The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, wishes that all sect may dwell in all places, for all seek self-control and purity of mind. (Major Rock Edict No.7[27]

For whosoever praises his own sect or blames other sects, — all (this) out of pure devotion to his own sect, (i.e.) with the view of glorifying his own sect, — if he is acting thus, he rather injures his own sect very severely. But concord is meritorious, (i.e.) that they should both hear and obey each other's morals. For this is the desire of Devanampriya, (viz.) that all sects should be both full of learning and pure in doctrine. And those who are attached to their respective (sects), ought to be spoken to (as follows). Devanampriya does not value either gifts or honours so (highly) as (this), (viz.) that a promotion of the essentials of all sects should take place. (Major Rock Edict No.12[62][27]


Social and animal welfare

According to the edicts, Ashoka took great care of the welfare of his subjects (human and animal), and those beyond his borders, spreading the use of medicinal treatments, improving roadside facilities for more comfortable travel, and establishing "officers of the faith" throughout his territories to survey the welfare of the population and the propagation of the Dharma. The Greek king Antiochos ("the Yona king named Antiyoga" in the text of the Edicts) is also named as a recipient of Ashoka's generosity, together with the other kings neighbouring him.[63]

Medicinal treatments

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The Seleucid king Antiochos ("Aṃtiyakā", "Aṃtiyako" or "Aṃtiyoga" depending on the transliterations) is named as a recipient of Ashoka's medical treatments, together with his Hellenistic neighbours.[63]

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"Aṃtiyako Yona Rājā" ("The Greek king Antiochos"), mentioned in Major Rock Edict No.2, here at Girnar. Brahmi script.[64]

Everywhere in the dominions of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin and (of those) who (are his) borderers, such as the Chodas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputa,[note 1] the Kelalaputa,[note 2] Tamraparni, the Yona king named Antiyoga, and the other kings who are the neighbours of this Antiyoga, everywhere two (kinds of) medical treatment were established by king Devanampriya Priyadarsin, (viz.) medical treatment for men and medical treatment for cattle. Wherever there were no herbs beneficial to men and beneficial to cattle, everywhere they were caused to be imported and to be planted. Likewise, wherever there were no roots and fruits, everywhere they were caused to be imported and to be planted. On the roads trees were planted, and wells were caused to be dug for the use of cattle and men. (Major Rock Edict No. 2, Khalsi version)[67][27]


Roadside facilities

On the roads banyan-trees were caused to be planted by me, (in order that) they might afford shade to cattle and men, (and) mango-groves were caused to be planted. And (at intervals) of eight kos wells were caused to be dug by me, and flights of steps (for descending into the water) were caused to be built. Numerous drinking-places were caused to be established by me, here and there, for the enjoyment of cattle and men. [But] this so-called enjoyment (is) [of little consequence]. For with various comforts have the people been blessed both by former kings and by myself. But by me this has been done for the following purpose: that they might conform to that practice of morality. (Major Pillar Edict No.7)[55][27]


Officers of the faith

Now, in times past (officers) called Mahamatras of morality did not exist before. Mahdmatras of morality were appointed by me (when I had been) anointed thirteen years. These are occupied with all sects in establishing morality, in promoting morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality (even) among the Yona, Kambojas, and Gandharas, and whatever other western borderers (of mine there are). They are occupied with servants and masters, with Brahmanas and Ibhiyas, with the destitute; (and) with the aged, for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality, (and) in releasing (them) from the fetters (of worldly life). (Major Rock Edict No.5)[68][27]


Birthplace of the historical Buddha

Main article: Lumbini pillar inscription

In a particularly famous Edict, the Rummindei Edict in Lumbini, Nepal, Ashoka describes his visit in the 21st year of his reign, and mentions Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha. He also, for the first time in historical records, uses the epithet "Sakyamuni" (Sage of the Shakyas), to describe the historical Buddha.[69]

Rummindei pillar, inscription of Ashoka (circa 248 BCE)

Translation (English) / Transliteration (original Brahmi script) / Inscription (Prakrit in the Brahmi script)

When King Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty years, he came himself and worshipped (this spot) because the Buddha Shakyamuni was born here. (He) both caused to be made a stone bearing a horse (?) and caused a stone pillar to be set up, (in order to show) that the Blessed One was born here. (He) made the village of Lummini free of taxes, and paying (only) an eighth share (of the produce).

— The Rummindei Edict, one of the Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka.[70] / [x] Devānaṃpiyena Piyadasina lājina vīsati-vasābhisitena [x]atana āgācha mahīyite hida Budhe jāte Sakyamuni ti [x] silā vigaḍabhī chā kālāpita silā-thabhe cha usapāpite [x] hida Bhagavaṃ jāte ti Luṃmini-gāme ubalike kaṭe [x] aṭha-bhāgiye cha — Adapted from transliteration by E. Hultzsch.[71] /
Image
The Rummindei pillar edict in Lumbini.


Ashoka's proselytism according to the Edicts

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The Kalsi rock edict of Ashoka, which mentions the Greek kings Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas and Alexander by name (underlined in color).

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The word Yona for "Greek" in the Girnar 2nd Major Rock Edict of Ashoka. The word is part of the phrase "Amtiyako Yona Raja" (The Greek King Antiochus).[72]

In order to propagate welfare, Ashoka explains that he sent emissaries and medicinal plants to the Hellenistic kings as far as the Mediterranean, and to people throughout India, claiming that Dharma had been achieved in all their territories as well. He names the Greek rulers of the time, inheritors of the conquest of Alexander the Great, from Bactria to as far as Greece and North Africa, as recipients of the Dharma, displaying a clear grasp of the political situation at the time.[73][74][75]

Proselytism beyond India

Now, it is the conquest by the Dharma that the Beloved of the Gods considers as the best conquest. And this one (the conquest by the Dharma) was won here, on the borders, and even 600 yojanas (leagues) from here, where the king Antiochos reigns, and beyond where reign the four kings Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander, likewise in the south, where live the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni.

— Extract from Major Rock Edict No.13.[76]


The distance of 600 yojanas (4,800 to 6,000 miles) corresponds roughly to the distance between the center of India and Greece.[63]

In the Gandhari original Antiochos is referred to as "Amtiyoge nama Yona-raja" (lit. "The Greek king by the name of Antiokos"), beyond whom live the four other kings: "param ca tena Atiyogena cature 4 rajani Tulamaye nama Amtekine nama Makā nama Alikasudaro nama" (lit. "And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander".[77]

• Amtiyaka ([x]) or Amtiyoga ([x]), refers to Antiochus II Theos of Syria (261–246 BCE), who controlled the Seleucid Empire from Syria to Bactria in the east from 305 to 250 BCE, and was therefore a direct neighbor of Ashoka.[63][78]
• Tulamāya ([x]) refers to Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt (285–247 BCE), king of the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, a former general of Alexander the Great, in Egypt.[63][78]
• Amtekina ([x]) refers to Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon (278–239 BCE).[63][78]
• Makā ([x]) refers to Magas of Cyrene (300–258 BCE).[63][78]
• Alikyaṣadala ([x]) refers to Alexander II of Epirus (272–258 BCE).[63][78]

All the kings mentioned in Ashoka's Major Rock Edict No.13 are famous Hellenistic rulers, contemporary of Ashoka:[63][79]

Image
Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos of Syria (261–246 BCE).

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Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt (285–247 BCE) with his sister Arsinoe II.

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Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon (278–239 BCE).

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Magas of Cyrene (300–258 BCE).

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Alexander II of Epirus (272–258 BCE) on a cameo of agate.

Emissaries

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Territories "conquered by the Dharma" according to Major Rock Edict No.13 of Ashoka (260–232 BCE).[63][78]

It is not clear in Hellenic records whether these emissaries were actually received, or had any influence on the Hellenic world. But the existence of the edicts in a very high-level Greek literary and philosophical language testifies to the high sophistication of the Greek community of Kandahar, and to a true communication between Greek intellectuals and Indian thought.[80][81] According to historian Louis Robert, it becomes quite likely that these Kandahar Greeks who were very familiar with Indian culture could in turn transmit Indian ideas to the philosophical circles of the Mediterranean world, in Seleucia, Antioch, Alexandria, Pella or Cyrene.[81] He suggests that the famous Ashoka emissaries sent to the Western Hellenistic Courts according to Ashoka's Major Rock Edict No.13 were in fact Greek subjects and citizens of Kandahar, who had the full capacity to carry out these embassies.[81]

Another document, the Mahavamsa (XII, 1st paragraph),[82] also states that in the 17th year of his reign, at the end of the Third Buddhist Council, Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to eight parts of Southern Asia and the "country of the Yonas" (Greeks) to propagate Buddhism.[83]

Presence in the West

Overall, the evidence for the presence of Buddhists in the west from that time is very meager.[84] But some scholars point to the possible presence of Buddhist communities in the Hellenistic world, in particular in Alexandria.[85] Dio Chrysostum wrote to Alexandrians that there are "Indians who view the spectacles with you and are with you on all occasions" (Oratio.XXXII.373).[86][87][85] According to Ptolemy also, Indians were present in Alexandria, to whom he was much endebted for his knowledge of India (As.Res.III.53).[88] Clement of Alexandria too mentioned the presence of Indians in Alexandria.[89] A possible Buddhist gravestone from the Ptolemaic period has been found by Flinders Petrie, decorated with a depiction of what may be Wheel of the Law and Trishula.[85][90] According to the 11th century Muslim historian Al-Biruni, before the advent of Islam, Buddhists were present in Western Asia as far as the frontiers of Syria.[91][92]

Possible influences on Western thought

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Top: Wheels in Egyptian temples according to Hero of Alexandria.[93] Bottom: Possible wheel and trisula symbol on Ptolemaic tombstones in Egypt.[93]

Colonial era scholars such as Rhys Davids have attributed Ashoka's claims of "Dharmic conquest" to mere vanity, and expressed disbelief that Greeks could have been in any way influenced by Indian thought.[94]

But numerous authors have noted the parallels between Buddhism, Cyrenaicism and Epicureanism, which all strive for a state of ataraxia ("equanimity") away from the sorrows of life.[95][96][97] The positions of philosophers such as Hegesias of Cyrene were close to Buddhism, his ideas recalling the Buddhist doctrine of suffering: he lived in the city of Cyrene where Magas ruled, the same Magas under whom the Dharma prospered according to Ashoka, and he may have been influenced by Ashoka's missionaries.[97][98][99][100]

The religious communities of the Essenes of Palestine and the Therapeutae of Alexandria may also have been communities based on the model of Buddhist monasticism, following Ashoka's missions.[101][102][103] According to semitologist André Dupont-Sommer, speaking about the consequences of Ashoka's proselytism: "It is India which would be, according to us, at the beginning of this vast monastic current which shone with a strong brightness during about three centuries in Judaism itself".[104] This influence would even contribute, according to André Dupont-Sommer, to the emergence of Christianity: "Thus was prepared the ground on which Christianity, that sect of Jewish origin influenced by the Essenes, which was so quickly and so powerfully to conquer a very large part of the world."[105][102]

Proselytism within Ashoka's territories

Inside India proper, in the realm of Ashoka, many different populations were the object of the King's proselytism. Greek communities also lived in the northwest of the Mauryan empire, currently in Pakistan, notably ancient Gandhara, and in the region of Gedrosia, nowadays in Southern Afghanistan, following the conquest and the colonization efforts of Alexander the Great around 323 BCE. These communities therefore seem to have been still significant during the reign of Ashoka. The Kambojas are a people of Central Asian origin who had settled first in Arachosia and Drangiana (today's southern Afghanistan), and in some of the other areas in the northwestern Indian subcontinent in Sindhu, Gujarat and Sauvira. The Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas were other people under Ashoka's rule:

Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dhamma. Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika)


Influences

Achaemenid inscriptional tradition


Image
The word Lipī ([x]) used by Ashoka to describe his "Edicts". Brahmi script (Li=[x]).

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The same word was "Dipi" in the northwest, identical with the Persian word for writing, as in this segment "Dhrama-Dipi" ([x], "inscription of the Dharma") in Kharosthi script in the First Edict at Shahbazgarhi. The third letter from the right reads "Di" Kharoshthi letter Di.jpg and not "Li" Kharoshthi letter Li.jpg.[106]

Image
The same expression Dhamma Lipi ("Dharma inscriptions") in Brahmi script ([x]), Delhi-Topra pillar.

The inscriptions of Ashoka may show Achaemenid influences, including formulaic parallels with Achaemenid inscriptions, presence of Iranian loanwords (in Aramaic inscriptions), and the very act of engraving edicts on rocks and mountains (compare for example Behistun inscription).[107][108] To describe his own Edicts, Ashoka used the word Lipī ([x]), now generally simply translated as "writing" or "inscription". It is thought the word "lipi", which is also orthographed "dipi" ([x]) in the two Kharosthi versions of the rock edicts,[note 3] comes from an Old Persian prototype dipî ([x]) also meaning "inscription", which is used for example by Darius I in his Behistun inscription,[note 4] suggesting borrowing and diffusion.[109][110][111] There are other borrowings of Old Persian terms for writing-related words in the Edicts of Ahoka, such as nipista or nipesita ([x], "written" and "made to be written") in the Kharoshthi version of Major Rock Edict No.4, which can be related to the word nipištā ([x], "written") from the daiva inscription of Xerxes at Persepolis.[112]
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Hellenistic inscriptions

It has also been suggested that inscriptions bearing the Delphic maxims from the Seven Sages of Greece, inscribed by philosopher Clearchus of Soli in the neighbouring city of Ai-Khanoum circa 300 BCE, may have influenced the writings of Ashoka.[113][114] These Greek inscriptions, located in the central square of Ai-Khanoum, put forward traditional Greek moral rules which are very close to the Edicts, both in term of formulation and content.[114][115]

Ancestor of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system

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The numerals used by Ashoka in his Edicts.

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The number "256" in Ashoka's Minor Rock Edict No.1 in Sasaram.

The first examples of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system appeared in the Brahmi numerals used in the Edicts of Ashoka, in which a few numerals are found, although the system is not yet positional (the zero, together with a mature positional system, was invented much later around the 6th century CE) and involves different symbols for units, dozens or hundreds.[116] This system is later further documented with more numerals in the Nanaghat inscriptions (1st century BCE), and later in the Nasik Caves inscriptions (2nd century CE), to acquire designs which are largely similar to the Hindu-Arabic numerals used today.[117][118][119]

The number "6" in particular appears in Minor Rock Edict No.1 when Ashoka explains he has "been on tour for 256 days". The evolution to the modern glyph for 6 appears rather straightforward. It was written in one stroke, somewhat like a cursive lowercase "e". Gradually, the upper part of the stroke (above the central squiggle) became more curved, while the lower part of the stroke (below the central squiggle) became straighter. The Arabs dropped the part of the stroke below the squiggle. From there, the European evolution to the modern 6 was very straightforward, aside from a flirtation with a glyph that looked more like an uppercase G.[120]

Influence on Indian epigraphy

Main article: Early Indian epigraphy

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The Edicts of Ashoka started a tradition of epigraphical inscriptions.[121] 1800 years separate these two inscriptions: Brahmi script of the 3rd century BCE (Major Pillar Edict of Ashoka), and its derivative, 16th century CE Devanagari script (1524 CE), on the Delhi-Topra pillar.

Ashokan inscriptions in Prakrit precede by several centuries inscriptions in Sanskrit, probably owing to the great prestige which Ashokan inscriptions gave to the Prakrit language.[122] Louis Renou called it "the great linguistical paradox of India" that the Sanskrit inscriptions appear later than Prakrit inscriptions, although Prakrit is considered as a descendant of the Sanskrit language.[122]

Ashoka was probably the first Indian ruler to create stone inscriptions, and in doing so, he began an important Indian tradition of royal epigraphical inscriptions.[121] The earliest known stone inscriptions in Sanskrit are in the Brahmi script from the first century BCE.[122] These early Sanskrit inscriptions include the Ayodhyā (Uttar Pradesh) and Hāthībādā-Ghosuṇḍī (near Chittorgarh, Rajasthan) inscriptions.[122][123] Other important inscriptions dated to the 1st century BCE, in relatively accurate classical Sanskrit and Brahmi script are the Yavanarajya inscription on a red sandstone slab and the long Naneghat inscription on the wall of a cave rest stop in the Western Ghats.[124] Besides these few examples from the 1st century BCE, the bulk of early Sanskrit inscriptions were made from the 1st and 2nd-century CE by the Indo-Scythian Northern Satraps in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), and the Western Satraps in Gujarat and Maharashtra.[125] According to Salomon, the Scythian rulers of northern and western India while not the originators, were promoters of the use of Sanskrit language for inscriptions, and "their motivation in promoting Sanskrit was presumably a desire to establish themselves as legitimate Indian or at least Indianized rulers and to curry the favor of the educated Brahmanical elite".[126]

The Brahmi script used in the Edicts of Ashoka, as well as the Prakrit language of these inscriptions was in popular use down through the Kushan period, and remained readable down to the 4th century CE during the Gupta period. After that time the script underwent significant evolutions which rendered the Ashokan inscriptions unreadable. This still means that Ashoka's Edicts were for everyone to see and understand for a period of nearly 700 years in India, suggesting that they remained significantly influential for a long time.[127]

Questions of authorship

The Edicts and their declared authors

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Edicts in the name of Piyadasi or Devanampiya Piyadasi ("King Piyadasi"):
Major Rock Edicts
Major Pillar Edicts


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Edicts in the name of Ashoka or just "Devanampiya" ("King"), or both together:
Minor Rock Edicts
Minor Pillar Edicts


The different areas covered by the two types of inscriptions, and their different content in respect to Buddhism, may point to different rulers.
[128]


According to some scholars such as Christopher I. Beckwith, Ashoka, whose name only appears in the Minor Rock Edicts, should be differentiated from the ruler Piyadasi, or Devanampiya Piyadasi (i.e. "Beloved of the Gods Piyadasi", "Beloved of the Gods" being a fairly widespread title for "King"), who is named as the author of the Major Pillar Edicts and the Major Rock Edicts.[128] Beckwith also highlights the fact that Buddhism nor the Buddha are mentioned in the Major Edicts, but only in the Minor Edicts.[129] Further, the Buddhist notions described in the Minor Edicts (such as the Buddhist canonical writings in Minor Edict No.3 at Bairat, the mention of a Buddha of the past Kanakamuni Buddha in the Nigali Sagar Minor Pillar Edict) are more characteristic of the "Normative Buddhism" of the Saka-Kushan period around the 2nd century CE.[129]

This inscriptional evidence may suggest that Piyadasi and Ashoka were two different rulers.[128] According to Beckwith, Piyadasi was living in the 3rd century BCE, probably the son of Chandragupta Maurya known to the Greeks as Amitrochates, and only advocating for piety ("Dharma") in his Major Pillar Edicts and Major Rock Edicts, without ever mentioning Buddhism, the Buddha or the Samgha.[128] Since he does mention a pilgrimage to Sambhodi (Bodh Gaya, in Major Rock Edict No.8) however, he may have adhered to an "early, pietistic, popular" form of Buddhism.[130] Also, the geographical spread of his inscription shows that Piyadasi ruled a vast Empire, contiguous with the Seleucid Empire in the West.[128]

On the contrary, for Beckwith, Ashoka himself was a later king of the 1st-2nd century CE, whose name only appears explicitly in the Minor Rock Edicts and allusively in the Minor Pillar Edicts, and who does mention the Buddha and the Samgha, explicitly promoting Buddhism.[128] He may have been an unknown or possibly invented ruler named Devanampriya Asoka, with the intent of propagating a later, more institutional version of the Buddhist faith.[129][131] His inscriptions cover a very different and much smaller geographical area, clustering in Central India.[128] According to Beckwith, the inscriptions of this later Ashoka were typical of the later forms of "normative Buddhism", which are well attested from inscriptions and Gandhari manuscripts dated to the turn of the millennium, and around the time of the Kushan Empire.[128] The quality of the inscriptions of this Ashoka is significantly lower than the quality of the inscriptions of the earlier Piyadasi.[128]


However, many of Beckwith's methodologies and interpretations concerning early Buddhism, inscriptions, and archaeological sites have been criticized by other scholars, such as Johannes Bronkhorst and Osmund Bopearachchi.[132][133]

See also

• List of Edicts of Ashoka
• Pillars of Ashoka
• Ashokan Edicts in Delhi
• Ashoka's Major Rock Edict
• Edict
• Greco-Buddhism
• Kambojas

Notes

1. Seems to refer to Tamil ruler Athiyaman.[65]
2. Kelalaputa is the Prakrit for Kerala.[66]
3. For example, according to Hultzsch, the first line of the First Edict at Shahbazgarhi (or at Mansehra) reads: "(Ayam) Dhrama-dipi Devanapriyasa Raño likhapitu" ("This Dharma-Edicts was written by King Devanampriya" Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). 1925. p. 51.
This appears in the reading of Hultzsch's original rubbing of the Kharoshthi inscription of the first line of the First Edict at Shahbazgarhi.
4. For example Column IV, Line 89
• Gandhari original of Edict No. 13 (Greek kings: Paragraph 9): Text

References

Citations


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63. Kosmin, Paul J. (2014). The Land of the Elephant Kings. Harvard University Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780674728820.
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68. Translation by E. Hultzsch (1857–1927). Published in India in 1925. Inscriptions of Asoka p. 32. Public Domain.
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70. Hultzsch, E. (1925). Inscriptions of Asoka. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 164–165
71. Hultzsch, E. (1925). Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). p. 164.
72. Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). 1925. pp. 3–5.
73. Sadasivan, S. N. (2000). A Social History of India. APH Publishing. ISBN 9788176481700.
74. Heinz, Carolyn Brown; Murray, Jeremy A. (2018). Asian Cultural Traditions: Second Edition. Waveland Press. p. 166. ISBN 9781478637646.
75. Bozeman, Adda Brümmer. Politics and culture in international history. Transaction Publishers. p. 126. ISBN 9781412831321.
76. S. Dhammika, The Edicts of King Ashoka The Fourteen Rock Edicts/13
77. Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). 1925. p. 46.
78. Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p. 368.
79. Lahiri, Nayanjot (2015). Ashoka in Ancient India. Harvard University Press. p. 25. ISBN 9780674057777.
80. Lahiri, Nayanjot (2015). Ashoka in Ancient India. Harvard University Press. p. 173. ISBN 9780674057777.
81. Une nouvelle inscription grecque d'Açoka [article], Schlumberger, Daniel, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1964 p.139
82. Mahavamsa. "Chapter XII". lakdiva.org.
83. Jermsawatdi, Promsak (1979). Thai Art with Indian Influences. Abhinav Publications. pp. 10–11. ISBN 9788170170907.
84. Heirman, Ann; Bumbacher, Stephan Peter (2007). The Spread of Buddhism. BRILL. pp. 148–149. ISBN 978-9004158306.
85. Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p. 383.
86. "For I behold among you, not merely Greeks and Italians and people from neighbouring Syria, Libya, Cilicia, nor yet Ethiopians and Arabs from more distant regions, but even Bactrians and Scythians and Persians and a few Indians, and all these help to make up the audience in your theatre and sit beside you on each occasion" "LacusCurtius • Dio Chrysostom — Discourse 32". penelope.uchicago.edu.
87. Sugirtharajah, R. S. (2013). The Bible and Asia. Harvard University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780674726468.
88. Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p. 383, quoting As.Res.III Asiatic Researches Or Transactions Vol. 3. 1799. p. 297.
89. Dayal, Har (1999). The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 41. ISBN 9788120812574.
90. Simpson, William (1898). "The Buddhist Praying Wheel". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 30(4): 875. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00146659. JSTOR 25208047. Apud William Woodthorpe Tarn (1951). The Greeks in Bactria and India (2nd ed.). Cambridge: University Press. p. 370.
91. Skilton, Andrew (2013). Concise History of Buddhism. Windhorse Publications. p. 196. ISBN 9781909314122.
92. "Compareti - Buddhist Activity in Pre-Islamic Persia - Transoxiana 12". http://www.transoxiana.org.
93. William Simpson (1898). "The Buddhist Praying Wheel". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 30(4): 875. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00146659. JSTOR 25208047.
94. Lahiri, Nayanjot (2015). Ashoka in Ancient India. Harvard University Press. p. 341 Note 43. ISBN 9780674057777.
95. Scharfstein, Ben-Ami (1998). A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant. SUNY Press. p. 202. ISBN 9780791436837.
96. Cooper, David E.; James, Simon P. (2017). Buddhism, Virtue and Environment. Routledge. p. 105. ISBN 9781351954310.
97. Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt, Dee L. Clayman, Oxford University Press, 2014, p.33
98. "The philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene (nicknamed Peisithanatos, "The Death-Persuader") was contemporary of Magas and was probably influenced by the teachings of the Buddhist missionaries to Cyrene and Alexandria. His influence was such that he was ultimately prohited to teach" —Jean-Marie Lafont . Les Dossiers d'Archéologie (254): 78, INALCO
99. Éric Volant, Culture et mort volontaire, quoted in
100. Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Philosophy, Anthony Preus, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p.184
101. Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramkrishna; Bhandarkar, R. G. (2000). Asoka. Asian Educational Services. p. 165. ISBN 9788120613331.
102. Nakamura, Hajime (1987). Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 95. ISBN 9788120802728.
103. Essénisme et Bouddhisme, André Dupont-Sommer, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Year 1980 124-4 pp.704-715
104. "C'est l'Inde qui serait, selon nous, au départ de ce vaste courant monastique qui brilla d'un vif éclat durant environ trois siècles dans le judaïsme même" in Essénisme et Bouddhisme, André Dupont-Sommer, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Year 1980 124-4 pp. 698-715 p.710-711
105. "Ainsi s'était préparé le terrain où prit naissance le Christianisme, cette secte d'origine juive, essénienne ou essénisante, qui devait si vite et si puissamment conquérir une très grande partie du monde."in Essénisme et Bouddhisme, Dupont-Sommer, André, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Year 1980 124-4 pp. 698-715 p.715
106. Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). 1925. p. 51.
107. Sagar, Krishna Chandra (1992). Foreign Influence on Ancient India. Northern Book Centre. p. 39. ISBN 9788172110284.
108. "Ashoka" in Encyclopaedia Iranica
109. Hultzsch, E. (1925). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum v. 1: Inscriptions of Asoka. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. xlii.
110. Sharma, R. S. (2006). India's Ancient Past. Oxford University Press. p. 163. ISBN 9780199087860.
111. "The word dipi appears in the Old Persian inscription of Darius I at Behistan (Column IV. 39) having the meaning inscription or "written document" in Indian History Congress (2007). Proceedings - Indian History Congress. p. 90.
112. de Voogt, Alexander J.; Finkel, Irving L. (2010). The Idea of Writing: Play and Complexity. BRILL. p. 209. ISBN 978-9004174467.
113. Erskine, Andrew (2009). A Companion to the Hellenistic World. John Wiley & Sons. p. 421. ISBN 9781405154413.
114. Valeri P. Yailenko, Les maximes delphiques d'Aï Khanoum et la formation de la doctrine du dharma d'Asoka, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, Vol. 16, No.1, 1990 pp.239-256
115. Henk Singor, Leiden University King Ashoka's Philanthropia
116. Hollingdale, Stuart (2014). Makers of Mathematics. Courier Corporation. pp. 95–96. ISBN 9780486174501.
117. Publishing, Britannica Educational (2009). The Britannica Guide to Theories and Ideas That Changed the Modern World. Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 9781615300631.
118. Katz, Victor J.; Parshall, Karen Hunger (2014). Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. p. 105. ISBN 9781400850525.
119. Pillis, John de (2002). 777 Mathematical Conversation Starters. MAA. p. 286. ISBN 9780883855409.
120. Georges Ifrah, The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computertransl. David Bellos et al. London: The Harvill Press (1998): 395, Fig. 24.66
121. Singor, Henk (2014). King Ashoka's Philanthropia (PDF). p. 4.
122. Salomon 1998, pp. 86-87. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFSalomon1998 (help)
123. Theo Damsteegt (1978). Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit. Brill Academic. pp. 209–211.
124. Sonya Rhie Quintanilla (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL Academic. pp. 254–255. ISBN 978-90-04-15537-4.
125. Salomon 1998, p. 87 with footnotes. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFSalomon1998 (help)
126. Salomon 1998, p. 93. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFSalomon1998 (help)
127. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. p. 242. ISBN 9781400866328.
128. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2017). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. pp. 226–250. ISBN 978-0-691-17632-1.
129. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. p. 238. ISBN 9781400866328.
130. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. p. 134. ISBN 9781400866328.
131. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. p. 231. ISBN 9781400866328.
132. Bopearachchi, Osmund (2016). "Review of C.I. Beckwith, Greek Buddha".
133. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2016). How the Brahmins Won. Brill. pp. 483–489.

Sources

• Cunningham, Alexander (1877). Inscriptions of Asoka, Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing
• Dhammika, S. (1993). "The Edicts of King Asoka: An English Rendering", The Wheel Publication No. 386/387, Kandy Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, ISBN 955-24-0104-6
• Gombrich, Richard; Guruge, Ananda (1994). King Ashoka and Buddhism: Historical and Literary studies, Kandy: Sri Lanka; Buddhist Publication Society, 1st edition, ISBN 9552400651
• Mookerji, Radhakumud (1962). Aśoka (3rd ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas.
• Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
• Singh, Upinder (2008). "Chapter 7: Power and Piety: The Maurya Empire, c. 324-187 BCE". A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. New Delhi: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9.
• Le, Huu Phuoc (2010). Buddhist Architecture. Grafikol. ISBN 9780984404308.

External links

• The Edicts of King Ashoka by Dhammika
• Edicts in original Gandhari
• Inscriptions of India – Complete listing of historical inscriptions from Indian temples and monuments
• Ashoka Library in Bibliotheca Polyglotta with all inscriptions, Māgadhī and English
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Shanti Parva
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/27/21

Image
Yudhishthira receives counsel from sages (shown) and from dying Bhishma on proper governance, justice and rule of law in Shanti parva.

The Shanti Parva (Sanskrit: शान्ति पर्व; IAST: Śānti parva; "Book of Peace") is the twelfth of eighteen books of the Indian Epic Mahabharata. It traditionally has 3 sub-books and 365 chapters.[1][2] The critical edition has 3 sub-books and 353 chapters.[3][4] It is the longest book among the eighteen books of the epic.

The book is set after the war is over- the two sides have accepted peace and Yudhishthira starts his rule of the Pandava kingdom. The Shanti parva recites the duties of the ruler, dharma and good governance, as counseled by the dying Bhishma and various Rishis.[5] The parva includes many symbolic tales such as one about "starving and vegetarian Vishvamitra stealing meat during a famine" and fables such as that of "the fowler and pigeons". The book also provides what some have described as a "theory of caste" as well as a comparative discussion between a rule of truth versus a rule of rituals, declaring truth to be far superior over rituals.[6] Shanti parva has been widely studied for its treatises on jurisprudence, prosperity and success.[7][8]

Scholars have questioned whether parts or all of the parva was inserted or interpolated at a later age.[9][10]


Structure and chapters

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Yudhishthira arrives in Hastinapur to be crowned as king of the combined Kaurava and Pandava kingdoms.

This Parva (book) traditionally has 3 sub-parvas (sub-books or little books) and 365 adhyayas (sections, chapters).[2][1] The following are the sub-parvas:[11]

1. Rajadharma-anusasana Parva (Chapters: 1–130)[2][6]
This sub-book describes the duties of kings and leaders, among other things.

2. Apaddharma-anusasana Parva (Chapters: 131–173)[6]
This sub-book describes the rules of conduct when one faces adversity.

3. Moksha-dharma Parva (Chapters: 174–365)[2]

This sub-book describes behavior and rules to achieve moksha (emancipation, release, freedom).

Shanti parva begins with sorrowful Yudhishthira lamenting the loss of human lives during the war. The great Rishis came there to see that monarch, among them were Vyasa, Narada, Devala, Devasthana and Kanwa. Yudhishthira griefs for loss of his kinsmen and especially for his eldest brother. He says that for gaining kingdom, unwittingly, he caused that brother of his to be slain, for that his heart is burning exceedingly. He says that if he had both Karna and Arjuna for aiding him, he could have vanquished the gods himself. He asks Narada who was acquainted with everything of world, the cause for car wheel stuck and curses on his brother. Narada says, Nothing could resist Karna and Arjuna in battle. And what he is about to tell him is unknown to the very gods. He tell him how Kunti conceived that child and latter he had status of Suta, how when refused by Drona for Brahma weapon, he met with Rama, how he obtained celestial weapons by servicing Rama, how he was cursed by a brahmin for killing his cow unwitting, by Rama for lying, and by goddess earth, how he came to be with friendship of Duryodhana, how when Duryodhana abducted the maiden of Kalingas with force, Karna defended him from the other kings, how when king Jarasandha challenged him to a single combat he fought with him, how when he was about to sever his antagonist body into two pieces, spared him from desire of friendship. From friendship he gave unto Karna the town Malini & Champa, and made him famous for his valour. When for their good, the Lord of the celestials begged of him his natural coat of mail and ear-rings, stupefied he gave away those precious possessions. Deprived of his armor and ear-rings, in consequence of Brahmana's curse as also of the illustrious Rama, of the boon granted to Kunti, of illusion practised on him by Indra, of his depreciation by Bhishma as only half a car-warrior, of destruction of his energy caused by Shalya keen speeches, of Vasudeva's policy, and lastly of the celestial weapons given to Arjuna of Rudra, Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kuvera, Drona and Kripa, with these the wielder of Gandiva succeeded in slaying, that tiger among men, Vikartana's son Karna, of effulgence like that of sun. Having said these words, the celestial Rishi Narada became silent. Yudhishthira griefs, shedding copious tears and Kunti consoles him. Yudhishthira announces his desire to renounce the kingdom, move into a forest as a mendicant and live in silence. He receives counsel from his family and then sages Narada and Vyasa, as well as Devala, Devasthana and Kanwa.[6] The parva includes the story of king Janaka and the queen of the Videhas, presenting the theory of true mendicant as one who does not crave for material wealth, not one who abandons material wealth for an outward show. Arjuna argues it is more virtuous to create and maintain virtuous wealth and do good with it, than to neither create nor have any. Yudhishthira challenges Arjuna how would he know. Sage Vyasa then intervenes and offers arguments from Vedas that support Arjuna's comments, and the story of Sankha and Likhita. Krishna concurs with Arjuna and Vyasa, and adds his own arguments. Vasudeva then tells him to approach Bhishma who was in his bed of arrows and question him about knowledge of life and duties of the four orders, before he disappears. They all go and meet with Bhishma, where Krishna relieves Bhishma from pain using his power and Bhishma gives them lecture about duties of a king, further days.[2][6]

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Shanti parva recites a theory of governance and duties of a leader.[5] This theory is outlined by dying Bhishma to Yudhishthira and his brothers (shown), as well as words from sage Vidura.[1]

Shanti parva is a treatise on duties of a king and his government, dharma (laws and rules), proper governance, rights, justice and describes how these create prosperity. Yudhishthira becomes the king of a prosperous and peaceful kingdom, Bhima his heir apparent, sage Vidura the prime minister, Sanjaya the finance minister, Arjuna the defense and justice minister, and Dhaumya is appointed one responsible to service priests and counsels to the king.[1][6] This books also includes a treatise on yoga as recited by Krishna.

English translations

Shanti Parva was composed in Sanskrit. Several translations of the book in English are available. Two translations from 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli[1] and Manmatha Nath Dutt.[2] The translations vary with each translator's interpretations.

Clay Sanskrit Library has published a 15 volume set of the Mahabharata which includes a translation of Shanti Parva by Alex Wynne. This translation is modern and uses an old manuscript of the Epic. The translation does not remove verses and chapters now widely believed to be spurious and smuggled into the Epic in 1st or 2nd millennium AD.[12]

Debroy, in 2011, notes[13] that updated critical edition of Shanti Parva, after removing verses and chapters generally accepted so far as spurious and inserted into the original, has 3 sub-books, 353 adhyayas (chapters) and 13,006 shlokas (verses).

Salient features

Shanti parva - the longest book and most number of verses - has a number of treatises and fables embedded in it. Examples include a theory on caste,[14] a theory on governance,[15] and the fable of the wicked fowler and compassionate pigeons.[6]

Shanti parva on caste

Chapters 188 and 189 of the parva begin by reciting Bhrigu's theory of varna, according to whom Brahmins were white, Kshatriyas red, Vaishyas yellow, and Shudras black. Rishi Bharadwaja asks how can castes be discriminated when in truth all colors are observed in every class of people, when in truth people of all groups experience the same desire, same anger, same fear, same grief, same fatigue, same hunger, same love and other emotions? Everyone is born the same way, carries blood and bile, and dies the same way, asserts Bharadwaja. Why do castes exist, asks Bharadwaja? Bhrigu replies there is no difference among castes. It arose because of differentiation of work. Duty and rites of passage are not forbidden to any of them.[2][6] According to John Muir, Shanti Parva and its companion book Anushasana Parva claim neither birth, nor initiation, nor descent, nor bookish knowledge determines a person's merit; only their actual conduct, expressed qualities and virtues determine one's merit.[16] There is no superior caste, claims Shanti parva.[17]

Shanti parva on governance

The parva dedicates over 100 chapters on duties of a king and rules of proper governance. A prosperous kingdom must be guided by truth and justice.[18] Chapter 58 of Shanti parva suggests the duty of a ruler and his cabinet is to enable people to be happy, pursue truth and act sincerely. Chapter 88 recommends the king to tax without injuring the ability or capacity of citizens to provide wealth to monarchy, just like bees harvest honey from flower, keepers of cow draw milk without starving the calf or hurting the cow; those who cannot bear the burden of taxes, should not be taxed.[1] Chapter 267 suggests the judicial staff to reflect before sentencing, only sentence punishment that is proportionate to the crime, avoid harsh and capital punishments, and never punish the innocent relatives of a criminal for the crime.[19] Several chapters, such as 15 and 90, of the parva claim the proper function of a ruler is to rule according to dharma; he should lead a simple life and he should not use his power to enjoy the luxuries of life.[2][5] Shanti parva defines dharma not in terms of rituals or any religious precepts, but in terms of that which increases Satya (truth), Ahimsa (non-violence), Asteya (non-stealing of property created by another), Shoucham (purity), and Dama (restraint).[20][21] Chapter 109 of Shanti parva asserts rulers have a dharma (duty, responsibility) to help the upliftment of all living beings. The best law, claims Shanti parva, is one that enhances the welfare of all living beings, without injuring any specific group.[2][22]

The fowler and the pigeons

Image
The fable of the fowler and the pigeons is recited in Shanti parva.

Shanti parva recites many symbolic fables and tales,[23] one of which is the fable of the fowler and the pigeons. This fable is recited in Chapters 143 through 147, by Bhishma to Yudhishthira, as a lesson on virtue, profit and desire:[24] A wicked fowler made his living by capturing wild birds in the forest, by cruel means, and selling them for their meat or as pets. One day, while he was in the forest, a cold storm blew in. The storm knocked down a pigeon, who lay helpless on ground, trembling in cold. The fowler picked up the pigeon and put her in a cage to sell her. The storm continued. The fowler decided to take shelter and spent the cold night under a tree. As he sat under a huge tree, he loudly called on all deities and creatures abode the tree to allow him shelter as he is their guest. On one of the branches of the tree lived a pigeon family, whose lady-of-the-nest had gone out for food but not returned. The male pigeon lamented how he missed his wife, cooing, "One's home is not a home, it is a wife that makes a home. Without my wife, my house is desolate. If my wife does not come back today, I do not want to live, for there is no friend like a wife."[6] That missing wife of lamenting pigeon was in the cage below.

The pigeon in the cage called out her pigeon husband, and asked him not to worry about her or his own desire, but to treat the fowler as a guest to the best of his abilities. The fowler is cold and hungry, said the she-pigeon. Be hospitable to him, do not grieve for me. One should be kind to everyone, even those who have done you wrong, said the she-pigeon. The pigeon husband, so moved by his wife's request, flew down and welcomed the fowler. The pigeon asked what he could provide to make the fowler comfortable. The fowler said a warm fire could drive his cold away. So, the pigeon collected some dry leaves and set them ablaze.[6] The fire warmed up the fowler, who then told the male pigeon he was very hungry. The pigeon had no food to offer to his guest. So, the pigeon walked around the fire three times, then told the fowler to eat him, and the pigeon entered the fire to provide a meal for the fowler. The pigeon's compassion shook the fowler, who began reflecting on his life. The fowler resolved to be compassionate to all creatures. He silently released the female pigeon from the cage. She, who had just lost her pigeon husband in fire, was so deeply in love that she too walked into the fire. The fowler cried, and was overwhelmed with sadness for all the injury and pain he had caused to wild birds over the years.[2]

Critical reception

Scholars[25][26] have questioned the chronology and content of many chapters in Shanti Parva and its companion book the Anushasana Parva. These scholars ask whether these two books represent wisdom from ancient India, or were these chapters smuggled in to spread social and moral theories during India's medieval era or during second millennium AD.[9]

Iyer, in 1923, compared different versions of Shanti Parva manuscripts found in east, west and south India, in Sanskrit and in different Indian languages. The comparison showed that while some chapters and verses on moral and ethical theories are found in all manuscripts, there are major inconsistencies between many parts of the manuscripts. Not only is the order of chapters different, large numbers of verses were missing, entirely different or somewhat inconsistent between the manuscripts. The most inconsistent sections were those relating to social customs, castes, and certain duties of kings. Iyer claims[10] these chapters were smuggled and interpolated into the Mahabharata, or the answers rewritten to suit regional agenda or views. Alf Hiltebeitel similarly has questioned the chronology and authenticity of some sections in Shanti and Anushasana Parvas.[27] Kisari Mohan Ganguli also considers Shanti Parva as a later interpolation in the Mahabharata.[28]


Quotations and teachings

Rajadharma anushasana parva, Chapter 25:

Sorrow comes after happiness, and happiness after sorrow;
One does not always suffer sorrow, nor always enjoy happiness.

Only those who are stolid fools, and those who are masters of their souls, enjoy happiness here;
They, however, who occupy an intermediate position suffer misery.

Happiness and misery, prosperity and adversity, gain and loss, death and life, in their turn, visit all creatures;
The wise man, endued with equanimous soul would neither be puffed up with joy, nor be depressed with sorrow.

— Vyasa, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.25.23-31[29]


Rajadharma anushasana parva, Chapter 56:

There is nothing which leads so much to the success of kings as Truth,
the king who is devoted to Truth enjoys happiness both here and hereafter.
Even to the Rishis, O king, Truth is the greatest wealth,
Likewise for the kings, there is nothing that so much creates confidence in them as Truth.

— Bhishma, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.56.17-18[30]


Apaddharma anushasana parva, Chapter 138:

Nobody is nobody's friend,
nobody is nobody's well-wisher,
persons become friends or enemies only from motives of interest.

— Bhishma, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.138.108[31]


Apaddharma anusasana parva, Chapter 142:

I do not instruct you regarding duty from what I have learned from the Vedas alone;
What I have told you is the result of wisdom and experience, it is the honey that the learned have gleaned.
Kings should collect wisdom from various sources,
One cannot go successfully in the world with the help of a one sided morality;
Duty must originate from understanding, the practices of the good should always be determined.
A king by the help of his understanding and guided by knowledge gathered from various sources,
should so arrange that moral laws may be observed.

— Bhishma to Yudhishthira, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.142.3-7[32]


Moksha dharma parva, Chapter 259:

All men who live on this earth, are filled with doubts regarding the nature of Righteousness.
What is this that is called Righteousness? Whence does Righteousness come?

— Yudhishthira, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.259.1-2[33]


Moksha dharma parva, Chapter 259:

Righteousness begets happiness as its fruit;
There is nothing superior to truth; Everything is supported by truth, and everything depends on truth.


One should not take other's properties, that is an eternal duty;
A thief fears everybody, he considers other people as sinful as himself;
A pure hearted person is always filled with cheerfulness, and has no fear from anywhere;
Such a person never sees his own misconduct in other persons.

A person should never do that to others, which he does not like to be done to him by others;
Whatever wishes one cherishes about his own self, one should certainly cherish regarding another.


The Creator ordained Virtue, gifting it with the power of holding the world together.

— Bhishma, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.259.5-25[34]


Moksha dharma parva, Chapter 299:

There is no fixed time for the acquisition of righteousness. Death waits for no man. When man is constantly running towards the jaws of Death, the accomplishment of righteous acts is proper at all times. Like a blind man who, with attention, is capable of moving about his own house, the man of wisdom, with mind set on Yoga, succeeds in finding the track he should follow. (...) One who walketh along the track recommended by the understanding, earns happiness both here and hereafter.

— Parāśara, Shanti Parva, Mahabharata Book xii.299[35]


See also

• Previous book of Mahabharata: Stri Parva
• Next book of Mahabharata: Anushasana Parva

References

1. Ganguli, K.M. (1883-1896) "Shanti Parva" in The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (12 Volumes). Calcutta
2. Dutt, M.N. (1903) The Mahabharata (Volume 12): Shanti Parva. Calcutta: Elysium Press
3. van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1973) The Mahabharata: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp 477-478
4. Debroy, B. (2010) The Mahabharata, Volume 1. Gurgaon: Penguin Books India, pp xxiii - xxvi
5. S. N. Mishra (2003). Public governance and decentralisation, Vol. 1. Mittal Publications. p. 935. ISBN 81-7099-918-9.
6. John Murdoch (1898), The Mahabharata - An English Abridgment, Christian Literature Society for India, London, pages 108-115
7. Sivakumar & Rao (2010), An integrated framework for values-based management – Eternal guidelines from Indian ethos, International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 3(5), pages 503-524
8. Harrop Freeman (1959), An Introduction to Hindu Jurisprudence, The American Journal of Comparative Law, 8(1), pages 29-43
9. VISHNU S. SUKTHANKAR (1933), The Mahabharata, Critically Edited Version Archived 2014-02-02 at the Wayback Machine A history of the debate of various conflicting versions of the Mahabharata, University of Goettingen Archives, Germany, Prologue section
10. V.V. Iyer (1922), Notes on a study of the preliminary chapters of The Mahabharata - An attempt to separate genuine from spurious matter, Ramaswami Sastrulu & Sons, Madras, pages 270-282, also see pages 1-19
11. "Mahābhārata (Table of Contents)". The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
12. Alex Wynne, Book XII - Volume 3, The Clay Sanskrit Library, Mahabharata: 15-volume Set, ISBN 978-0-8147-9453-1, New York University Press, Bilingual Edition
13. Bibek Debroy, The Mahabharata : Volume 3, ISBN 978-0143100157, Penguin Books, page xxiii - xxiv of Introduction
14. John Murdoch, Caste: Its Supposed Origin: Its History; Its Effects: The Duty of Government, Hindus and Christians with respect to it and its prospects, p. 5, at Google Books
15. S. Garg, Political Ideas of Shanti Parva, The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Jan.-March, 2004), pages 77-86
16. John Muir, Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers, Oxford University, Trubner & Co., London, pages 260-264
17. Alain Daniélou (1993), Virtue, Success, Pleasure, and Liberation: The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India, ISBN 978-0892812189, Page 26
18. Sarkar, B. K. (1921), The Hindu theory of the state, Political Science Quarterly, 36(1), pages 79-90; Sarkar, B. K. (1920), The Theory of Property, Law, and Social Order in Hindu Political Philosophy, International Journal of Ethics, 30(3), pages 311-325; Sarkar, B. K. (1919), Hindu theory of international relations, The American Political Science Review, 13(3), pages 400-414
19. Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator), Chapter 267, Shanti Parva The Mahabharata, Published by P.C. Roy (1890), page 385
20. Suda, J. P. (1970), DHARMA: ITS NATURE AND ROLE IN ANCIENT INDIA, The Indian Journal of Political Science, pages 356-366
21. Muniapan & Dass (2008), Corporate social responsibility: A philosophical approach from an ancient Indian perspective, International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 1(4), pages 408-420
22. D. Hema (2010), Good Governance Models from Ancient India and Their Contemporary Relevance: A Study, IBA Journal of Management & Leadership, Volume 2, Issue 1, pages 75-88
23. Horace Hayman Wilson, Reinhold Rost (ed.) Essays on Sanskrit literature, p. 286, at Google Books
24. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), page 220-222
25. E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Chronology, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 24 (1903), pages 7-56
26. V.V. Iyer (1922), Notes on a study of the preliminary chapters of The Mahabharata - An attempt to separate genuine from spurious matter, Ramaswami Sastrulu & Sons, Madras
27. Alf Hiltebeitel, (2001) Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King, ISBN 0-226-34054-6, University of Chicago Press, see Chapter 1, Introduction
28. Ganguli, Kisari Mohan. "Mahabharata, Shanti Parva". Retrieved 21 January 2015.
29. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), Chapter 25, page 30-31 Abridged
30. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), Chapter 56, page 78
31. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), Chapter 138, page 202
32. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), page 218
33. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), page 385
34. Shanti Parva Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine The Mahabharata, Translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt (1903), page 385-386
35. Mahabharat, Shanti Parva: Part II. Section CCXCIX p. 367-368.

External links

• Shanti Parva, English Translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
• Shanti Parva, English Translation by Manmatha Nath Dutt
• Shanti Parva - Volume 1 English Translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, scanned and archived at Princeton University
• Shanti Parva - Volume 2 English Translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, scanned and archived at Princeton University
• Shanti Parva in Sanskrit by Vyasadeva with commentary by Nilakantha - A large file in Adobe Acrobat PDF format
• Shanti Parva in Sanskrit and Hindi by Ramnarayandutt Shastri, Volume 5
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Rama
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/26/21

Image
Rama
The Ideal Man;[1] Embodiment of Dharma[2]
Member of Dashavatar
Lord Rama got fed up with asking a non-responding Varuna (God of the oceans) to help him and took up the Brahmastra.
Rama crossing the ocean to Lanka
Sanskrit transliteration Rāma
Affiliation: Seventh avatar of Vishnu, Brahman (Vaishnavism), Deva
Predecessor: Dasharatha
Successor: Lava
Abode: Vaikuntha, Ayodhya, and Saket
Weapon: Bow and arrows
Texts: Ramayana and its other versions
Gender: Male
Festivals: Rama Navami, Vivaha Panchami, Deepavali, Dusshera
Personal information
Born: Ayodhya, Kosala (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died: Sarayu River
Parents: Dasharatha (father)[3]; Kaushalya (mother)[3]; Kaikeyi (step-mother); Sumitra (step-mother)
Siblings: Shanta (sister); Lakshmana (half-brother); Bharata (half-brother); Shatrughna (half-brother)
Spouse: Sita[3]
Children: Lava (son); Kusha (son)
Dynasty: Raghuvanshi-Ikshvaku-Suryavanshi

Rama (/ˈrɑːmə/;[4] IAST: Rāma, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ˈraːmɐ] (About this soundlisten); Sanskrit: राम) or Ram,[α] also known as Ramachandra (/ˌrɑːməˈtʃʌndrə/;[6] IAST: Rāmacandra, Sanskrit: रामचन्द्र), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh avatar of Vishnu, one of his most popular incarnations along with Krishna, Parshurama, and Gautama Buddha. Jain Texts also mentioned Rama as the eighth balabhadra among the 63 salakapurusas.[7][8][9] In Sikhism, Rama is mentioned as one of twenty four divine incarnations of Vishnu in the Chaubis Avtar in Dasam Granth.[10] In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being.[11]

Rama was born to Kaushalya and Dasharatha in Ayodhya, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kosala. His siblings included Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. He married Sita. Though born in a royal family, their life is described in the Hindu texts as one challenged by unexpected changes such as an exile into impoverished and difficult circumstances, ethical questions and moral dilemmas.[12] Of all their travails, the most notable is the kidnapping of Sita by demon-king Ravana, followed by the determined and epic efforts of Rama and Lakshmana to gain her freedom and destroy the evil Ravana against great odds. The entire life story of Rama, Sita and their companions allegorically discusses duties, rights and social responsibilities of an individual. It illustrates dharma and dharmic living through model characters.[12][13]

Rama is especially important to Vaishnavism. He is the central figure of the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, a text historically popular in the South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures.[14][15][16] His ancient legends have attracted bhasya (commentaries) and extensive secondary literature and inspired performance arts. Two such texts, for example, are the Adhyatma Ramayana – a spiritual and theological treatise considered foundational by Ramanandi monasteries,[17] and the Ramcharitmanas – a popular treatise that inspires thousands of Ramlila festival performances during autumn every year in India.[18][19][20]

Rama legends are also found in the texts of Jainism and Buddhism, though he is sometimes called Pauma or Padma in these texts,[21] and their details vary significantly from the Hindu versions.[22]

Etymology and nomenclature

Rāma is a Vedic Sanskrit word with two contextual meanings. In one context as found in Atharva Veda, as stated by Monier Monier-Williams, means "dark, dark-colored, black" and is related to the term ratri which means night. In another context as found in other Vedic texts, the word means "pleasing, delightful, charming, beautiful, lovely".[23][24] The word is sometimes used as a suffix in different Indian languages and religions, such as Pali in Buddhist texts, where -rama adds the sense of "pleasing to the mind, lovely" to the composite word.[25]

Rama as a first name appears in the Vedic literature, associated with two patronymic names – Margaveya and Aupatasvini – representing different individuals. A third individual named Rama Jamadagnya is the purported author of hymn 10.110 of the Rigveda in the Hindu tradition.[23] The word Rama appears in ancient literature in reverential terms for three individuals:[23]

1. Parashu-rama, as the sixth avatar of Vishnu. He is linked to the Rama Jamadagnya of the Rigveda fame.

2. Rama-chandra, as the seventh avatar of Vishnu and of the ancient Ramayana fame.

3. Bala-rama, also called Halayudha, as the elder brother of Krishna both of whom appear in the legends of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

The name Rama appears repeatedly in Hindu texts, for many different scholars and kings in mythical stories.[23] The word also appears in ancient Upanishads and Aranyakas layer of Vedic literature, as well as music and other post-Vedic literature, but in qualifying context of something or someone who is "charming, beautiful, lovely" or "darkness, night".[23]

The Vishnu avatar named Rama is also known by other names. He is called Ramachandra (beautiful, lovely moon),[24] or Dasarathi (son of Dasaratha), or Raghava (descendant of Raghu, solar dynasty in Hindu cosmology).[23][26] He is also known as Ram Lalla (Infant form of Rama).[27]

Additional names of Rama include Ramavijaya (Javanese), Phreah Ream (Khmer), Phra Ram (Lao and Thai), Megat Seri Rama (Malay), Raja Bantugan (Maranao), Ramudu (Telugu), Ramar (Tamil).[28] In the Vishnu sahasranama, Rama is the 394th name of Vishnu. In some Advaita Vedanta inspired texts, Rama connotes the metaphysical concept of Supreme Brahman who is the eternally blissful spiritual Self (Atman, soul) in whom yogis delight nondualistically.[29]

The root of the word Rama is ram- which means "stop, stand still, rest, rejoice, be pleased".[24]

According to Douglas Q. Adams, the Sanskrit word Rama is also found in other Indo-European languages such as Tocharian ram, reme, *romo- where it means "support, make still", "witness, make evident".[24][30] The sense of "dark, black, soot" also appears in other Indo European languages, such as *remos or Old English romig.[31][β]

Legends

This summary is a traditional legendary account, based on literary details from the Ramayana and other historic mythology-containing texts of Buddhism and Jainism. According to Sheldon Pollock, the figure of Rama incorporates more ancient "morphemes of Indian myths", such as the mythical legends of Bali and Namuci. The ancient sage Valmiki used these morphemes in his Ramayana similes as in sections 3.27, 3.59, 3.73, 5.19 and 29.28.[33]

Birth

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Gold carving depiction of the legendary Ayodhya at the Ajmer Jain temple.

Rama was born on the ninth day of the lunar month Chaitra (March–April), a day celebrated across India as Ram Navami. This coincides with one of the four Navaratri on the Hindu calendar, in the spring season, namely the Vasantha Navaratri.[34]

The ancient epic Ramayana states in the Balakhanda that Rama and his brothers were born to Kaushalya and Dasharatha in Ayodhya, a city on the banks of Sarayu River.[35][36] The Jain versions of the Ramayana, such as the Paumacariya (literally deeds of Padma) by Vimalasuri, also mention the details of the early life of Rama. The Jain texts are dated variously, but generally pre-500 CE, most likely sometime within the first five centuries of the common era.[37] Moriz Winternitz states that the Valmiki Ramayana was already famous before it was recast in the Jain Paumacariya poem, dated to the second half of the 1st century, which pre-dates a similar retelling found in the Buddha-carita of Asvagosa, dated to the beginning of the 2:nd century or prior.[38]

Dasharatha was the king of Kosala, and a part of the solar dynasty of Iksvakus. His mother's name Kaushalya literally implies that she was from Kosala. The kingdom of Kosala is also mentioned in Buddhist and Jain texts, as one of the sixteen Maha janapadas of ancient India, and as an important center of pilgrimage for Jains and Buddhists.[35][39] However, there is a scholarly dispute whether the modern Ayodhya is indeed the same as the Ayodhya and Kosala mentioned in the Ramayana and other ancient Indian texts.[40][γ]

Youth, family and friends

Main articles: Bharata (Ramayana), Lakshmana, and Shatrughna

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Rama is portrayed in Hindu arts and texts as a compassionate person who cares for all living beings.[42]

Rama had three brothers, according to the Balakhanda section of the Ramayana. These were Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna.[3] The extant manuscripts of the text describes their education and training as young princes, but this is brief. Rama is portrayed as a polite, self-controlled, virtuous youth always ready to help others. His education included the Vedas, the Vedangas as well as the martial arts.[43]

The years when Rama grew up are described in much greater detail by later Hindu texts, such as the Ramavali by Tulsidas. The template is similar to those found for Krishna, but in the poems of Tulsidas, Rama is milder and reserved introvert, rather than the prank-playing extrovert personality of Krishna.[3]

The Ramayana mentions an archery contest organised by King Janaka, where Sita and Rama meet. Rama wins the contest, whereby Janaka agrees to the marriage of Sita and Rama. Sita moves with Rama to his father Dashratha's capital.[3] Sita introduces Rama's brothers to her sister and her two cousins, and they all get married.[43]

While Rama and his brothers were away, Kaikeyi, the mother of Bharata and the second wife of King Dasharatha, reminds the king that he had promised long ago to comply with one thing she asks, anything. Dasharatha remembers and agrees to do so. She demands that Rama be exiled for fourteen years to Dandaka forest.[43] Dasharatha grieves at her request. Her son Bharata, and other family members become upset at her demand. Rama states that his father should keep his word, adds that he does not crave for earthly or heavenly material pleasures, neither seeks power nor anything else. He talks about his decision with his wife and tells everyone that time passes quickly. Sita leaves with him to live in the forest, the brother Lakshmana joins them in their exile as the caring close brother.[43]

Exile and war

See also: Ravana, Jatayu (Ramayana), Hanuman, and Vibheeshana

Image
Rama, along with his younger brother Lakshmana and wife Sita, exiled to the forest.

Image
Rama in Forest

Image
Ravana's sister Suparnakha attempts to seduce Rama and cheat on Sita. He refuses and spurns her (above).

Image
Ravana kidnapping Sita while Jatayu on the left tried to help her. 9th-century Prambanan bas-relief, Java, Indonesia.

Image
Hanuman meets Rama in the forest.

Rama heads outside the Kosala kingdom, crosses Yamuna river and initially stays at Chitrakuta, on the banks of river Mandakini, in the hermitage of sage Vasishtha.[44] During the exile, Rama meets one of his devotee, Shabari who happened to love him so much that when Rama asked something to eat she offered her ber, a fruit. But every time she gave it to him she first tasted it to ensure, it was sweet and tasty. Such was the level of her devotion. Rama also understood her devotion and ate all the half-eaten bers given by her. Such was the reciprocation of love and compassion he had for his people. This place is believed in the Hindu tradition to be the same as Chitrakoot on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The region has numerous Rama temples and is an important Vaishnava pilgrimage site.[44] The texts describe nearby hermitages of Vedic rishis (sages) such as Atri, and that Rama roamed through forests, lived a humble simple life, provided protection and relief to ascetics in the forest being harassed and persecuted by demons, as they stayed at different ashrams.[44][45]

After ten years of wandering and struggles, Rama arrives at Panchavati, on the banks of river Godavari. This region had numerous demons (rakshashas). One day, a demoness called Shurpanakha saw Rama, became enamored of him, and tried to seduce him.[43] Rama refused her. Shurpanakha retaliated by threatening Sita. Lakshmana, the younger brother protective of his family, in turn retaliated by cutting off the nose and ears of Shurpanakha. The cycle of violence escalated, ultimately reaching demon king Ravana, who was the brother of Shurpanakha. Ravana comes to Panchavati to take revenge on behalf of his family, sees Sita, gets attracted, and kidnaps her to his kingdom of Lanka (believed to be modern Sri Lanka).[43][45]

Rama and Lakshmana discover the kidnapping, worry about Sita's safety, despair at the loss and their lack of resources to take on Ravana. Their struggles now reach new heights. They travel south, meet Sugriva, marshall an army of monkeys, and attract dedicated commanders such as Hanuman who was a minister of Sugriva.[46] Meanwhile, Ravana harasses Sita to be his wife, queen or goddess.[47] Sita refuses him. Ravana gets enraged and ultimately reaches Lanka, fights in a war that has many ups and downs, but ultimately Rama prevails, kills Ravana and forces of evil, and rescues his wife Sita. They return to Ayodhya.[43][48]

Post-war rule and death

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Scene from the Hindu epic poem the Ramayana - the return of the victors (chromolitho)

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Rama Raj Tilak from Ramayana

The return of Rama to Ayodhya was celebrated with his coronation. It is called Rama pattabhisheka, and his rule itself as Rama rajya described to be a just and fair rule.[49][50] It is believed by many that when Rama returned people celebrated their happiness with diyas (lamps), and the festival of Diwali is connected with Rama's return.[51]

Upon Rama's accession as king, rumors emerge that Sita may have gone willingly when she was with Ravana; Sita protests that her capture was forced. Rama responds to public gossip by renouncing his wife and asking her to undergo a test before Agni (fire). She does and passes the test. Rama and Sita live happily together in Ayodhya, have twin sons named Luv and Kush, in the Ramayana and other major texts.[45] However, in some revisions, the story is different and tragic, with Sita dying of sorrow for her husband not trusting her, making Sita a moral heroine and leaving the reader with moral questions about Rama.[52][53] In these revisions, the death of Sita leads Rama to drown himself. Through death, he joins her in afterlife.[54] Rama dying by drowning himself is found in the Myanmar version of Rama's life story called Thiri Rama.[55]

Inconsistencies

Rama's legends vary significantly by the region and across manuscripts. While there is a common foundation, plot, grammar and an essential core of values associated with a battle between good and evil, there is neither a correct version nor a single verifiable ancient one. According to Paula Richman, there are hundreds of versions of "the story of Rama in India, Southeast Asia and beyond".[56][57] The versions vary by region reflecting local preoccupations and histories, and these cannot be called "divergences or different tellings" from the "real" version, rather all the versions of Rama story are real and true in their own meanings to the local cultural tradition, according to scholars such as Richman and Ramanujan.[56]

The stories vary in details, particularly where the moral question is clear, but the appropriate ethical response is unclear or disputed.[58][59] For example, when demoness Shurpanakha disguises as a woman to seduce Rama, then stalks and harasses Rama's wife Sita after Rama refuses her, Lakshmana is faced with the question of appropriate ethical response. In the Indian tradition, states Richman, the social value is that "a warrior must never harm a woman".[58] The details of the response by Rama and Lakshmana, and justifications for it, has numerous versions. Similarly, there are numerous and very different versions to how Rama deals with rumours against Sita when they return victorious to Ayodhya, given that the rumours can neither be objectively investigated nor summarily ignored.[60] Similarly the versions vary on many other specific situations and closure such as how Rama, Sita and Lakshmana die.[58][61]

The variation and inconsistencies are not limited to the texts found in the Hinduism traditions. The Rama story in the Jainism tradition also show variation by author and region, in details, in implied ethical prescriptions and even in names – the older versions using the name Padma instead of Rama, while the later Jain texts just use Rama.[62]

Dating

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The Rama story is carved into stone as an 8th-century relief artwork in the largest Shiva temple of the Ellora Caves, suggesting its importance to the Indian society by then.[63]

In some Hindu texts, Rama is stated to have lived in the Treta Yuga[64] that their authors estimate existed before about 5,000 BCE. A few other researchers place Rama to have more plausibly lived around 1250 BCE,[65] based on regnal lists of Kuru and Vrishni leaders which if given more realistic reign lengths would place Bharat and Satwata, contemporaries of Rama, around that period. According to Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia, an Indian archaeologist, who specialised in Proto- and Ancient Indian history, this is all "pure speculation".[66]

The composition of Rama's epic story, the Ramayana, in its current form is usually dated between 7th and 4th century BCE.[67][68] According to John Brockington, a professor of Sanskrit at Oxford known for his publications on the Ramayana, the original text was likely composed and transmitted orally in more ancient times, and modern scholars have suggested various centuries in the 1st millennium BCE. In Brockington's view, "based on the language, style and content of the work, a date of roughly the fifth century BCE is the most reasonable estimate".[69]

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1870 painting on mica entitled, "Incarnation of Vishnu"

Appearance

Valmiki in Ramayana describes Rama as a charming, well built person of a dark complexion (varṇam śyāmam) and long arms (ājānabāhu, meaning a person who's middle finger reaches beyond their knee).[70] In the Sundara Kanda section of the epic, Hanuman describes Rama to Sita when she is held captive in Lanka to prove to her that he is indeed a messenger from Rama:

He has broad shoulders, mighty arms, a conch-shaped neck, a charming countenance, and coppery eyes;

he has his clavicle concealed and is known by the people as Rama. He has a voice (deep) like the sound of a kettledrum and glossy skin,

is full of glory, square-built, and of well-proportioned limbs and is endowed with a dark-brown complexion.[71]


Iconography

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Rama iconography widely varies, and typically show him in context of some legend.

Rama iconography shares elements of Vishnu avatars, but has several distinctive elements. It never has more than two hands, he holds (or has nearby) a bana (arrow) in his right hand, while he holds the dhanus (bow) in his left.[72] The most recommended icon for him is that he be shown standing in tribhanga pose (thrice bent "S" shape). He is shown black, blue or dark color, typically wearing reddish color clothes. If his wife and brother are a part of the iconography, Lakshamana is on his left side while Sita always on the right of Rama, both of golden-yellow complexion.[72]

Philosophy and symbolism

Rama's life story is imbued with symbolism. According to Sheldon Pollock, the life of Rama as told in the Indian texts is a masterpiece that offers a framework to represent, conceptualise and comprehend the world and the nature of life. Like major epics and religious stories around the world, it has been of vital relevance because it "tells the culture what it is". Rama's life is more complex than the Western template for the battle between the good and the evil, where there is a clear distinction between immortal powerful gods or heroes and mortal struggling humans. In the Indian traditions, particularly Rama, the story is about a divine human, a mortal god, incorporating both into the exemplar who transcends both humans and gods.[73]

Responding to evil

A superior being does not render evil for evil,
this is the maxim one should observe;
the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct.
(...)
A noble soul will ever exercise compassion
even towards those who enjoy injuring others.

—Ramayana 6.115, Valmiki
(Abridged, Translator: Roderick Hindery)[74]


As a person, Rama personifies the characteristics of an ideal person (purushottama).[53] He had within him all the desirable virtues that any individual would seek to aspire, and he fulfils all his moral obligations. Rama is considered a maryada purushottama or the best of upholders of Dharma.[75]

According to Rodrick Hindery, Book 2, 6 and 7 are notable for ethical studies.[76][59] The views of Rama combine "reason with emotions" to create a "thinking hearts" approach. Second, he emphasises through what he says and what he does a union of "self-consciousness and action" to create an "ethics of character". Third, Rama's life combines the ethics with the aesthetics of living.[76] The story of Rama and people in his life raises questions such as "is it appropriate to use evil to respond to evil?", and then provides a spectrum of views within the framework of Indian beliefs such as on karma and dharma.[74]

Rama's life and comments emphasise that one must pursue and live life fully, that all three life aims are equally important: virtue (dharma), desires (kama), and legitimate acquisition of wealth (artha). Rama also adds, such as in section 4.38 of the Ramayana, that one must also introspect and never neglect what one's proper duties, appropriate responsibilities, true interests, and legitimate pleasures are.[42]

Literary sources

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Valmiki composing the Ramayana.

Ramayana

The primary source of the life of Rama is the Sanskrit epic Ramayana composed by Rishi Valmiki.[77]

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Rama (left third from top) depicted in the Dashavatara (ten incornations) of Vishnu. Painting from Jaipur, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The epic had many versions across India's regions. The followers of Madhvacharya believe that an older version of the Ramayana, the Mula-Ramayana, previously existed.[78] The Madhva tradition considers it to have been more authoritative than the version by Valmiki.[79]

Versions of the Ramayana exist in most major Indian languages; examples that elaborate on the life, deeds and divine philosophies of Rama include the epic poem Ramavataram, and the following vernacular versions of Rama's life story:[80]

• Ramavataram or Kamba-Ramayanam in Tamil by the poet Kambar in Tamil. (12th century)
• Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese by poet Madhava Kandali. (14th century)
• Krittivasi Ramayan in Bengali by poet Krittibas Ojha. (15th century)
• Ramcharitmanas in Hindi by sant Tulsidas. (16th-century)
• Pampa Ramayana, Torave Ramayana by Kumara Valmiki and Sri Ramayana Darshanam by Kuvempu in Kannada;
• Ramayana Kalpavruksham by Viswanatha Satyanarayana and Ramayana by Ranganatha in Telugu;
• Vilanka Ramayana in Odia;
• Eluttachan in Malayalam (this text is closer to the Advaita Vedanta-inspired rendition Adhyatma Ramayana).[81]

The epic is found across India, in different languages and cultural traditions.[82]

Adhyatma Ramayana

Adhyatma Ramayana is a late medieval Sanskrit text extolling the spiritualism in the story of Ramayana. It is embedded in the latter portion of Brahmānda Purana, and constitutes about a third of it.[83] The text philosophically attempts to reconcile Bhakti in god Rama and Shaktism with Advaita Vedanta, over 65 chapters and 4,500 verses.[84][85]

The text represents Rama as the Brahman (metaphysical reality), mapping all attributes and aspects of Rama to abstract virtues and spiritual ideals.[85] Adhyatma Ramayana transposes Ramayana into symbolism of self study of one's own soul, with metaphors described in Advaita terminology.[85] The text is notable because it influenced the popular Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas,[83][85] and inspired the most popular version of Nepali Ramayana by Bhanubhakta Acharya.[86] This was also translated by Thunchath Ezhuthachan to Malayalam, which lead the foundation of Malayalam literature itself.[87]

Ramacharitmanas

The Ramayana is a Sanskrit text, while Ramacharitamanasa retells the Ramayana in a vernacular dialect of Hindi language,[88] commonly understood in northern India.[89][90][91] Ramacharitamanasa was composed in the 16th century by Tulsidas.[92][93][88] The popular text is notable for synthesising the epic story in a Bhakti movement framework, wherein the original legends and ideas morph in an expression of spiritual bhakti (devotional love) for a personal god.[88][94][δ]

Tulsidas was inspired by Adhyatma Ramayana, where Rama and other characters of the Valmiki Ramayana along with their attributes (saguna narrative) were transposed into spiritual terms and abstract rendering of an Atma (soul, self, Brahman) without attributes (nirguna reality).[83][85][96] According to Kapoor, Rama's life story in the Ramacharitamanasa combines mythology, philosophy, and religious beliefs into a story of life, a code of ethics, a treatise on universal human values.[97] It debates in its dialogues the human dilemmas, the ideal standards of behaviour, duties to those one loves, and mutual responsibilities. It inspires the audience to view their own lives from a spiritual plane, encouraging the virtuous to keep going, and comforting those oppressed with a healing balm.[97]

The Ramacharitmanas is notable for being the Rama-based play commonly performed every year in autumn, during the weeklong performance arts festival of Ramlila.[20] The "staging of the Ramayana based on the Ramacharitmanas" was inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity.[98]

Yoga Vasistha

Main article: Yoga Vasistha

Human effort can be used for self-betterment and that there is no such thing as an external fate imposed by the gods.
– Yoga Vasistha (Vasistha teaching Rama)
Tr: Christopher Chapple[99]


Yoga Vasistha is a Sanskrit text structured as a conversation between young Prince Rama and sage Vasistha who was called as the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara. The complete text contains over 29,000 verses.[100] The short version of the text is called Laghu Yogavasistha and contains 6,000 verses.[101] The exact century of its completion is unknown, but has been estimated to be somewhere between the 6:th century to as late as the 14:th century, but it is likely that a version of the text existed in the 1:st millennium.[102]

The Yoga Vasistha text consists of six books. The first book presents Rama's frustration with the nature of life, human suffering and disdain for the world. The second describes, through the character of Rama, the desire for liberation and the nature of those who seek such liberation. The third and fourth books assert that liberation comes through a spiritual life, one that requires self-effort, and present cosmology and metaphysical theories of existence embedded in stories.[103] These two books are known for emphasising free will and human creative power.[103][104] The fifth book discusses meditation and its powers in liberating the individual, while the last book describes the state of an enlightened and blissful Rama.[103][105]

Yoga Vasistha is considered one of the most important texts of the Vedantic philosophy.[106] The text, states David Gordon White, served as a reference on Yoga for medieval era Advaita Vedanta scholars.[107] The Yoga Vasistha, according to White, was one of the popular texts on Yoga that dominated the Indian Yoga culture scene before the 12th century.[107]

Other texts

Other important historic Hindu texts on Rama include Bhusundi Ramanaya, Prasanna raghava, and Ramavali by Tulsidas.[3][108] The Sanskrit poem Bhaṭṭikāvya of Bhatti, who lived in Gujarat in the seventh century CE, is a retelling of the epic that simultaneously illustrates the grammatical examples for Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as the major figures of speech and the Prakrit language.[109]

Another historically and chronologically important text is Raghuvamsa authored by Kalidasa.[110] Its story confirms many details of the Ramayana, but has novel and different elements. It mentions that Ayodhya was not the capital in the time of Rama's son named Kusha, but that he later returned to it and made it the capital again. This text is notable because the poetry in the text is exquisite and called a Mahakavya in the Indian tradition, and has attracted many scholarly commentaries. It is also significant because Kalidasa has been dated to between the 4th and 5th century CE, suggesting that the Ramayana legend was well established by the time of Kalidasa.[110]

The Mahabharata has a summary of the Ramayana. The Jainism tradition has extensive literature of Rama as well, but generally refers to him as Padma, such as in the Paumacariya by Vimalasuri.[37] Rama and Sita legend is mentioned in the Jataka tales of Buddhism, as Dasaratha-Jataka (Tale no. 461), but with slightly different spellings such as Lakkhana for Lakshmana and Rama-pandita for Rama.[111][112][113]

The chapter 4 of Vishnu Purana, chapter 112 of Padma Purana, chapter 143 of Garuda Purana and chapters 5 through 11 of Agni Purana also summarise the life story of Rama.[114] Additionally, the Rama story is included in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, which has been a part of evidence that the Ramayana is likely more ancient, and it was summarised in the Mahabharata epic in ancient times.[115]

Influence

Image
Rama (Yama) and Sita (Thida) in Yama Zatdaw, the Burmese version of the Ramayana

Rama's story has had a major socio-cultural and inspirational influence across South Asia and Southeast Asia.[14][116]

Few works of literature produced in any place at any time have been as popular, influential, imitated and successful as the great and ancient Sanskrit epic poem, the Valmiki Ramayana.

– Robert Goldman, Professor of Sanskrit, University of California at Berkeley.[14]


According to Arthur Anthony Macdonell, a professor at Oxford and Boden scholar of Sanskrit, Rama's ideas as told in the Indian texts are secular in origin, their influence on the life and thought of people having been profound over at least two and a half millennia.[117][118] Their influence has ranged from being a framework for personal introspection to cultural festivals and community entertainment.[14] His life stories, states Goldman, have inspired "painting, film, sculpture, puppet shows, shadow plays, novels, poems, TV serials and plays."[117]

Hinduism

See also: List of Hindu festivals

Image
A 5th century terracotta sculpture depicting Rama.

Rama Navami

Main article: Rama Navami

Rama Navami is a spring festival that celebrates the birthday of Rama. The festival is a part of the spring Navratri, and falls on the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra month in the traditional Hindu calendar. This typically occurs in the Gregorian months of March or April every year.[119][120]

The day is marked by recital of Rama legends in temples, or reading of Rama stories at home. Some Vaishnava Hindus visit a temple, others pray within their home, and some participate in a bhajan or kirtan with music as a part of puja and aarti.[121] The community organises charitable events and volunteer meals. The festival is an occasion for moral reflection for many Hindus.[122][123] Some mark this day by vrata (fasting) or a visit to a river for a dip.[122][124][125]

The important celebrations on this day take place at Ayodhya, Sitamarhi,[126] Janakpurdham (Nepal), Bhadrachalam, Kodandarama Temple, Vontimitta and Rameswaram. Rathayatras, the chariot processions, also known as Shobha yatras of Rama, Sita, his brother Lakshmana and Hanuman, are taken out at several places.[122][127][128] In Ayodhya, many take a dip in the sacred river Sarayu and then visit the Rama temple.[125]

Rama Navami day also marks the end of the nine-day spring festival celebrated in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh called Vasanthothsavam (Festival of Spring), that starts with Ugadi. Some highlights of this day are Kalyanam (ceremonial wedding performed by temple priests) at Bhadrachalam on the banks of the river Godavari in Bhadradri Kothagudem district of Telangana, preparing and sharing Panakam which is a sweet drink prepared with jaggery and pepper, a procession and Rama temple decorations.[129]
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Ramlila and Dussehra

Main article: Vijayadashami

Image
In Northern, Central and Western states of India, the Ramlila play is enacted during Navratri by rural artists (above).

Rama's life is remembered and celebrated every year with dramatic plays and fireworks in autumn. This is called Ramlila, and the play follows Ramayana or more commonly the Ramcharitmanas.[130] It is observed through thousands[18] of Rama-related performance arts and dance events, that are staged during the festival of Navratri in India.[131] After the enactment of the legendary war between Good and Evil, the Ramlila celebrations climax in the Dussehra (Dasara, Vijayadashami) night festivities where the giant grotesque effigies of Evil such as of demon Ravana are burnt, typically with fireworks.[98][132]

The Ramlila festivities were declared by UNESCO as one of the "Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity" in 2008. Ramlila is particularly notable in historically important Hindu cities of Ayodhya, Varanasi, Vrindavan, Almora, Satna and Madhubani – cities in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.[98][133] The epic and its dramatic play migrated into southeast Asia in the 1st millennium CE, and Ramayana based Ramlila is a part of performance arts culture of Indonesia, particularly the Hindu society of Bali, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand.[134]

Diwali

Main article: Diwali

In some parts of India, Rama's return to Ayodhya and his coronation is the main reason for celebrating Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights.[135]

In Guyana, Diwali is marked as a special occasion and celebrated with a lot of fanfare. It is observed as a national holiday in this part of the world and some ministers of the Government also take part in the celebrations publicly. Just like Vijayadashmi, Diwali is celebrated by different communities across India to commemorate different events in addition to Rama's return to Ayodhya. For example, many communities celebrate one day of Diwali to celebrate the Victory of Krishna over the demon Narakasur.[ε]

Hindu arts in Southeast Asia

Image
Rama's story is a major part of the artistic reliefs found at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Large sequences of Ramayana reliefs are also found in Java, Indonesia.[137]

Rama's life story, both in the written form of Sanskrit Ramayana and the oral tradition arrived in southeast Asia in the 1st millennium CE.[138] Rama was one of many ideas and cultural themes adopted, others being the Buddha, the Shiva and host of other Brahmanic and Buddhist ideas and stories.[139] In particular, the influence of Rama and other cultural ideas grew in Java, Bali, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.[139]

The Ramayana was translated from Sanskrit into old Javanese around 860 CE, while the performance arts culture most likely developed from the oral tradition inspired by the Tamil and Bengali versions of Rama-based dance and plays.[138] The earliest evidence of these performance arts are from 243 CE according to Chinese records. Other than the celebration of Rama's life with dance and music, Hindu temples built in southeast Asia such as the Prambanan near Yogyakarta (Java), and at the Panataran near Blitar (East Java), show extensive reliefs depicting Rama's life.[138][140] The story of Rama's life has been popular in Southeast Asia.[141]

In the 14th century, the Ayutthaya Kingdom and its capital Ayuttaya was named after the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya, with the official religion of the state being Theravada Buddhism.[142][143] Thai kings, continuing into the contemporary era, have been called Rama, a name inspired by Rama of Ramakien – the local version of Sanskrit Ramayana, according to Constance Jones and James Ryan. For example, King Chulalongkorn (1853-1910) is also known as Rama V, while King Vajiralongkorn who succeeded to the throne in 2016 is called Rama X.[144]

Jainism

See also: Rama in Jainism and Salakapurusa

In Jainism, the earliest known version of Rama story is variously dated from the 1st to 5th century CE. This Jaina text credited to Vimalasuri shows no signs of distinction between Digambara-Svetambara (sects of Jainism), and is in a combination of Marathi and Sauraseni languages. These features suggest that this text has ancient roots.[145]

In Jain cosmology, characters continue to be reborn as they evolve in their spiritual qualities, until they reach the Jina state and complete enlightenment. This idea is explained as cyclically reborn triads in its Puranas, called the Baladeva, Vasudeva and evil Prati-vasudeva.[146][147] Rama, Lakshmana and evil Ravana are the eighth triad, with Rama being the reborn Baladeva, and Lakshmana as the reborn Vasudeva.[61] Rama is described to have lived long before the 22nd Jain Tirthankara called Neminatha. In the Jain tradition, Neminatha is believed to have been born 84,000 years before the 9th-century BCE Parshvanatha.[148]

Jain texts tell a very different version of the Rama legend than the Hindu texts such as by Valmiki. According to the Jain version, Lakshmana (Vasudeva) is the one who kills Ravana (Prativasudeva).[61] Rama, after all his participation in the rescue of Sita and preparation for war, he actually does not kill, thus remains a non-violent person. The Rama of Jainism has numerous wives as does Lakshmana, unlike the virtue of monogamy given to Rama in the Hindu texts. Towards the end of his life, Rama becomes a Jaina monk then successfully attains siddha followed by moksha.[61] His first wife Sita becomes a Jaina nun at the end of the story. In the Jain version, Lakshmana and Ravana both go to the hell of Jain cosmology, because Ravana killed many, while Lakshmana killed Ravana to stop Ravana's violence.[61] Padmapurana mentions Rama as a contemporary of Munisuvrata, 20th tirthankara of Jainism.[149]

Buddhism

The Dasaratha-Jataka (Tale no. 461) provides a version of the Rama story. It calls Rama as Rama-pandita.[111][112]

At the end of this Dasaratha-Jataka discourse, the Buddhist text declares that the Buddha in his prior rebirth was Rama:

The Master having ended this discourse, declared the Truths, and identified the Birth (...): 'At that time, the king Suddhodana was king Dasaratha, Mahamaya was the mother, Rahula's mother was Sita, Ananda was Bharata, and I myself was Rama-Pandita.

— Jataka Tale No. 461, Translator: W.H.D. Rouse[112]


While the Buddhist Jataka texts co-opt Rama and make him an incarnation of Buddha in a previous life,[112] the Hindu texts co-opt the Buddha and make him an avatar of Vishnu.[150][151] The Jataka literature of Buddhism is generally dated to be from the second half of the 1st millennium BCE, based on the carvings in caves and Buddhist monuments such as the Bharhut stupa.[152][ζ] The 2nd-century BCE stone relief carvings on Bharhut stupa, as told in the Dasaratha-Jataka, is the earliest known non-textual evidence of Rama story being prevalent in ancient India.[154]

Sikhism

Main article: Rama in Sikhism

Rama is mentioned as one of twenty four divine incarnations of Vishnu in the Chaubis Avtar, a composition in Dasam Granth traditionally and historically attributed to Guru Gobind Singh.[10][η] The discussion of Rama and Krishna avatars is the most extensive in this section of the secondary Sikh scripture.[10][156] The name of Rama is mentioned more than 2,500 times in the Guru Granth Sahib[157] and is considered as avatar along with the Krishna.[η]

Among people

In Assam, Boro people call themselves Ramsa, which means Children of Ram.[158]

In Chhattisgarh, Ramnami people tattooed their whole body with name of Ram.[159]

Worship and temples

Worship


Image
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi monuments in Karnataka, built by the Vijayanagara Empire, includes a major Rama temple. Its numerous wall reliefs tell the life story of Rama.[160]

Image
Rama Temple at Ramtek (10th century, restored). A medieval inscription here calls Rama as Advaitavadaprabhu or "Lord of the Advaita doctrine".[161]

Rama is a revered Vaishanava deity, one who is worshipped privately at home or in temples. He was a part of the Bhakti movement focus, particularly because of efforts of 14th century North Indian poet-saint Ramananda who created the Ramanandi Sampradaya, a sannyasi community. This community has grown to become the largest Hindu monastic community in modern times.[162][163] This Rama-inspired movement has championed social reforms, accepting members without discriminating anyone by gender, class, caste or religion since the time of Ramananda who accepted Muslims wishing to leave Islam.[164][165] Traditional scholarship holds that his disciples included later Bhakti movement poet-saints such as Kabir, Ravidas, Bhagat Pipa and others.[165][166]

Temples

Main page: List of Rama temples

Temples dedicated to Rama are found all over India and in places where Indian migrant communities have resided. In most temples, the iconography of Rama is accompanied by that of his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana.[167] In some instances, Hanuman is also included either near them or in the temple premises.[168]

Hindu temples dedicated to Rama were built by early 5th century, according to copper plate inscription evidence, but these have not survived. The oldest surviving Rama temple is near Raipur (Chhattisgarh), called the Rajiva-locana temple at Rajim near the Mahanadi river. It is in a temple complex dedicated to Vishnu and dates back to the 7th-century with some restoration work done around 1145 CE based on epigraphical evidence.[169][170] The temple remains important to Rama devotees in the contemporary times, with devotees and monks gathering there on dates such as Rama Navami.[171]

Important Rama temples include:

• Rama temple, Ram Janmabhoomi, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
• Nalambalam, Kerala.
• Bhadrachalam Temple, Telangana.
• Kodandarama Temple, Vontimitta, Andhra Pradesh.
• Ramateertham Temple, Andhra Pradesh.
• Ramaswamy Temple, Kumbakonam
• Mudikondan Kothandaramar Temple, Tamil Nadu.
• Vijayaraghava Perumal temple, Tamil Nadu.
• Sri Yoga Ramar Temple Nedungunam, Tamil Nadu.
• Shree Rama Temple, Triprayar, Kerala.
• Kalaram Temple, Nashik, Maharashtra.
• Raghunath Temple, Jammu.
• Ram Mandir, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
• Kodandarama Temple, Chikmagalur, Karnataka.
• Kothandarama Temple, Thillaivilagam, Tamilnadu.
• Kothandaramaswamy Temple, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.
• Odogaon Raghunath Temple, Odisha.
• Ramchaura Mandir, Bihar.
• Sri Rama Temple, Ramapuram
• Vilwadrinatha Temple, Thiruvilwamala, Kerala.

Popular culture

See also: Television series based on the Ramayana

Rama has been considered as a source of inspiration and has been described as Maryāda Puruṣottama Rāma (transl. The Ideal Man).[θ] He has been depicted in many films, television shows and plays.[172] The notable includes:-

• Ramayan in 1987, where the role was played by Arun Govil.[173]
• Ramayan (TV series) in 2002, where the role was played by Nitish Bharadwaj.[174]
• Ramayan NDTV series in 2008, where the role was played by Gurmeet Choudhary.
• Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanumaan in 2015, where the role was played by Gagan Malik.[175]
• Ram Siya Ke Luv Kush in 2019, where the role was played by Himanshu Soni.[176]

See also

• Ayodhya dispute
• Culture of India
• Genealogy of Rama
• Hindu philosophy
• Natyashastra
• Ram Nam
• Ram Statue
• Jai Shri Ram
• Ramayan (1987 TV series)
• Rama in Jainism
• Rama in Sikhism
• Ramayana
• Dashavatara
• Vaishnavism

References

Notes


1. In English the Devanagari words are written after putting 'a' after them as per Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages.[5]
2. The legends found about Rama, state Mallory and Adams, have "many of the elements found in the later Welsh tales such as Branwen Daughter of Llyr and Manawydan Son of Lyr. This may be because the concept and legends have deeper ancient roots.[32]
3. Kosala is mentioned in many Buddhist texts and travel memoirs. The Buddha idol of Kosala is important in the Theravada Buddhism tradition, and one that is described by the 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzhang. He states in his memoir that the statue stands in the capital of Kosala then called Shravasti, midst ruins of a large monastery. He also states that he brought back to China two replicas of the Buddha, one of the Kosala icon of Udayana and another the Prasenajit icon of Prasenajit.[41]
4. For example, like other Hindu poet-saints of the Bhakti movement before the 16th century, Tulsidas in Ramcharitmanas recommends the simplest path to devotion is Nam-simran (absorb oneself in remembering the divine name "Rama"). He suggests either vocally repeating the name (jap) or silent repetition in mind (ajapajap). This concept of Rama moves beyond the divinised hero and connotes an "all-pervading Being" and equivalent to atmarama within. The term atmarama is a compound of "Atma" and "Rama", it literally means "he who finds joy in his own self", according to the French Indologist Charlotte Vaudeville known for her studies on Ramayana and Bhakti movement.[95]
5. As per another popular tradition, in the Dvapara Yuga period, Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, killed the demon Narakasura, who was the evil king of Pragjyotishapura, near present-day Assam and released 16000 girls held captive by Narakasura. Diwali was celebrated as a sign of the triumph of good over evil after Krishna's Victory over Narakasura. The day before Diwali is remembered as Naraka Chaturdasi, the day on which Narakasura was killed by Krishna.[136]
6. Richard Gombrich suggests that the Jataka tales were composed by the 3rd century BCE.[153]
7. Ath Beesvan Ram Avtar Kathan or Ram Avtar is a Composition in the second sacred Granth of Sikhs i.e Dasam Granth, which was written by Guru Gobind Singh, at Anandpur Sahib. Guru Gobind Singh was not a worshiper of Ramchandra, as after describing the whole Avtar he cleared this fact that ਰਾਮ ਰਹੀਮ ਪ੝ਰਾਨ ਕ੝ਰਾਨ ਅਨੇਕ ਕਹੈਂ ਮਤਿ ਝਕ ਨ ਮਾਨਿਯੋ ॥. Ram Avtar is based on Ramayana, but a Sikh studies the spiritual aspects of this whole composition.[155]
8.
o Blank 2000, p. 190
o Dodiya 2001, pp. 109–110
o Tripathy 2015, p. 1

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3. ames G. Lochtefeld 2002, p. 555.
4. "Rama". Webster's Dictionary. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
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15. Dimock Jr, E.C. (1963). "Doctrine and Practice among the Vaisnavas of Bengal". History of Religions. 3 (1): 106–127. doi:10.1086/462474. JSTOR 1062079. S2CID 162027021.
16. Marijke J. Klokke (2000). Narrative Sculpture and Literary Traditions in South and Southeast Asia. BRILL. pp. 51–57. ISBN 90-04-11865-9.
17. Ramdas Lamb 2012, p. 28.
18. Schechner, Richard; Hess, Linda (1977). "The Ramlila of Ramnagar [India]". The Drama Review: TDR. The MIT Press. 21 (3): 51–82. doi:10.2307/1145152. JSTOR 1145152.
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20. Jennifer Lindsay (2006). Between Tongues: Translation And/of/in Performance in Asia. National University of Singapore Press. pp. 12–14. ISBN 978-9971-69-339-8.
21. Roshen Dalal 2010, pp. 337-338. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRoshen_Dalal2010 (help)
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23. "Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary --र". sanskrit.inria.fr. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
24. Asko Parpola (1998). Studia Orientalia, Volume 84. Finnish Oriental Society. p. 264. ISBN 978-951-9380-38-4.
25. Thomas William Rhys Davids; William Stede (1921). Pali-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 521. ISBN 978-81-208-1144-7.
26. Wagenaar, Hank W.; Parikh, S. S. (1993). Allied Chambers transliterated Hindi-Hindi-English dictionary. Allied Publishers. p. 528. ISBN 978-81-86062-10-4.
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30. Adams; Douglas Q. Adams (2013). A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged. Rodopi. p. 587. ISBN 978-90-420-3671-0.
31. Maloory and en 1997, p. 160.
32. Maloory and en 1997, p. 165.
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34. Rinehart, Robin (2004). Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice. ABC-CLIO. pp. 139, 388. ISBN 978-1-57607-905-8.
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36. Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda
37. Cort, John (2010). Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History. Oxford University Press. pp. 313 note 9. ISBN 978-0-19-973957-8.
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16. ... Ravana is represented as merely requesting that Sita stop thinking of him as an enemy and that she abandon her mistaken notion that he wants her to be his wife. By mentioning his chief queen, he is really saying that he wants Sita to be the chosen goddess of both him and his chief queen, Mandodari.
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126. "Sitamarhi | India". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 March 2021. A large Ramanavami fair, celebrating the birth of Lord Rama, is held in spring with considerable trade in pottery, spices, brass ware, and cotton cloth. A cattle fair held in Sitamarhi is the largest in Bihar state. The town is sacred as the birthplace of the goddess Sita (also called Janaki), the wife of Rama.
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138. James R. Brandon (2009). Theatre in Southeast Asia. Harvard University Press. pp. 22–27. ISBN 978-0-674-02874-6.
139. Brandon, James R. (2009). Theatre in Southeast Asia. Harvard University Press. pp. 15–21. ISBN 978-0-674-02874-6.
140. Jan Fontein (1973), The Abduction of Sitā: Notes on a Stone Relief from Eastern Java, Boston Museum Bulletin, Vol. 71, No. 363 (1973), pp. 21-35
141. Kats, J. (1927). "The Ramayana in Indonesia". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Cambridge University Press. 4 (3): 579. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00102976.
142. Francis D. K. Ching; Mark M. Jarzombek; Vikramaditya Prakash (2010). A Global History of Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. p. 456. ISBN 978-0-470-40257-3., Quote: "The name of the capital city [Ayuttaya] derives from the Hindu holy city Ayodhya in northern India, which is said to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama."
143. Michael C. Howard (2012). Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Role of Cross-Border Trade and Travel. McFarland. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-0-7864-9033-2.
144. Constance Jones; James D. Ryan (2006). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. p. 443. ISBN 978-0-8160-7564-5.
145. John E Cort (1993). Wendy Doniger (ed.). Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. State University of New York Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7914-1381-4.
146. Jacobi, Herman (2005). Vimalsuri's Paumachariyam (2nd ed.). Ahemdabad: Prakrit Text Society.
147. Iyengar, Kodaganallur Ramaswami Srinivasa (2005). Asian Variations in Ramayana. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-1809-3.
148. Zimmer 1953, p. 226.
149. Natubhai Shah 2004, pp. 21-23.
150. Bassuk, Daniel E (1987). Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: The Myth of the God-Man. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-349-08642-9.
151. Edward Geoffrey Parrinder (1997). Avatar and Incarnation: The Divine in Human Form in the World's Religions. Oxford: Oneworld. pp. 19–24, 35–38, 75–78, 130–133. ISBN 978-1-85168-130-3.
152. Claus, Peter J.; Diamond, Sarah; Mills, Margarat (2003). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 306–307. ISBN 978-0-415-93919-5.
153. Naomi Appleton (2010). Jātaka Stories in Theravāda Buddhism: Narrating the Bodhisatta Path. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 51–54. ISBN 978-1-4094-1092-8.
154. Mandakranta Bose (2004). The Ramayana Revisited. Oxford University Press. pp. 337–338. ISBN 978-0-19-803763-7.
155. Singh, Govind (2005). Dasamgranth. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-81-215-1044-8.
156. Doris R. Jakobsh (2010). Sikhism and Women: History, Texts, and Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-0-19-806002-4.
157. Judge, Paramjit S.; Kaur, Manjit (2010). "The Politics of Sikh Identity: Understanding Religious Exclusion". Sociological Bulletin. 59 (3): 219. doi:10.1177/0038022920100303. ISSN 0038-0229. JSTOR 23620888. S2CID 152062554 – via Book.
158. Dodiya 2001, p. 139.
159. Ramdas Lamb 2012, pp. 31-32.
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161. Hans Bakker (1990). The History of Sacred Places in India As Reflected in Traditional Literature: Papers on Pilgrimage in South Asia. BRILL. pp. 70–73. ISBN 90-04-09318-4.
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Sources

• Chapple, Christopher (1984). "Introduction". The Concise Yoga Vāsiṣṭha. Translated by Venkatesananda, Swami. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-87395-955-8. OCLC 11044869.
• Das, Krishna (15 February 2010), Chants of a Lifetime: Searching for a Heart of Gold, Hay House, Inc, ISBN 978-1-4019-2771-4
• "Navratri – Hindu festival". Encyclopedia Britannica. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
• Flood, Gavin (17 April 2008). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Wiley India Pvt. Limited. ISBN 978-81-265-1629-2.
• Hertel, Bradley R.; Humes, Cynthia Ann (1993). Living Banaras: Hindu Religion in Cultural Context. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1331-9.
• Miller, Kevin Christopher (2008). A Community of Sentiment: Indo-Fijian Music and Identity Discourse in Fiji and Its Diaspora. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-549-72404-9.
• Leslie, Julia (2003). Authority and meaning in Indian religions: Hinduism and the case of Vālmīki. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-3431-0.
• Morārībāpu (1987). Mangal Ramayan. Prachin Sanskriti Mandir.
• Poddar, Hanuman Prasad (2001). Balkand. 94 (in Awadhi and Hindi). Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press. ISBN 81-293-0406-6.
• Lutgendorf, Philip (1991). The Life of a Text: Performing the Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06690-8.
• Naidu, S. Shankar Raju (1971). A Comparative Study of Kamba Ramayanam and Tulasi Ramayan. University of Madras.
• Platvoet, Jan. G.; Toorn, Karel Van Der (1995). Pluralism and Identity: Studies in Ritual Behaviour. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-10373-2.
• Rocher, Ludo (1986). The Puranas. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-02522-5.
• Schomer, Karine; McLeod, W. H. (1 January 1987), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0277-3
• Shah, Natubhai (2004) [First published in 1998], Jainism: The World of Conquerors, I, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-1938-1
• Stasik, Danuta; Trynkowska, Anna (1 January 2006). Indie w Warszawie: tom upamiętniający 50-lecie powojennej historii indologii na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (2003/2004). Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa. ISBN 978-83-7151-721-1.
• Varma, Ram (1 April 2010). Ramayana : Before He Was God. Rupa & Company. ISBN 978-81-291-1616-1.
• Zimmer, Heinrich (1953) [April 1952], Campbell, Joseph (ed.), Philosophies Of India, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, ISBN 978-81-208-0739-6
• Dodiya, Jaydipsinh (2001), Critical Perspectives on the Rāmāyaṇa, Sarup & Sons, p. 139, ISBN 978-81-7625-244-7
• Bassuk, Daniel E (1987). Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: The Myth of the God-Man. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-08642-9.
• Parrinder, Edward Geoffrey (1997). Avatar and Incarnation: The Divine in Human Form in the World's Religions. Oxford: Oneworld. ISBN 978-1-85168-130-3.
• Tripathy, Amish (2015). Scion of Ikshvaku. New Delhi, India: Westland Publications. ISBN 9-789-385-15214-6.
• Rinehart, Robin (2011). Debating the Dasam Granth. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-984247-6.
• Lochtefeld, James G. (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8239-3180-4.
• Lamb, Ramdas (2012). Rapt in the Name: The Ramnamis, Ramnam, and Untouchable Religion in Central India. State University of New York Press. pp. 28–32. ISBN 978-0-7914-8856-0.
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• Hindery, Roderick (1978). Comparative Ethics in Hindu and Buddhist Traditions. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0866-9.
• Goldman, Robert P. (1996). The Ramayan of Valmiki. New Jersey, United States: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-06662-2.
• Van Der Molen, Willem (2003). "Rama and Sita in Wonoboyo". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 159 (2/3): 389–403. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003748. ISSN 0006-2294. JSTOR 27868037.

Further reading

• Jain Rāmāyaṇa of Hemchandra (English translation), book 7 of the Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra, 1931
• Griffith, Ramayana, Project Gutenberg
• Willem Frederik Stutterheim (1989). Rāma-legends and Rāma-reliefs in Indonesia. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-81-7017-251-2.
• Vyas, R.T. (ed.) (1992). Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Vadodara: Oriental Institute. Text as Constituted in its Critical Edition,
• Valmiki. Ramayana. Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press.
• J. P. Mallory; Douglas Q. Adams (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
• Menon, Ramesh (2008) [2004]. The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic. ISBN 978-0-86547-660-8.
• Growse, F.S. (2017). The Ramayana of Tulsidas. Trieste Publishing Pty Limited. ISBN 9-780-649-46180-6.
• Blank, Jonah (2000). Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India. ISBN 0-8021-3733-4.
• Kambar. Kamba Ramayanam.

External links

• Rama, World History Encyclopedia
• Rama at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Media related to Rama (category) at Wikimedia Commons
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Tapa Shotor
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/26/21

Image
Tapa Shotor
(Hadda)
Tapa Shotor seated Buddha, with Classical figures of Herakles (left, as Vajrapani) and Tyche (right, as Hariti), in Niche V2, 2nd century CE. Photographed in 1981 by Louis Dupree, before its destructions by the Talibans in 1992.[1][2]
Image
Tapa Shotor is located in Afghanistan
Type: Buddhist monastery
History
Founded: 1st century BCE
Abandoned: 9th century CE

Image
Head of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, facing (4th-5th century), probably Hadda, Tapa Shotor.[3][4]

Image
Seated Buddha, Tapa Shotor (Niche V1).

Tapa Shotor, also Tape Shotor or Tapa-e-shotor ("Camel Hill"),[5] was a large Sarvastivadin Buddhist monastery near Hadda, Afghanistan, and is now an archaeological site.[6]

The Sarvāstivāda was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Asoka (third century BCE). It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven Abhidharma works.

The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India (especially Kashmir) and Central Asia until the 7th century. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of the school composed the large and encyclopedic Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra around the time of the reign of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE).

The Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra is an ancient Buddhist text. It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE. It is an encyclopedic work on Abhidharma, scholastic Buddhist philosophy. Its composition led to the founding of a new school of thought, called Vaibhāṣika ('those [upholders] of the Vibhāṣa'), which was very influential in the history of Buddhist thought and practice.

-- Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra, by Wikipedia


Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the Mahāvibhāṣa were called Vaibhāṣikas.

The Sarvāstivādins are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda sect as well as the Sautrāntika tradition, although the relationship between these groups has not yet been fully determined.

Sarvāstivāda is a Sanskrit term that can be glossed as: "the theory of all exists". The Sarvāstivāda argued that all dharmas exist in the past, present and future, the "three times". Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośakārikā states, "He who affirms the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past, present and future] is held to be a Sarvāstivādin."

-- Sarvastivada, by Wikipedia


According to archaeologist Raymond Allchin, the site of Tapa Shotor suggests that the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara descended directly from the art of Hellenistic Bactria, as seen in Ai-Khanoum.[7]

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Bactria, or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia. Bactria proper was north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and south of the Oxus river, covering the flat region that straddles modern-day Afghanistan. More broadly Bactria was the area north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Tian Shan, covering modern-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well, with the Amu Darya flowing west through the centre.

Called "beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags" by the Avesta, the region is one of the sixteen perfect Iranian lands that the supreme deity Ahura Mazda had created. One of the early centres of Zoroastrianism and capital of the legendary Kayanian kings of Iran, Bactria is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire; it was a special satrapy and was ruled by a crown prince or an intended heir. Bactria was the centre of Iranian resistance against the Macedonian invaders after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC, but eventually fell to Alexander the Great. After the death of the Macedonian conqueror, Bactria was annexed by his general, Seleucus I.

Nevertheless, the Seleucids lost the region after declaration of independence by the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I; thus started history of the Greco-Bactrian and the later Indo-Greek Kingdoms.
By the 2nd century BC, Bactria was conquered by the Iranian Parthian Empire, and in the early 1st century, the Kushan Empire was formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories. Shapur I, the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran, conquered western parts of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century, and the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom was formed. The Sasanians lost Bactria in the 4th century, however, it was reconquered in the 6th century. With the Muslim conquest of Iran in the 7th century, Islamization of Bactria began.

Bactria was centre of an Iranian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, and New Persian as an independent literary language first emerged in this region. The Samanid Empire was formed in Eastern Iran by the descendants of Saman Khuda, a Persian from Bactria; thus started spread of Persian language in the region and decline of Bactrian language.

Bactrian, an Eastern Iranian language, was the common language of Bactria and surroundings areas in ancient and early medieval times.

-- Bactria, by Wikipedia


Ai-Khanoum (Aï Khānum, also Ay Khanum, lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek), possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, possibly later named Eucratidia, Εὐκρατίδεια) was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom from circa 280 BCE, and of the Indo-Greek kings when they ruled both in Bactria and northwestern India, from the time of Demetrius I (200-190 BCE) to the time of Eucratides (170–145 BCE). Previous scholars have argued that Ai Khanoum was founded in the late 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Recent analysis now strongly suggests that the city was founded c. 280 BC by the Seleucid emperor Antiochus I Soter. The city is located in Takhar Province, northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Panj River and the Kokcha River, both tributaries of the Amu Darya, historically known as the Oxus. It is on the lower of two major sets of routes (lowland and highland) which connect Western Asia to the Khyber Pass which gives road access to South Asia.

Ai-Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries until its annihilation by nomadic invaders around 145 BCE about the time of the death of Eucratides I.

Eucratides I (reigned c. 171–145 BC), sometimes called Eucratides the Great, was one of the most important Greco-Bactrian kings, descendants of dignitaries of Alexander the Great. He uprooted the Euthydemid dynasty of Greco-Bactrian kings and replaced it with his own lineage. He fought against the Indo-Greek kings, the easternmost Hellenistic rulers in northwestern India, temporarily holding territory as far as the Indus, until he was finally defeated and pushed back to Bactria. Eucratides had a vast and prestigious coinage, suggesting a rule of considerable importance.

-- Eucratides I, by Wikipedia


On a hunting trip in the 1960s, the Afghan Khan Gholam Serwar Nasher discovered ancient artifacts of Ai Khanom and invited Princeton archaeologist Daniel Schlumberger with his team to examine Ai-Khanoum. It was soon found to be the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named Arukratiya or Eucratidia), one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Some of those artefects were displayed in Europe and USA museums in 2004. The site was subsequently excavated through archaeological work by a French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) mission under Paul Bernard [fr] between 1964 and 1978, as well as Soviet scientists. The work had to be abandoned with the onset of the Soviet–Afghan War, during which the site was looted and used as a battleground, leaving very little of the original material. In 2013, the film-maker David Adams produced a six-part documentary mini-series about the ancient city entitled Alexander's Lost World.

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Gold coin of Eucratides I (171–145 BC), one of the Hellenistic rulers of ancient Ai-Khanoum. This is the largest known gold coin minted in Antiquity (169,20 g; 58 mm).

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Corinthian capital, found at Ai-Khanoum in the citadel by the troops of Commander Massoud, 2nd century BC.

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Architectural antefixae with Hellenistic "Flame palmette" design, Ai-Khanoum.

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Sun dial within two sculpted lion feet.

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Winged antefix, a type only known from Ai-Khanoum.

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Ai-Khanoum mosaic.

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High-relief of a naked man in contrapposto, wearing a chlamys. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Stucco face found in the administrative palace. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC

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Sculpture of an old man. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Close-up of the same statue.

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Hellenistic gargoyle. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Stone block with the inscriptions of Kineas. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Inscription on one of the vases from the Ai-Khanoum treasury.

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Plate depicting Cybele pulled by lions, a votive sacrifice and the Sun God. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Bronze Herakles statuette. Ai-Khanoum. 2nd century BC.

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Bracelet with horned female busts. Ai-Khanoum, 2nd century BC.

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Imprint from a mold found in Ai-Khanoum. 3rd-2nd century BC.

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Ai-Khanoum ivory statuette. Temple of Indented Niches.

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The Indian plate found in Ai-Khanoum, thought to represent the myth of Kunala (with reconstitution).

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Coin of Greco-Bactrian king Agathocles with Hindu deities.

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One of the Hellenistic-inspired "flame palmettes" and lotus designs, which may have been transmitted through Ai-Khanoum. Rampurva bull capital, India, circa 250 BCE.

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Gold stater of the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter minted at Ai-Khanoum, c. 275 BCE. Obverse: Diademed head of Antiochus. Reverse: Nude Apollo seated on omphalos, leaning on bow and holding two arrows. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ (of King Antiochos). Δ monogram of Ai-Khanoum in left field.

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Indian Emperor Ashoka addressed the Greeks of the region circa 258 BC in the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka, a bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic. Kabul Museum.

-- Ai-Khanoum, by Wikipedia


The site of Tapa Shotor was destroyed by arson and looted in 1992.[1]

Stylistic analysis

In view of the style of the objects found at Tapa Shotor, particularly the clay figures, Allchin suggests that either Bactrian artists came and worked for Buddhist monasteries, or that local artists had become "fully conversant" in Hellenistic art.[7] This opinion was confirmed by the archaeologist who excavated the site Tarzi: "in the light of the latest discoveries there is no longer any doubt about the prolongation of the Graeco-Bactrian artistic past".[8] According to Tarzi, Tapa Shotor, with clay sculptures dated to the 2nd century CE, represents the "missing link" between the Hellenistic art of Bactria, and the later stucco sculptures found at Hadda, usually dated to the 3rd-4th century CE.[1] The sculptures of Tapa Shortor are also contemporary with many of the early Buddhist sculptures found in Gandhara.[1]

Traditionally, the influx of artists conversant in Hellenistic art has been attributed to the migration of the Greek populations from the Greco-Bactrian cities of Ai-Khanoum and Takht-i Sangin.[9]

The ancient town of Takht-i Sangin is located near the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, the source of the Amu Darya [Oxus], in southern Tajikistan.

The Greco-Bactrian temple site of Takht-i Sangin is believed by many to be the source of the Oxus Treasure that now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum. Part of greater Transoxiana and built in the 3rd Century BC, the site consists of a well-fortified citadel containing the so-called "Temple of Oxus".

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Painted clay and alabaster head, Takht-i Sangin, Tajikistan, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Possibly a Zoroastrian priest.

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Hellenistic satyr Marsyas from Takhti Sangin, with dedication in Greek to the god of the Oxus, by "Atrosokes", a Bactrian name. 200-150 BCE. Tajikistan National Museum.

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Hellenistic statuette from Takhti Sangin, 2nd century BCE, Tajikistan National Museum.

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Hellenistic statuette from Takht-i Sangin, 2nd-3rd century BCE, Tajikistan National Museum.

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Takht-i Sangin ivory sculpture.

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Takht-i Sangin portrait of an old man, 3rd century BCE.

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Fragment of the head of an elephant, 3rd-4th century BCE.

-- Takht-i Sangin, by Wikipedia


Tarzi further suggested that Greek populations were established in the plains of Jalalabad, which included Hadda, around the Hellenistic city of Dionysopolis, and that they were responsible for the Buddhist creations of Tapa Shotor in the 2nd century CE.[9]

Nagara (Ancient Greek: Νάγαρα), also known as Dionysopolis (Διονυσόπολις), was an ancient city in the northwest part of India intra Gangem (India within the Ganges), distinguished in Ptolemy by the title ἡ καὶ Διονυσόπολις 'also Dionysopolis'. It also appears in sources as Nagarahara, and was situated between the Kabul River and the Indus, in present-day Afghanistan.

From the second name which Ptolemy has preserved, we are led to believe that this is the same place as Nysa (Νύσα) or Nyssa (Νύσσα), which was spared from plunder and destruction by Alexander the Great because the inhabitants asserted that it had been founded by Dionysus, when he conquered the area and he named the city Nysa and the land Nysaea (Νυσαία) after his nurse and also he named the mountain near the city, Meron (Μηρὸν) (i.e. thigh), because he grew in the thigh of Zeus.


When Alexander arrived at the city, together with his Companion cavalry went to the mountain and they made ivy garlands and crowned themselves with them, as they were, singing hymns in honor of Dionysus. Alexander also offered sacrifices to Dionysus, and feasted in company with his companions. On the other hand, according to Philostratus although Alexander wanted to go up the mountain he decided not to do it because he was afraid that when his men will see the vines which were on the mountain they would feel home sick or they will recover their taste for wine after they had become accustomed to water only, so he decided to make his vow and sacrifice to Dionysus at the foot of the mountain.

The site of Nagara is usually associated with a site now called Nagara Ghundi, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Jalalabad, south of the junction of the Surkhäb and Kabul rivers, where ancient ruins have been found.

Archaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi has suggested that, following the fall of the Greco-Bactrian cities of Ai-Khanoum and Takht-i Sangin, Greek populations were established in the plains of Jalalabad, which included Hadda, around the Hellenistic city of Dionysopolis, and that they were responsible for the Buddhist creations of Tapa Shotor in the 2nd century CE.

-- Nagara (ancient city), by Wikipedia


Haḍḍa is a Greco-Buddhist archeological site located in the ancient region of Gandhara, ten kilometers south of the city of Jalalabad, in the Nangarhar Province of eastern Afghanistan.

Hadda is said to have been almost entirely destroyed in the fighting during the civil war in Afghanistan.

Some 23,000 Greco-Buddhist sculptures, both clay and plaster, were excavated in Hadda during the 1930s and the 1970s. The findings combine elements of Buddhism and Hellenism in an almost perfect Hellenistic style.

Although the style of the artifacts is typical of the late Hellenistic 2nd or 1st century BCE, the Hadda sculptures are usually dated (although with some uncertainty), to the 1st century CE or later (i.e. one or two centuries afterward). This discrepancy might be explained by a preservation of late Hellenistic styles for a few centuries in this part of the world. However it is possible that the artifacts actually were produced in the late Hellenistic period.

Given the antiquity of these sculptures and a technical refinement indicative of artists fully conversant with all the aspects of Greek sculpture, it has been suggested that Greek communities were directly involved in these realizations, and that "the area might be the cradle of incipient Buddhist sculpture in Indo-Greek style".

The style of many of the works at Hadda is highly Hellenistic, and can be compared to sculptures found at the Temple of Apollo in Bassae, Greece.

The toponym Hadda has its origins in Sanskrit haḍḍa n. m., "a bone", or, an unrecorded *haḍḍaka, adj., "(place) of bones". The former - if not a fossilized form - would have given rise to a Haḍḍ in the subsequent vernaculars of northern India (and in the Old Indic loans in modern Pashto). The latter would have given rise to the form Haḍḍa naturally and would well reflect the belief that Hadda housed a bone-relic of Buddha. The term haḍḍa is found as a loan in Pashto haḍḍ, n., id. and may reflect the linguistic influence of the original pre-Islamic population of the area.

It is believed the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts-indeed the oldest surviving Indian manuscripts of any kind -- were recovered around Hadda. Probably dating from around the 1st century CE, they were written on bark in Gandhari using the Kharoṣṭhī script, and were unearthed in a clay pot bearing an inscription in the same language and script. They are part of the long-lost canon of the Sarvastivadin Sect that dominated Gandhara and was instrumental in Buddhism's spread into central and east Asia via the Silk Road. The manuscripts are now in the possession of the British Library.


-- Hadda, Afghanistan, by Wikipedia


Chronology

According to archaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi, the first, pre-monastic, period of Tapa Shotor, corresponds to the reign of the Indo-Scythian king Azes II (35-12 BCE).[10]

Azes II ([x]; both from Saka *Aza, meaning "leader".), may have been the last Indo-Scythian king, speculated to have reigned circa 35–12 BCE, in the northern Indian subcontinent (modern day Pakistan). His existence has been questioned; if he did not exist, artefacts attributed to his reign, such as coins, are likely to be those of Azes I.[3]

After the death of Azes II, the rule of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India and Pakistan finally crumbled with the conquest of the Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had lived in Bactria for more than a century, and who were then expanding into India to create a Kushan Empire.

The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu in 176 BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups migrating in different directions: the Greater Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi.

The Greater Yuezhi initially migrated northwest into the Ili Valley (on the modern borders of China and Kazakhstan), where they reportedly displaced elements of the Sakas. They were driven from the Ili Valley by the Wusun and migrated southward to Sogdia and later settled in Bactria. The Greater Yuezhi have consequently often been identified with peoples mentioned in classical European sources as having overrun the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, like the Tókharioi (Greek Τοχάριοι; Sanskrit Tukhāra) and Asii (or Asioi). During the 1st century BC, one of the five major Greater Yuezhi tribes in Bactria, the Kushanas, began to subsume the other tribes and neighbouring peoples. The subsequent Kushan Empire, at its peak in the 3rd century AD, stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in the north to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain of India in the south. The Kushanas played an important role in the development of trade on the Silk Road and the introduction of Buddhism to China.

The Lesser Yuezhi migrated southward to the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Some are reported to have settled among the Qiang people in Qinghai, and to have been involved in the Liangzhou Rebellion (184–221 AD) against the Chinese Han dynasty. Another group of Yuezhi is said to have founded the city state of Cumuḍa (now known as Kumul and Hami) in the eastern Tarim. A fourth group of Lesser Yuezhi may have become part of the Jie people of Shanxi, who established the Later Zhao state of the 4th century AD (although this remains controversial).

Yuezhi, by Wikipedia


Soon after, the Parthians invaded from the west. Their leader Gondophares temporarily displaced the Kushans and founded the Indo-Parthian Kingdom that was to last until the middle of the 1st century CE.

Parthia is a historical region located in north-eastern Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, and formed part of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire following the 4th-century-BC conquests of Alexander the Great. The region later served as the political and cultural base of the Eastern-Iranian Parni people and Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD). The Sasanian Empire, the last state of pre-Islamic Iran, also held the region and maintained the Seven Parthian clans as part of their feudal aristocracy.

-- Parthia, by Wikipedia


The Kushans ultimately regained northwestern India circa 75 CE, where they were to prosper for several centuries.

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Azes II in armour, riding a horse, on one of his silver tetradrachms, minted in Gandhara

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The Bimaran casket, representing the Buddha surrounded by Brahman (left) and Indra (right) was found inside a stupa with coins of Azes II inside. British Museum.

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Coin of Azes II with Buddhist triratna symbol.

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Coin of Azes II, with a clear depiction of his military outfit, with coat of mail and reflex bow in the saddle.

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Azes II in armour, riding a horse, on one of his silver tetradrachms, minted in Gandhara. British Museum. Personal photograph.

-- Azes II, by Wikipedia


The first Buddhist period dates to the reign of Kushan king Huvishka (155-187 CE). This period correspond to the creation of vihara, and niches 1, 2 and 3 in particular.[10] The period after Vasudeva I to the last Kushans (225-350 CE) saw the creation of niche XIII. After the Kushans, a period of the site corresponds to the Kidarites (4th-5th century CE).[10] The site remained inactive for about 250 years, from around 500 to 750 CE. A last period of activity followed, only marked by restorations, before the destruction of the site by fire in the 9th century CE. The period have been structured as follows:[10]

• Tapa Shotor I: Indo-Scythian king Azes II (35-12 BCE)
• Tapa Shotor II: Kushan king Huvishka (155-187 CE). Vihara, and niches V1, V2 and V3
• Tapa Shotor III: (187-191 CE)
• Tapa Shotor IV: Vasudeva I (191-225 CE)
• Tapa Shotor V: Last Kushans (225-350 CE)
• Tapa Shotor VI: Kidarites (350-450 CE)
• Tapa Shotor VII: 5th century
• Tapa Shotor VIII: 6th century. Corresponds to the 1st period of Tape Tope Kalan.
• hiatus (6th-8th century)
• Tapa Shotor IX: mid 8th century-9th century. Destruction by fire

Excavation

The monastery was excavated by an all-Afghan archaeological team. It yieded numerous sculptures in an archaeologically intact environment, providing great insights on the art of the region. A stupa was excavated in the main courtyard.[11]

A coin of the Indo-Greek king Menander was found in the ruins, but the abundance of finds of Kushan coinage suggest a main 4th century CE date for the site.[11]

Menander I Soter ("Menander I the Saviour"; known in Indian Pali sources as Milinda) was an Indo-Greek King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (165/155 –130 BC) who administered a large empire in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent from his capital at Sagala. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Buddhism.

Menander was initially a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab he established an empire in the Indian Subcontinent stretching from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). Ancient Indian writers indicate that he launched expeditions southward into Rajasthan and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna), and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."

Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and longevity of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathokleia, the possible daughter of Agatokles, who ruled as regent for his son Strato I. Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm...


According to an ancient Sri Lankan source, the Mahavamsa, Greek monks seem to have been active proselytizers of Buddhism during the time of Menander: the Yona (Greek) Mahadhammarakkhita (Sanskrit: Mahadharmaraksita) is said to have come from "Alasandra" (thought to be Alexandria of the Caucasus, the city founded by Alexander the Great, near today’s Kabul) with 30,000 monks for the foundation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great stupa") at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, during the 2nd century BC:

From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera ("elder") Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus.

— Mahavamsa, XXIX


A coin of Menander I was found in the second oldest stratum (GSt 2) of the Butkara stupa suggesting a period of additional constructions during the reign of Menander. It is thought that Menander was the builder of the second oldest layer of the Butkara stupa, following its initial construction during the Maurya empire.

These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Greek communities in northwestern India, and the prominent role Greek Buddhist monks played in them, probably under the sponsorship of Menander...

Plutarch reports that Menander died in camp while on campaign, thereby differing with the version of the Milindapanha. Plutarch gives Menander as an example of benevolent rule, contrasting him with disliked tyrants such as Dionysius, and goes on to explain that his subject towns fought over the honour of his burial, ultimately sharing his ashes among them and placing them in "monuments" (possibly stupas), in a manner reminiscent of the funerals of the Buddha....

Despite his many successes, Menander's last years may have been fraught with another civil war, this time against Zoilos I who reigned in Gandhara. This is indicated by the fact that Menander probably overstruck a coin of Zoilos....

After the reign of Menander I, Strato I and several subsequent Indo-Greek rulers, such as Amyntas, Nicias, Peukolaos, Hermaeus, and Hippostratos, depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a symbolic gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra (thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended), which in Buddhism signifies the transmission of the Buddha's teaching. At the same time, right after the death of Menander, several Indo-Greek rulers also started to adopt on their coins the Pali title of "Dharmikasa", meaning "follower of the Dharma" (the title of the great Indian Buddhist king Ashoka was Dharmaraja "King of the Dharma"). This usage was adopted by Strato I, Zoilos I, Heliokles II, Theophilos, Peukolaos and Archebios.

Altogether, the conversion of Menander to Buddhism suggested by the Milinda Panha seems to have triggered the use of Buddhist symbolism in one form or another on the coinage of close to half of the kings who succeeded him. Especially, all the kings after Menander who are recorded to have ruled in Gandhara (apart from the little-known Demetrius III) display Buddhist symbolism in one form or another.

Both because of his conversion and because of his unequaled territorial expansion, Menander may have contributed to the expansion of Buddhism in Central Asia. Although the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and Northern Asia is usually associated with the Kushans, a century or two later, there is a possibility that it may have been introduced in those areas from Gandhara "even earlier, during the time of Demetrius and Menander" (Puri, "Buddhism in Central Asia").

A frieze in Sanchi executed during or soon after the reign of Menander depicts Buddhist devotees in Greek attire. The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on Greek coins. The clothing too is Greek, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are Carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would probably be nearby Indo-Greeks from northwest India visiting the Stupa.


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Vitarka Mudra gestures on Indo-Greek coinage. Top: Divinities Tyche and Zeus. Bottom: Depiction of Indo-Greek kings Nicias and Menander II.

-- Menander I, by Wikipedia


Tapa Shortor had some beautiful statuary in Hellenistic style, particularly one seated Buddha attended by Herakles-Vajrapani and a Tyche-like woman holding a cornucopia, now destroyed (Niche V2).[12][13] Another has an attendant reminding the portrait of Alexander the Great.[14][15] Boardman suggested that the sculpture in the area might be an "incipient Buddhist sculpture in Indo-Greek style".[16]

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Figures of Herakles-Vajrapani with thunderbolt, and Tyche-Hariti with cornucopia, flanking a Buddha at Tapa Shotor, Hadda, 2nd century CE. This is unique photograph as the sculpture was destroyed in 1992 by the Talibans.

Many of the statues are three-dimensional representations in-the-round, a rare instance in the area of Hadda, which related the style of Tapa Shotor to the Hellenistic art of Bactria, and to the Buddhist caves of Xinjiang such as the Mogao Caves, probably directly inspired by these.[17]

Various niches display scenes of the Buddha surrounded by attendants (especially niches V1, V2, V3). Niche XIII, or "Aquatic niche", also demonstrates sculpture in the round, and depicts Naga Kalika predicting the success of the Bodhisattva towards attaining enlightenment. The niche is dated to the period 250-350 CE, and is probably synchronous with the clay sculptures of Temple II in Penjikent.[18][19] These sculptures are made of clay, while later sculptures molded in stucco can also be seen at the site.[20]

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Map of Hadda, by Charles Masson in 1841. Tapa Shotor was the "Large Mound with a hollow".[21]

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Painting of the lunette of an underground meditation chamber.[22] Tapa Shotor, period VI (350-450 CE).[23]

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Attendants to the Buddha, Tapa Shotor (Niche V1)

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Buddha attendants, Tapa Shotor (Niche V1)

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Seated Buddha with "Vajrapani-Alexander" attendant. Tapa Shotor (Niche V3).[24]

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Head of "Vajrapani-Alexander", Tapa (Niche V3).[25]

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Buddha attendants, Tapa Shotor

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Small decorated stupas in Tapa Shotor.[26]

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Site of Tapa Shotor, with a protective roof.[26]

External links

• Description and plan of Tapa Shotor (French)
• The famous Buddha with Herakles-Vajrapani and Tyche can be seen in Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 150.

References

1. Tarzi, Zémaryalai. "Le site ruiné de Hadda": 62 ff.
2. "Tepe Shotor Tableau. Hadda, Nangarhar Province. ACKU Images System". ackuimages.photoshelter.com.
3. Behrendt, Kurt A. (2007). The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-224-4.
4. Boardman, George. The Greeks in Asia. pp. Greeks and their arts in India.
5. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 143.
6. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 158.
7. "Following discoveries at Ai-Khanum, excavations at Tapa Shotor, Hadda, produced evidence to indicate that Gandharan art descended directly from Hellenised Bactrian art. It is quite clear from the clay figure finds in particular , that either Bactrian artist from the north were placed at the service of Buddhism, or local artists, fully conversant with the style and traditions of Hellenistic art , were the creators of these art objects" in Allchin, Frank Raymond (1997). Gandharan Art in Context: East-west Exchanges at the Crossroads of Asia. Published for the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge by Regency Publications. p. 19. ISBN 9788186030486.
8. Tarzi, Zemaryalai (2005). "Sculpture in the Round and Very High Relief in the Clay Statuary of Hadda: The Case of the So-called Fish Porch (Niche XIII)" (PDF). East and West. 55 (1/4): 392. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29757655.
9. Tarzi, Zémaryalai. "Le site ruiné de Hadda": 63.
10. Vanleene, Alexandra. "Tapa-e Shotor". Hadda Archeo Data Base. ArcheoDB, 2021.
11. Kuwayama, Shoshin (1988). "Tapa Shotor and Lalma: Aspects of stupa courts at Hadda" (PDF). Annali dell'Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale".
12. Behrendt, Kurt A. (2007). The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-58839-224-4.
13. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 148-149.
14. Boardman, John (1994). The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. Princeton University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-691-03680-9.
15. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 150.
16. Boardman, John (1994). The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. Princeton University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-691-03680-9.
17. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 152-153.
18. Tarzi, Zemaryalai (2005). "Sculpture in the Round and Very High Relief in the Clay Statuary of Hadda: The Case of the So-called Fish Porch (Niche XIII)". East and West. 55 (1/4): 383–394. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29757655.
19. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 152-153.
20. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 152-153.
21. Errington, Elizabeth. "Masson archive Vol. 2 (1).pdf": 36.
22. GREENE, ERIC M. (2013). "Death in a Cave: Meditation, Deathbed Ritual, and Skeletal Imagery at Tape Shotor". Artibus Asiae. 73 (2): 265–294. ISSN 0004-3648. JSTOR 24240815.
23. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 154.
24. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 150.
25. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art" (PDF): 150.
26. Tarzi, Zémaryalai. "Le site ruiné de Hadda".
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Menander I
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/26/21

Image
The Periplus explains that coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I were current in Barigaza.

To the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodorus [sic] and Menander.— Periplus, §47[23]

-- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, by Wikipedia


Buddhist symbolism is present throughout Indo-Scythian coinage. In particular, they adopted the Indo-Greek practice since Menander I of showing divinities forming the vitarka mudra with their right hand (as for the mudra-forming Zeus on the coins of Maues or Azes II), or the presence of the Buddhist lion on the coins of the same two kings, or the triratana symbol on the coins of Zeionises.

-- Indo-Scythians, by JatLand.com


Kanishka is renowned in Buddhist tradition for having convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. Along with his predecessors in the region, the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda) and the Indian emperors Ashoka and Harsha Vardhana, Kanishka is considered by Buddhism as one of its greatest benefactors.

-- Kushan Empire, by Wikipedia


The Yavanarajya inscription, states Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, mentions year 116 of the yavana hegemony (yavanarajya), attesting to the 2nd-century and 1st-century BCE Indo-Greek presence. This makes the inscription unique in that it mentions the Indo-Greeks, and it "may confirm" the numismatic and literary evidence which suggests that Mathura was under the ruler of the Indo-Greeks during the period between 185 BCE-85 BCE....

Quintanilla states that the nearly contemporaneous coinage of Menander I (165-135 BCE) and his successors found in the Mathura region, in combination with this inscription, suggests the hypothesis that there was a tributary style relationship between the Indo-Greek suzerains and the Mitra dynasty that ruled that region at the time.

[url]-- Yavanarajya inscription, by Wikipedia[/url]


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Image
Menander I
Portrait of Menander I
Indo-Greek king
Reign: 165/155–130 BC
Predecessor: Antimachus II
Successor: Strato I
Born: Kalasi, Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram, Afghanistan)[1][2]
Died: 130 BC
Burial: Stupas across the Indo-Greek Kingdom
Consort: Agathokleia
Issue: Strato I
House: House of Euthydemus
Religion: Buddhism

Menander I Soter (Ancient Greek: Μένανδρος Αʹ ὁ Σωτήρ, Ménandros Aʹ ho Sōtḗr, "Menander I the Saviour"; known in Indian Pali sources as Milinda) was an Indo-Greek King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (165[3]/155[3] –130 BC) who administered a large empire in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent from his capital at Sagala. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Buddhism.

Menander was initially a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab[2] he established an empire in the Indian Subcontinent stretching from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). Ancient Indian writers indicate that he launched expeditions southward into Rajasthan and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna), and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."

Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and longevity of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathokleia, the possible daughter of Agatokles, who ruled as regent for his son Strato I.[4] Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm.

Reign

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Location of Sagala/ Sialkot, capital city of Menander I.

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Attic Tetradrachm of Menander I in Greco-Bactrian style (Alexandria-Kapisa mint).
Obv: Menander throwing a spear.
Rev: Athena with thunderbolt. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU), "Of King Menander, the Saviour".


Menander was born to a Hellenistic family in a village called Kalasi adjacent to Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram, Afghanistan),[2] although another source says he was born near Sagala (modern Sialkot in the Punjab, Pakistan).[5] His territories covered Bactria (modern day ولایت بلخ or Bactria Province) and extended to India (modern day regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Greater Punjab.

His capital is supposed to have been Sagala, a prosperous city in northern Punjab (believed to be modern Sialkot), Pakistan. He was defeated at the banks of river Indus by Agnimitra,son of Pushyamitra Shunga.

The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander-- by Menander in particular (at least if he actually crossed the Hypanis towards the east and advanced as far as the Imaüs), for some were subdued by him personally and others by Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus the king of the Bactrians; and they took possession, not only of Patalena, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom of Saraostus and Sigerdis. In short, Apollodorus says that Bactriana is the ornament of Ariana as a whole; and, more than that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni.

— Strabo, Geographica[6]



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2. Silver drachm of Menander I (155-130 BC).
Obv: Greek legend, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU) lit. "Of Saviour King Menander".
Rev: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA MENAMDRASA "Saviour King Menander". Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.


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Another silver drachm of Menander I, dated circa 160-145 BC. Obverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ ('of King Menander the Saviour'), heroic bust of Menander, viewed from behind, head turned to left; Reverse: Athena standing right, brandishing thunderbolt and holding aegis, Karosthi legend around, monogram in field to left. Reference: Sear 7604.

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Silver coin of Menander
Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ
(BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU)
lit. "Of Saviour King Menander". British Museum.


Accounts describe Indo-Greek campaigns to Mathura, Panchala, Saketa, and potentially Pataliputra. The sage Patanjali around 150 BC, describes Menander campaigning as far as Mathura. The Hathigumpha inscription inscribed by Kharavela the King of Kalinga also places the Yavanas, or Indo-Greeks, in Mathura. Kharavela states to have forced the demoralized Yavana army to retreat back to Mathura:

"Then in the eighth year, (Kharavela) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure on Rajagaha (Rajagriha). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana (Greek) King [ta] retreated to Mathura having extricated his demoralized army."

— Hathigumpha inscription, lines 7-8, probably in the 1st century BCE-1st century CE.[1] Original text is in Brahmi script.


Menander may have campaigned as far as the Shunga capital Pataliputra resulting in a conflict. The religious scripture Yuga Purana, which describes events in the form of a prophecy, states:

After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras, the Yavanas (Greeks), wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja. The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines).

— Gargi-Samhita, Yuga Purana, ch. 5


Strabo also suggests that Indo-Greek conquests went up to the Shunga capital Pataliputra in northeastern India (today Patna):

Those who came after Alexander went to the Ganges and Pataliputra

— Strabo, 15.698


The events and results of these campaigns are unknown. Surviving epigraphical inscriptions during this time such as the Hathigumpha inscription states that Kharavela sacked Pataliputra. Furthermore, numismatics from the Mitra dynasty are concurrently placed in Mathura during the time of Menander. Their relationship is unclear, but the Mithra may potentially be vassals.

In the West, Menander seems to have repelled the invasion of the dynasty of Greco-Bactrian usurper Eucratides, and pushed them back as far as the Paropamisadae, thereby consolidating the rule of the Indo-Greek kings in the northwestern part of the Indian Subcontinent.

The Milinda Panha gives some glimpses of his military methods:

– Has it ever happened to you, O king, that rival kings rose up against you as enemies and opponents?
– Yes, certainly.
– Then you set to work, I suppose, to have moats dug, and ramparts thrown up, and watch towers erected, and strongholds built, and stores of food collected?
– Not at all. All that had been prepared beforehand.
– Or you had yourself trained in the management of war elephants, and in horsemanship, and in the use of the war chariot, and in archery and fencing?
– Not at all. I had learnt all that before.
– But why?
– With the object of warding off future danger.

— Milinda Panha, Book III, ch. 7


Generous findings of coins testify to the prosperity and extension of his empire: (with finds as far as Britain)[citation needed] the finds of his coins are the most numerous and the most widespread of all the Indo-Greek kings. Precise dates of his reign, as well as his origin, remain elusive however. Guesses among historians have been that Menander was either a nephew or a former general of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I, but the two kings are now thought to be separated by at least thirty years. Menander's predecessor in Punjab seems to have been the king Apollodotus I.

Menander's empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last Greek king Strato II disappeared around 10 AD.

The 1st-2nd century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea further testifies to the reign of Menander and the influence of the Indo-Greeks in India:

To the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodorus [sic] and Menander.

— Periplus, ch. 47.[7]


Menander and Buddhism

The Milinda Panha


Main article: Milinda Panha

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King Milinda asks questions.

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Indian-standard coinage of Menander I. Obv ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ "Of Saviour King Menander". Rev Palm of victory, Kharoshthi legend Māhārajasa trātadasa Menandrāsa, British Museum.[8]

According to tradition, Menander embraced the Buddhist faith, as described in the Milinda Panha, a classical Pali Buddhist text on the discussions between Milinda and the Buddhist sage Nāgasena. He is described as constantly accompanied by a guard of 500 Greek ("Yonaka") soldiers, and two of his counsellors are named Demetrius and Antiochus.

In the Milindanpanha, Menander is introduced as

King of the city of Sâgala in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he knew--holy tradition and secular law; the Sânkhya, Yoga, Nyâya, and Vaisheshika systems of philosophy; arithmetic; music; medicine; the four Vedas, the Purânas, and the Itihâsas; astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells; the art of war; poetry; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end.

— The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890


Buddhist tradition relates that, following his discussions with Nāgasena, Menander adopted the Buddhist faith:

May the venerable Nâgasena accept me as a supporter of the faith, as a true convert from to-day onwards as long as life shall last!

— The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890


He then handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world:

And afterwards, taking delight in the wisdom of the Elder, he handed over his kingdom to his son, and abandoning the household life for the houseless state, grew great in insight, and himself attained to Arahatship!

— The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890


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The Shinkot casket containing Buddhist relics was dedicated "in the reign of the Great King Menander".[9]

There is however little besides this testament to indicate that Menander in fact abdicated his throne in favour of his son. Based on numismatic evidence, Sir William Tarn believes that he in fact died, leaving his wife Agathocleia to rule as a regent, until his son Strato could rule properly in his stead.[10] Despite the success of his reign, it is clear that after his death, his "loosely hung" empire splintered into a variety of Indo-Greek successor kingdoms, of various size and stability.

His legacy as a Buddhist arhat reached the Greco-Roman world and Plutarch (Moralia 28.6) writes:

But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him."

The above seems to collaborate the claim:

It is unlikely that Menander’s support of Buddhism was a pious reconstruction of a Buddhist legend, for his deification by later traditions resonates with Macedonian religious trends that granted divine honours to monarchs and members of their family and worshipped them, like Alexander, as gods.85 It is no coincidence that similar motifs highlight the Buddha’s deification and his funereal rituals are commensurate with those of Macedonian kings and universal monarchs. The evidence is in favour of the conversion of King Menander to Buddhism, which is neither an isolated historical incident nor an invention of later traditions."[11]


Other Indian accounts

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The Bharhut Yavana. Indian relief of probable Indo-Greek king, possibly Menander, with the flowing head band of a Greek king, northern tunic with Hellenistic pleats, and Buddhist triratana symbol on his sword. Bharhut, 2nd century BC. Indian Museum, Calcutta.

• A 2nd century BC relief from a Buddhist stupa in Bharhut, in eastern Madhya Pradesh (today at the Indian Museum in Calcutta), the Bharhut Yavana, represents a foreign soldier with the curly hair of a Greek and the royal headband with flowing ends of a Greek king, and may be a depiction of Menander. In his right hand, he holds a branch of ivy, symbol of Dionysos. Also parts of his dress, with rows of geometrical folds, are characteristically Hellenistic in style. On his sword appears the Buddhist symbol of the three jewels, or Triratana.
• A Buddhist reliquary found in Bajaur, the Shinkot casket, bears a dedicatory inscription referring to "the 14th day of the month of Kārttika" of a certain year in the reign of "Mahārāja Minadra" ("Great King Menander"):

Minadrasa maharajasa Katiassa divasa 4 4 4 11 pra[na]-[sa]me[da]... (prati)[thavi]ta pranasame[da]... Sakamunisa

On the 14th day of Kārttika, in the reign of Mahārāja Minadra, (in the year ...), (the corporeal relic) of Sakyamuni, which is endowed with life... has been established[12]


• According to an ancient Sri Lankan source, the Mahavamsa, Greek monks seem to have been active proselytizers of Buddhism during the time of Menander: the Yona (Greek) Mahadhammarakkhita (Sanskrit: Mahadharmaraksita) is said to have come from "Alasandra" (thought to be Alexandria of the Caucasus, the city founded by Alexander the Great, near today’s Kabul) with 30,000 monks for the foundation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great stupa") at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, during the 2nd century BC:

From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera ("elder") Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus.

— Mahavamsa, XXIX[13]


Buddhist constructions

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The Butkara stupa as expanded during the reign of Menander I.

A coin of Menander I was found in the second oldest stratum (GSt 2) of the Butkara stupa suggesting a period of additional constructions during the reign of Menander.[14] It is thought that Menander was the builder of the second oldest layer of the Butkara stupa, following its initial construction during the Maurya empire.[15]

These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Greek communities in northwestern India, and the prominent role Greek Buddhist monks played in them, probably under the sponsorship of Menander.

Coins of Menander

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4. Silver coin of Menander, with Athena on reverse. British Museum.

Menander has left behind an immense corpus of silver and bronze coins, more so than any other Indo-Greek king. During his reign, the fusion between Indian and Greek coin standards reached its apogee. The coins feature the legend (Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU)/ Kharoshthi: MAHARAJA TRATARASA MENADRASA).

• According to Bopearachchi, his silver coinage begins with a rare series of drachma depicting on the obverse Athena and on the reverse her attribute the owl. The weight and monograms of this series match those of earlier king Antimachus II, indicating that Menander succeeded Antimachus II.
• On the next series, Menander introduces his own portrait, a hitherto unknown custom among Indian rulers. The reverse features his dynastical trademark: the so-called Athena Alkidemos throwing a thunderbolt, an emblem used by many of Menander's successors and also the emblem of the Antigonid kings of Macedonia.
• In a further development, Menander changed the legends from circular orientation to the arrangement seen on coin 4 to the right.[clarification needed] This modification ensured that the coins could be read without being rotated, and was used without exception by all later Indo-Greek kings.

These alterations were possibly an adaption on Menander's part to the Indian coins of the Bactrian Eucratides I, who had conquered the westernmost parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, and are interpreted by Bopearachchi as an indication that Menander recaptured these western territories after the death of Eucratides.

• Menander also struck very rare Attic standard coinage with monolingual inscriptions (coin 5),[clarification needed] which were probably intended for use in Bactria (where they have been found), perhaps thought to demonstrate his victories against the Bactrian kings, as well as Menander's own claim to the kingdom.
• There exist bronze coins of Menander featuring a manifold variation of Olympic, Indian and other symbols. It seems as though Menander introduced a new weight standard for bronzes.

Menander was the first Indo-Greek ruler to introduce the representation of Athena Alkidemos ("Athena, saviour of the people") on his coins, probably in reference to a similar statue of Athena Alkidemos in Pella, capital of Macedon. This type was subsequently used by most of the later Indo-Greek kings.

Menander the Just

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Coin of Menander II. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ, "Of King Menander, the Just".

Image
Comparison of the portraits of Menander I (left) and Menander II (right).

A king named Menander with the epithet Dikaios, "the Just", ruled in the Punjab after 100 BC. Earlier scholars, such as A. Cunningham and W. W. Tarn, believed there was only one Menander, and assumed that the king had changed his epithet and/or was expelled from his western dominions. A number of coincidences led them to this assumption:

• The portraits are relatively similar, and Menander II usually looks older than Menander I.
• The coins of Menander II feature several Buddhist symbols, which were interpreted as proof of the conversion mentioned in the Milinda Panha.
• The epithet Dikaios of Menander II was translated into Kharosthi as Dharmikasa on the reverse of his coins, which means "Follower of the Dharma" and was interpreted likewise.

However, modern numismatists as Bopearachchi and R.C. Senior have shown, by difference in coin findings, style and monograms, that there were two distinct rulers. The second Menander could have been a descendant of the first, and his Buddhist symbols a means of alluding to his ancestor's conversion. However, Menander I struck a rare bronze series with a Buddhist wheel (coin 3).

Menander's death

Plutarch reports that Menander died in camp while on campaign, thereby differing with the version of the Milindapanha. Plutarch gives Menander as an example of benevolent rule, contrasting him with disliked tyrants such as Dionysius, and goes on to explain that his subject towns fought over the honour of his burial, ultimately sharing his ashes among them and placing them in "monuments" (possibly stupas), in a manner reminiscent of the funerals of the Buddha.[16]

But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him.

— Plutarch, Moralia: Praecepta gerendae reipublicae[17][18]


Despite his many successes, Menander's last years may have been fraught with another civil war, this time against Zoilos I who reigned in Gandhara. This is indicated by the fact that Menander probably overstruck a coin of Zoilos.

The Milinda Panha might give some support to the idea that Menander's position was precarious, since it describes him as being somewhat cornered by numerous enemies into a circumscribed territory:

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Coin of Strato I and Agathokleia.
Obv: Conjugate busts of Strato and Agathokleia. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTEROS STRATONOS KAI AGATOKLEIAS "Of King Strato the Saviour and Agathokleia".
Rev: Athena throwing thunderbolt. Kharoshthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATASARA DHARMIKASA STRATASA "King Strato, Saviour and Just (="of the Dharma")".


After their long discussion Nagasaka asked himself "though king Milinda is pleased, he gives no signs of being pleased". Menander says in reply: "As a lion, the king of beasts, when put in a cage, though it were of gold, is still facing outside, even so do I live as master in the house but remain facing outside. But if I were to go forth from home into homelessness I would not live long, so many are my enemies".

— Quoted in Bopearachchi, Milinda Panha, Book III, Chapter 7[19]


Theories of Menander's successors

Menander was the last Indo-Greek king mentioned by ancient historians, and developments after his death are therefore difficult to trace.

a) The traditional view, supported by W.W. Tarn and Bopearachchi, is that Menander was succeeded by his Queen Agathokleia, who acted as regent to their infant son Strato I until he became an adult and took over the crown. Strato I used the same reverse as Menander I, Athena hurling a thunderbolt, and also the title Soter.

According to this scenario, Agathokleia and Strato I only managed to maintain themselves in the eastern parts of the kingdom, Punjab and at times Gandhara. Paropamisadae and Pushkalavati were taken over by Zoilos I, perhaps because some of Agathokleia's subjects may have been reluctant to accept an infant king with a queen regent.

b) On the other hand, R.C. Senior and other numismatics such as David Bivar have suggested that Strato I ruled several decades after Menander: they point out that Strato's and Agathokleia's monograms are usually different from Menander's, and overstrikes and hoard findings also associates them with later kings.

In this scenario, Menander was briefly succeeded by his son Thrason, of whom a single coin is known. After Thrason was murdered, competing kings such as Zoilos I or Lysias may have taken over Menander's kingdom. Menander's dynasty was thus dethroned and did not return to power until later, though his relative Nicias may have ruled a small principality in the Kabul valley.

Legacy

Buddhism


Main article: Greco-Buddhism

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Vitarka Mudra gestures on Indo-Greek coinage. Top: Divinities Tyche and Zeus. Bottom: Depiction of Indo-Greek kings Nicias and Menander II.

After the reign of Menander I, Strato I and several subsequent Indo-Greek rulers, such as Amyntas, Nicias, Peukolaos, Hermaeus, and Hippostratos, depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a symbolic gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra (thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended), which in Buddhism signifies the transmission of the Buddha's teaching. At the same time, right after the death of Menander, several Indo-Greek rulers also started to adopt on their coins the Pali title of "Dharmikasa", meaning "follower of the Dharma" (the title of the great Indian Buddhist king Ashoka was Dharmaraja "King of the Dharma"). This usage was adopted by Strato I, Zoilos I, Heliokles II, Theophilos, Peukolaos and Archebios.

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Menander coin with elephant.

Altogether, the conversion of Menander to Buddhism suggested by the Milinda Panha seems to have triggered the use of Buddhist symbolism in one form or another on the coinage of close to half of the kings who succeeded him. Especially, all the kings after Menander who are recorded to have ruled in Gandhara (apart from the little-known Demetrius III) display Buddhist symbolism in one form or another.

Both because of his conversion and because of his unequaled territorial expansion, Menander may have contributed to the expansion of Buddhism in Central Asia. Although the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and Northern Asia is usually associated with the Kushans, a century or two later, there is a possibility that it may have been introduced in those areas from Gandhara "even earlier, during the time of Demetrius and Menander" (Puri, "Buddhism in Central Asia").

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Foreigners on the Northern Gateway of Stupa I, Sanchi. Satavahana period, 2nd or 1st century BC.

A frieze in Sanchi executed during or soon after the reign of Menander depicts Buddhist devotees in Greek attire. The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on Greek coins. The clothing too is Greek, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are Carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would probably be nearby Indo-Greeks from northwest India visiting the Stupa.[20]

Representation of the Buddha

Main article: Greco-Buddhist art

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One of the first known representations of the Buddha, Gandhara.

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Detail of Asia in the Ptolemy world map. The "Menander Mons" are in the center of the map, at the east of the Indian subcontinent, right above the Malaysian Peninsula.

The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha is absent from Indo-Greek coinage, suggesting that the Indo-Greek kings may have respected the Indian an-iconic rule for depictions of the Buddha, limiting themselves to symbolic representation only. Consistently with this perspective, the actual depiction of the Buddha would be a later phenomenon, usually dated to the 1st century, emerging from the sponsorship of the syncretic Kushan Empire and executed by Greek, and, later, Indian and possibly Roman artists. Datation of Greco-Buddhist statues is generally uncertain, but they are at least firmly established from the 1st century.

Another possibility is that just as the Indo-Greeks routinely represented philosophers in statues (but certainly not on coins) in Antiquity, the Indo-Greek may have initiated anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha in statuary only, possibly as soon as the 2nd-1st century BC, as advocated by Foucher and suggested by Chinese murals depicting Emperor Wu of Han worshipping Buddha statues brought from Central Asia in 120 BC (See picture). An Indo-Chinese tradition also explains that Nagasena, also known as Menander's Buddhist teacher, created in 43 BC in the city of Pataliputra a statue of the Buddha, the Emerald Buddha, which was later brought to Thailand.

Stylistically, Indo-Greek coins generally display a very high level of Hellenistic artistic realism, which declined drastically around 50 BC with the invasions of the Indo-Scythians, Yuezhi and Indo-Parthians. The first known statues of the Buddha are also very realistic and Hellenistic in style and are more consistent with the pre-50 BC artistic level seen on coins.

This would tend to suggest that the first statues were created between 130 BC (death of Menander) and 50 BC, precisely at the time when Buddhist symbolism appeared on Indo-Greek coinage. From that time, Menander and his successors may have been the key propagators of Buddhist ideas and representations: "the spread of Gandhari Buddhism may have been stimulated by Menander's royal patronage, as may have the development and spread of Gandharan sculpture, which seems to have accompanied it" (Mcevilley, "The Shape of Ancient Thought", p. 378).

Education

The Milind College in Aurangabad, India, is named after king Milind. The college is founded by B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Buddhist leader and the father of the Indian constitution.

Geography

In Classical Antiquity, from at least the 1st century, the "Menander Mons", or "Mountains of Menander", came to designate the mountain chain at the extreme east of the Indian subcontinent, today's Naga Hills and Arakan, as indicated in the Ptolemy world map of the 1st century geographer Ptolemy.[21]

See also

• Kanishka
• Indo-Greek Kingdom
• Greco-Buddhism
• Indo-Scythians

Notes

1. "Menander". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
2. Hazel, John (2013). Who's Who in the Greek World. Routledge. p. 155. ISBN 9781134802241. Menander king in India, known locally as Milinda, born at a village named Kalasi near Alasanda (Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus), and who was himself the son of a king. After conquering the Punjab, where he made Sagala his capital, he made an expedition across northern India and visited Patna, the capital of the Mauraya empire, though he did not succeed in conquering this land as he appears to have been overtaken by wars on the north-west frontier with Eucratides.
3. Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectively. The first date is estimated by Osmund Bopearachchi and R. C. Senior, the other Boperachchi
4. The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. 1970. p. 406. ISBN 978-0-521-23448-1.
5. Magill, Frank Northen (2003). Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 717. ISBN 9781579580407. MENANDER Born: c. 210 B.C.; probably Kalasi, Afghanistan Died: c. 135 B.C.; probably in northwest India Areas of Achievement: Government and religion Contribution: Menander extended the Greco-Bactrian domains in India more than any other ruler. He became a legendary figure as a great patron of Buddhism in the Pali book the Milindapanha. Early Life – Menander (not to be confused with the more famous Greek dramatist of the same name) was born somewhere in the fertile area to the south of the Paropamisadae or present Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The only reference to this location is in the semilegendary Milindapanha (first or second century A.D.), which says that he was born in a village called Kalasi near Alasanda, some two hundred yojanas (about eighteen miles) from the town of Sagala (probably Sialkot in the Punjab). The Alasanda refers to the Alexandria in Afghanistan and not the one in Egypt.
6. (in Greek) Strabo (1877). "11.11.1". In Meineke, A. (ed.). Geographica (in Greek). Leipzig: Teubner.
Jones, H. L., ed. (1924). "11.11.1". Missing or empty |title= (help) Jones, H. L., ed. (1903). "11.11.1". Missing or empty |title= (help) At the Perseus Project.
7. Full text, Schoff's 1912 translation
8. The coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum, p.50 and Pl. XII-7 [1]
9. Baums, Stefan (2017). A framework for Gandharan chronology based on relic inscriptions, in "Problems of Chronology in Gandharan Art". Archaeopress.}
10. William Tarn. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Second edition, 1951. Page 226.
11. Halkias (2014: 94)
12. "Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution", Smithsonian Institution, Bopearachchi, p19, quoting the analysis of N.G. Majumdar, D.C. Sicar, S.Konow
13. Chapter XXIX of the Mahavamsa: Text
14. Handbuch der Orientalistik, Kurt A. Behrendt, BRILL, 2004, p.49 sig
15. "King Menander, who built the penultimate layer of the Butkara stupa in the first century BCE, was an Indo-Greek."in Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River, Alice Albinia - 2012
16. A passage in the "Mahā-parinibbâna sutta" of the "Dighanikaya" relates the dispute of Indian kings over the ashes of the Buddha, which they finally shared between themselves and enshrined in a series of stupas.
17. Plutarch. "28, 6". Morals: Political Precepts. pp. 147–148.
18. (in Greek) Bernardakis, Gregorius N., ed. (1893). "821d". Moralia: Praecepta gerendae reipublicae(in Greek). Leipzig: Teubner.
Fowler, Harold North, ed. (1936). "28, 6". Missing or empty |title= (help) Goodwin, William W., ed. (1874). "28, 6". Missing or empty |title= (help) At the Perseus Project.
19. "Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution", Smithsonian Institution, Bopearachchi, p33
20. "A guide to Sanchi" John Marshall. These "Greek-looking foreigners" are also described in Susan Huntington, "The art of ancient India", p. 100
21. Boot, Hooves and Wheels: And the Social Dynamics behind South Asian Warfare, Saikat K Bose, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, 2015 p.222

References

• Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Catalogue Raisonné, Osmund Bopearachchi, 1991, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ISBN 2-7177-1825-7.
• The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies by Thomas McEvilley (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002) ISBN 1-58115-203-5
• Buddhism in Central Asia by B.N. Puri (Motilal Banarsidass Pub, January 1, 2000) ISBN 81-208-0372-8* The Greeks in Bactria and India, W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
• Dictionary of Buddhism, Damien Keown, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-860560-9
• De l'Indus à l'Oxus, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale, Osmund Bopearachchi, Christine Sachs, ISBN 2-9516679-2-2
• The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity by John Boardman (Princeton University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-691-03680-2
• The Crossroads of Asia. Transformation in Image and symbol, 1992, ISBN 0-9518399-1-8
• Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution, Smithsonian Institution, Bopearachchi, 1993

External links

• Coins of King Menander
• More coins of Menander
• Kapisa coinage of Menander
• The Debate of King Milinda
• The Questions of King Milinda
• Catalogue of the coins of Menander
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Thu May 27, 2021 6:43 am

Hadda, Afghanistan
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/26/21

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Hadda
(Afghanistan)
Buddhist stupas at Hadda, by William Simpson, 1881.[1]
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Hadda, Afghanistan is located in Afghanistan
Type: Group of Buddhist monasteries
History
Founded: 1st century BCE
Abandoned: 9th century CE

Haḍḍa (Pashto: هډه‎) is a Greco-Buddhist archeological site located in the ancient region of Gandhara, ten kilometers south of the city of Jalalabad, in the Nangarhar Province of eastern Afghanistan.

Hadda is said to have been almost entirely destroyed in the fighting during the civil war in Afghanistan.

Background

Some 23,000 Greco-Buddhist sculptures, both clay and plaster, were excavated in Hadda during the 1930s and the 1970s. The findings combine elements of Buddhism and Hellenism in an almost perfect Hellenistic style.

Although the style of the artifacts is typical of the late Hellenistic 2nd or 1st century BCE, the Hadda sculptures are usually dated (although with some uncertainty), to the 1st century CE or later (i.e. one or two centuries afterward). This discrepancy might be explained by a preservation of late Hellenistic styles for a few centuries in this part of the world. However it is possible that the artifacts actually were produced in the late Hellenistic period.

Given the antiquity of these sculptures and a technical refinement indicative of artists fully conversant with all the aspects of Greek sculpture, it has been suggested that Greek communities were directly involved in these realizations, and that "the area might be the cradle of incipient Buddhist sculpture in Indo-Greek style".[2]

The style of many of the works at Hadda is highly Hellenistic, and can be compared to sculptures found at the Temple of Apollo in Bassae, Greece.

The toponym Hadda has its origins in Sanskrit haḍḍa n. m., "a bone", or, an unrecorded *haḍḍaka, adj., "(place) of bones". The former - if not a fossilized form - would have given rise to a Haḍḍ in the subsequent vernaculars of northern India (and in the Old Indic loans in modern Pashto). The latter would have given rise to the form Haḍḍa naturally and would well reflect the belief that Hadda housed a bone-relic of Buddha. The term haḍḍa is found as a loan in Pashto haḍḍ, n., id. and may reflect the linguistic influence of the original pre-Islamic population of the area.

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Map of Hadda by Charles Masson, 1841.

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The village of Hadda, seen from Tapa Shotor in 1976.

Buddhist scriptures

See also: Gandharan Buddhist texts

It is believed the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts-indeed the oldest surviving Indian manuscripts of any kind-were recovered around Hadda. Probably dating from around the 1st century CE, they were written on bark in Gandhari using the Kharoṣṭhī script, and were unearthed in a clay pot bearing an inscription in the same language and script. They are part of the long-lost canon of the Sarvastivadin Sect that dominated Gandhara and was instrumental in Buddhism's spread into central and east Asia via the Silk Road. The manuscripts are now in the possession of the British Library.

Tapa Shotor monastery (2nd century CE)

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Seated Buddha, Tapa Shotor monastery (Niche V1), 2nd century CE, Hadda

Main article: Tapa Shotor

Tapa Shotor was a large Sarvastivadin Buddhist monastery.[3][4] According to archaeologist Raymond Allchin, the site of Tapa Shotor suggests that the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara descended directly from the art of Hellenistic Bactria, as seen in Ai-Khanoum.[5]

The earliest structures at Tapa Shotor (labelled "Tapa Shotor I" by archaeologists) date to the Indo-Scythian king Azes II (35-12 BCE).[6]

A sculptural group excavated at the Hadda site of Tapa-i-Shotor represents Buddha surrounded by perfectly Hellenistic Herakles and Tyche holding a cornucopia.[7] The only adaptation of the Greek iconography is that Herakles holds the thunderbolt of Vajrapani rather than his usual club.

According to Tarzi, Tapa Shotor, with clay sculptures dated to the 2nd century CE, represents the "missing link" between the Hellenistic art of Bactria, and the later stucco sculptures found at Hadda, usually dated to the 3rd-4th century CE.[8] The scultptures of Tapa Shortor are also contemporary with many of the early Buddhist sculptures found in Gandhara.[8]

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Head of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, facing (4th-5th century), probably Hadda, Tapa Shotor.[9][10]

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Attendants to the Buddha, Tapa Shotor (Niche V1)

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Site of Tapa Shotor, with a protective roof.[11]

Chakhil-i-Ghoundi monastery (2nd-3rd century CE)

Main article: Chakhil-i-Ghoundi Stupa

The Chakhil-i-Ghoundi monastery is dated to the 4th-5th century CE. Is is built around the Chakhil-i-Ghoundi Stupa, a small limestone stupa. Most of the remains of the stupa were gathered in 1928 by the archeological mission of Frenchman Jules Barthoux of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, and have been preserved and reconstituted through a collaboration with the Tokyo National Museum. They are today on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris. It is usually dated to the 2nd-3rd century CE.

The decoration of the stupa provides an interesting case of Greco-Buddhist art, combining Hellenistic and Indian artistic elements. The reconstitution consists of several parts, the decorated stupa base, the canopy, and various decorative elements.

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Canopy of the stupa

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Scene of "The Gift of Dirt", Chakhil-i-Ghoundi Stupa, Gandhara.

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Wine and dance scene, with people in Hellenistic clothing

Tapa Kalan monastery (4th-5th century CE)

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The "Genius with flowers", Tapa Kalan, Hadda, Gandhara. 2-3rd century CE. Musée Guimet.

The Tapa Kalan monastery is dated to the 4th-5th century CE. It was excavated by Jules Barthoux.[12]

One of its most famous artifact is an attendant to the Buddha who display manifest Hellenistic styles, the "Genie au Fleur", today in Paris at the Guimet Museum.[13]

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Buddha statue in Tapa Kalan, Hadda

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Small stupa decorated with Buddhas, Tapa Kalan, 4th-5th century CE

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Indo-Corinthian capital, with figure of the Buddha inside acanthus leaves. Tapa Kalan.

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Buddha with flying Erotes holding a wreath overhead, Tapa Kalan, 3rd century CE

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Heads, Tapa Kalan.[14]

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The Great Departure

Bagh-Gai monastery (3rd-4th century CE)

The Bagh-Gai monastery is generally dated to the 3rd-4th century CE.[15] Bagh-Gai has many small stupas with decorated niches.[16]

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Hadda number 13, Bagh Gai monastery, by Charles Masson, 1842.

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Sculpture from Bagh-Gai

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Decorative panel, Bagh-Gai monastery

Tapa-i Kafariha Monastery (3rd-4th century CE)

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Head of a female devotee, Tapa-i-Kafariha, III-IVth cent.

The Tapa-i Kafariha Monastery is generally dated to the 3rd-4th century CE. It was excavated in 1926–27 by an expedition led by Jules Barthoux as part of the French Archaeological Delegation to Afghanistan.

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Hadda number 9, Tepe Kafariha, by Charles Masson, 1842.

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Niche with the seated Boddhisatva Shakyamuni, Tapa-i Kafariha. Metropolitan Museum of Art.[17]

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Door casing: Life of the Buddha. Musée Guimet

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Atlas, on the base of a stupa, Tapa-i Kafariha.[18]

Tapa Tope Kalān monastery (5th century CE)

This large stupa is about 200 meters to the northeast of the modern city of Hadda. Masson called it "Tope Kalān" (Hadda 10), Barthoux "Borj-i Kafarihā", and it is now designated as "Tapa Tope Kalān".[19]

The stupa at Tope Kalan contained deposits of over 200 mainly silver coins, dating to the 4th-5th century CE. The coins included Sasanian issues of Varhran IV (388–399 CE), Yazdagird II (438–457 CE) and Peroz I (457/9–84 CE). There were also five Roman gold solidi: Theodosius II (408–50 CE), Marcianus (450–457 CE) and Leo I (457–474 CE). Many coins were also Hunnic imitations of Sasanian coins with the addition of the Alkhon tamgha, and 14 Alkhon coins with rulers showing of their characteristic elongated skulls. All these coins point to a mid-late 5th century date for the stupa.[20]

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Ruins of the stupa (Hadda 10)

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Alchon Hun, Sassanian and Kidarite coins from Tapa Kalan (Hadda 10)

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Small decorative stupa at Hadda 10

Gallery

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Polychrome Buddha, 2nd century CE, Hadda.

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"Laughing boy" from Hadda.

References

1. Simpson, William (1881). "Art. VII.—On the Identification of Nagarahara, with reference to the Travels of Hiouen-Thsang". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 13 (2): 183–207. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00017792. ISSN 2051-2066.
2. John Boardman, The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity(ISBN 0-691-03680-2)
3. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art"(PDF): 143.
4. Vanleene, Alexandra. "The Geography of Gandhara Art"(PDF): 158.
5. "Following discoveries at Ai-Khanum, excavations at Tapa Shotor, Hadda, produced evidence to indicate that Gandharan art descended directly from Hellenised Bactrian art. It is quite clear from the clay figure finds in particular , that either Bactrian artist from the north were placed at the service of Buddhism, or local artists, fully conversant with the style and traditions of Hellenistic art , were the creators of these art objects" in Allchin, Frank Raymond (1997). Gandharan Art in Context: East-west Exchanges at the Crossroads of Asia. Published for the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge by Regency Publications. p. 19. ISBN 9788186030486.
6. Vanleene, Alexandra. "Tapa-e Shotor". Hadda Archeo Data Base. ArcheoDB, 2021.
7. See image Archived 2012-07-31 at archive.today
8. Tarzi, Zémaryalai. "Le site ruiné de Hadda": 62 ff.
9. Behrendt, Kurt A. (2007). The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-224-4.
10. Boardman, George. The Greeks in Asia. pp. Greeks and their arts in India.
11. Tarzi, Zémaryalai. "Le site ruiné de Hadda".
12. Vanleene, Alexandra. "Tapa Tope Kalān". Hadda Archeo DB.
13. See image Archived 2013-01-03 at archive.today
14. "Photograph". RMN.
15. Barthoux, J. (1928). "BAGH-GAI". Revue des arts asiatiques. 5 (2): 77–81. ISSN 0995-7510. JSTOR 43474661.
16. Rhie, Marylin M. (14 June 2010). Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 3: The Western Ch'in in Kansu in the Sixteen Kingdoms Period and Inter-relationships with the Buddhist Art of Gandh?ra. BRILL. pp. Fig. 8.32 a to d. ISBN 978-90-04-18400-8.
17. Behrendt, Kurt A. (2007). The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-58839-224-4.
18. "Photograph". RMN.
19. Vanleene, Alexandra. "Tapa Tope Kalān". Hadda Archeo DB.
20. Errington, Elizabeth (2017). Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832–1835. British Museum. p. 34.

External links

• Vandalised Afghanistan
• Oldest Buddhist bark texts
• Photographs from Tepe Shotur/Haḍḍa
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

Postby admin » Thu May 27, 2021 10:57 am

The Oldest Extant Parvan-List of the Mahabharata [Spitzer Manuscript]
by Dieter Schlingloff
University of Kiel
1968



The Berlin collection of Sanskrit mss. from Qizil (Chinese Turkistan) comprises numerous fragments of an unpublished palmleaf-manuscript in Kushana characters, comprehending at least two philosophical texts of the Sarvastivadin School. In the present paper, the fragments of two successive leaves are edited and discussed, which consist of a list of Mahabharata-parvans. The juxtaposition of this parvan-list with the current lists of the 100 sub- and 18 major parvan proves that this list represents an earlier stage of development of the Mahabharata. It verifies the statement of Winternitz and other scholars, which have argued that the virataparvan and the anusasanaparvan do not belong to the original Mbh., but are later interpolations into the great Epos.

Noted below are few words about the eighteen sections of the Mahabharata. In Mahabharata, these sections are called parvan. A parvan means a book. The names of all parvas or books of the Mahabharata are noted below.

Parva / Title / Contents

1 / Adi-Parva / Introduction, birth and growing up of the princes.
2 / Sabha-Parva / Life at the court, the game of dice, and the exile of the Pandavas. Maya Danava erects the palace and court (sabha), at Indraprastha.
3 / Aranyaka-Parva (also Vanaparva, Aranyaparva) / The twelve years in exile in the forest (aranya).
4 / Virata-Parva / The year in exile spent at the court of King Virata.
5 Udyoga-parva / Preparations for war.
6 / Bhishma-parva / The first part of the great battle, with Bhishma as commander for the Kauravas.
7 / Drona-parva / The battle continues, with Dronacharya as commander.
8 / Karna-parva / The battle again, with Karna as commander.
9 / Shalya-parva / The last part of the battle, with Shalya as commander.
10 / Sauptika-parva / How Ashvattama and the remaining Kauravas killed the Pandava army in their sleep (Sauptika).
11 / Stri-parva / Gandhari and the other women (stri) lament the dead.
12 / Shanti-parva / The crowning of Yudhisthira, and his instructions from Bhishma
13 / Anusasana-parva / The final instructions (anusasana) from Bhishma.
14 / Ashvamedhika-Parva / The royal ceremony of the Ashvamedha conducted by Yudhisthira.
15 / Ashramavasika-Parva / Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti leave for an ashram and eventual death in the forest.
16 / Mausala-parva / The infighting between the Yadavas with maces (masala).
17 / Mahaprasthanika-parva / The first part of the path to death (mahaprasthana or ‘the great journey’) of Yudhisthira and his brothers.
18 / Svargarohana-parva / The Pandavas return to the spiritual world (svarga).
19 / Harivamsha / Life of Krishna.

-- Mahabharata, by En.Wikipedia


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Seated Buddha from the Sarvastivadin monastery of Tapa Shotor, 2nd century CE.

The Sarvāstivāda was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Asoka (third century BCE). It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven Abhidharma works.

The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India (especially Kashmir) and Central Asia until the 7th century. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of the school composed the large and encyclopedic Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra around the time of the reign of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE). Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the Mahāvibhāṣa were called Vaibhāṣikas.

The Sarvāstivādins are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda sect as well as the Sautrāntika tradition, although the relationship between these groups has not yet been fully determined.

Sarvāstivāda is a Sanskrit term that can be glossed as: "the theory of all exists". The Sarvāstivāda argued that all dharmas exist in the past, present and future, the "three times". Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośakārikā states, "He who affirms the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past, present and future] is held to be a Sarvāstivādin."

-- Sarvastivada, by Wikipedia


The Berlin Collection of Sanskrit MSS. from Central Asia comprises numerous fragments of a palmleaf-manuscript from Qizil, which comprehends at least two philosophical texts of the Buddhist Sarvastivadin-school (Ms.Spitzer). The manuscript may be palaeographically assigned to the Kushana period [AD 30 to circa 375].

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The Spitzer Manuscript is the oldest surviving philosophical manuscript in Sanskrit, and possibly the oldest Sanskrit manuscript of any type related to Buddhism and Hinduism discovered so far. The Spitzer Manuscript was found in 1906 in the form of a pile of more than 1,000 palm leaf fragments in the Ming-oi, Kizil Caves, China during the third Turfan expedition headed by Albert Grünwedel. The calibrated age of the manuscript by Carbon-14 technique is 130 CE (80–230 CE). According to the Indologist Eli Franco, the palaeographical features suggest a date closer to 200–230 CE. According to Indologist Noriyuki Kudo, the Franco's 3rd-century estimate is a presumption based on a theory of palaeographic chronology. The text is written in the Brahmi script (Kushana period) and some early Gupta script. It is named after Moritz Spitzer, whose team first studied it in 1927–28.

First, briefly, the big picture. This is one of several hundred manuscripts discovered within the last 20 years from the ancient region of Gandhara. And I'll show a map later if you're not familiar with Gandhara and where it is. I'll get back to that. But we now know of several hundred manuscripts, almost all of them like this one, a birch bark scroll and written in the Gandhari language, which I'll describe a little bit later on, and in the Kharosthi script, which you'll also see some illustrations of. And these manuscripts date between the first century BC and the third century AD. So they are clearly the oldest manuscripts of any manifestation of Buddhism. And they're also the oldest South Asian manuscripts in existence....

So this manuscript has been tested by radiocarbon dating twice in two different labs and the results are here. And the results are a little disturbing because they should be the same, theoretically but they're not and there's been some discussion of that and probably there was some contamination. These things were packed in cotton wool when they were shipped here and that may have contaminated and damaged the accuracy of the test. So there's really no way to know which is the more accurate result, the one in Australia, number one, or the one that was done in University of Arizona, number two. So all in all, we have the big possible span from 206 BC to 1, what does it say, 133 CE. But that's not -- It's not a major problem because it's all in the ballpark and since then, quite a few other manuscripts of similar types have been tested and they all fall in period between first century BC to third century AD. And for specific reasons that I'm not going to take the time to explain now but I'm pretty sure that this manuscript is either first century BC or first century CE. So we have a pretty good idea of where we are historically.


-- One Buddha, 15 Buddhas, 1,000 Buddhas, by Richard Salomon


The Spitzer Manuscript were found near the northern branch of the Central Asian Silk Road. It is unique in a number of ways. Unlike numerous Indian manuscripts whose copies survive as early translations in Tibet and China, no such translations of the treatises within the Spitzer Manuscript have been found so far. The manuscript fragments are actually copies of a collection of older Buddhist and Hindu treatises. Sections of Buddhist treatises constitute the largest part of the Spitzer Manuscript. They include verses on a number of Buddhist philosophies and a debate on the nature of Dukkha and the Four Noble Truths. The Hindu portions include treatises from the Nyaya-Vaiśeṣika, Tarkasatra (treatise on rhetoric and proper means to debate) and one of the earliest dateable table of content sequentially listing the parva (books) of the Mahabharata, along with numerals after each parva. This list does not include Anusasanaparvan and Virataparvan. Studies by the Indologist Dieter Schlingloff on these Spitzer Manuscript fragments suggest that more ancient versions of the Mahabharata was likely expanded and interpolated in the early centuries of the common era. According to Indologist and Sanskrit scholar John Brockington, known for his Mahabharata-related publications, the table of contents in the Spitzer Manuscript includes book names not found in later versions, and it is possible that the parvas existed but were with different titles. The epic known to the scribe of Spitzer Manuscript may have been in the form of a different arrangement and titles. The final portion of the Spitzer Manuscript is devoted to dialectics.

In addition to the Mahabharata, the Spitzer Manuscript refers to or includes sections from the Arthashastra and the Manusmriti (juridical chapters) –- a tradition of collecting Hindu texts that is found in ancient Buddhist monasteries' collections such as the Kharosthi-script manuscripts of the Bajaur Collection discovered in Buddhist ruins of Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan since the 1990s, states Harry Falk and Ingo Strauch.

The decayed Spitzer Manuscript does not survive in the form it was discovered in 1906, and portions of it were likely destroyed during the World War II. Of what survives, predominant portions are now at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) in Germany and cataloged as SHT 810. Some surviving fragments are now at the British Library, and are catloged as Or 15005/6–8, Or 15005/17–21 and Or 15005/30–32.

-- Spitzer Manuscript, by Wikipedia


In WZKSO XII (1968), pp. 323-29, I gave an account of the ms. and the story of its investigation. Moreover I published fragments of two successive leaves, in order to give an impression of the style of the text, which sometimes elucidates philosophical terms by references to other sciences. In the meantime, I have been able to identify some fragments of these two leaves.1 The text thus runs as follows:

1. rtrparito///--///..[s]y.v.ne vasa///--///nk(e) = svarena ravane (n = a) pahrta sita rame///

2. nararajam///--///[sa]hayam = artthayi///--///[k].amsi ca ba[h ‘(a)].i[h].[ ] .i///

3. ///

rev.

1. ///

2. r.m = asya ra///--///pandavadharitarastra///--///r=yathapurvu[am] .r.///

3. lamam 2///--///aranyakam 7 [a]///--///ryyanam = 9 bhaga[v](a)yanam 10 bhismaparv[v]am///

fol. 100 + 90 + (x = 1)

obv.

1. ///nt(i)parvvam 15 atvamediham 1 [6]///

2. ///khilesu evam sarvvasya sloka[gram]///--/// = (s)r(a)m = ekam sastis = ca saha(s)r.///

3. ///yadavanam kauravanam = a.y.///--/// = rmmani yuddhani///

rev.

1. ///vyavaharah manaviya a///--///yyah = rauhabhu[t].///

2. ///strinimitte anucite marsit(a)///--///[sa]tah dve = vivadapade sa///

3. ///tir = iti tatra katamah kriya///

Evidently the obverse of fol. 100 + 90 + x refers to the story of the Ramayana: “Sita, with her husband’s welfare in mind” (bha)rtrparito(sa), “(followed him into exile, and,) living in the forest” v(a)ne vasa…, “she was carried off by Ravana, the emperor of Lanka” (la)nk(e)svarena ravane(na)pahrta; “by Rama, (who, searching for her, met) the king of the apes” (va)nararajam, “and …, having asked for his friendship” sahayam artthayi(tva), … “(besieged) the Raksas” (ra)k(s)amsi “and …” This passage is the oldest summary of the (epic) Rama story in a Buddhist text, some centuries older than the reference to the Ramayana in the Mahavibhasa discovered by Watanabe.2

The reverse of the next leaf, fol. 100 + 90 + (x + 1), deals with juridical questions. This is indicated by the words vyavaharah, “(legal) proceedings”, dve viv(a)dapade, “charge and countercharge” and kriya(padah), “production of (legal) evidence.” No further details are intelligible to me, but it should be of some interest, that the “code of the Manava,” manaviya a(gama) [Manusmriti], is quoted, which may be a prose predecessor of the metrical Manaviya Dharmasastra.3

The centre section between the quotation of the Ramayana and the juridical text, fol. 100 + 90 + x reverse and fol. 100 + 90 + (x +1) obverse, concerns an exposition of the Mahabharata. The first words pandavadharttarastra may represent an enumeration of the heroes, the end yadavanam kauravanam … (ka)rmmani yuddhani seems to belong to a summary concerning the fate of the tribes. The passage rev.2-obv.2 consists of a list of the Mahabharata-parvans, followed by a statement on the size of the epos.

The current organization of the Mahabharata is established by two separate parvan lists, fixed by the Parvasamgraha and rounded off to 100 (sub-) parvan and 18 (major parvan.4 The juxtaposition of the (sub-) parvan and (major) parvan names with the parvan-list of Ms.Spitzer makes it evident, that some names of this list correspond to (major) parvan names, others to (sub-) parvan names. At the very beginning the gap between (pau)lomam 2 and aranyakam 7 covers at least three (sub-) parvan names, (beside the (major) parvan sabha?). Subsequently, some (major) parvans are missing altogether, like 4.virata and 13.anusasana, likewise two of the five names 7.drona, 8.karna, 9.salya, 10.sauptika and 11.stri, as well as (probably)5 two of the four last names 15.asramavasika, 16.mausala, 17.mahaprasthanika and 18.svargarohana. The (major) parvan 5.udyoga, however, is represented by two names of the (sub-) parvan list, (ni)ryyanam 9 and bhaga(vad)yanam 10.6

To explain these facts, it should be realized that the parvan-list of Ms.Spitzer originated at a time when the Mahabharata was still in a state of development. With the interpolation of new subjects new parvan names were inserted, and, in order to maintain a comprehensive parvan-list, 18 of the most significant parvan-names were selected to form a list of (major) parvans, while the old parvan list was made up to the round number of 100 names.7

(sub=) parvan / (major) parvan / Ms. Spitzer

1. anukramani / 1. adi / [a] (diparvvam 1)

2. parvasamgraha

3. pausya

4. pauloma / -- / (pau) lomam 2

5. astika / [astika H]

6. adivamsavatarana

7. sambhava

8. jatugrhadaha

9. haidimba / -- / (…3)

10. bakavadha

11. caitraratha

12. svayamvara

13. vaivahika

14. viduragamana / -- / (…4)

15. rajyalambha

16. arjunavanavasa

17. subhadraharana

18. haranaharika

19. khandavadaha / -- / (…5)

20. sabha / 2. sabha

21. mantra

22. jarasandhavadha

23. digvijaya / -- / (…6)

24. rajasuyika

25. arghabhiharana

26. sisupalavadha

27. dyuta

28. anudyuta

29. aranyaka / 3. aranyaka / aranyakam 7

30. kirmiravadha

31. kairata

32. indralokabhigamana

33. tirthayatra

34. jatasuravadha

35. yaksayuddha

36. ajagara

37. markandeyasamasya

38. draupadisatabhamasamvada

39. ghosayatra

40. mrgasvapnabhaya

41. vrihidraunika

42. draupadiharana

43. kundalaharana

44. araneya / [arani H] / [a](raneyam 8)

45. vairata / 4. virata

46. kicakavadha

47. gograhana

48. vaivahika

49. udyoga / 5. udyoga

50. samjayayana

51. prajagara

52. sanatsujata

53. yanasandhi

54. bhagavadyana / -- / bhaga(vad) yanam 10

55. vivada

56. niryana / -- / (ni) ryyanam 9

57. rathatirathasamkhya

58. ulukadulagamana

59. ambopakhyana

60. bhismabhisecana / 6. bhisma / bhismaparvvam (11)

61. jambukhandanirmana

62. bhumi

63. bhagavadgita

64. bhismavadha

65. dronabhiseka / 7. d

66. samsaptakavadha

67. abhimanyuvadha / -- / (…12)

68. pratijna

69. jayadrathavadha

70. ghatotkacavadha

71. dronavadha

72. narayanasiramoksa / -- / (…13)

73. karna / 8. karna

74. salya / 9. salya

75. hradapravesa

76. gadayuddha / [gada A, H. K]

77. sarasvata

78. sauptika / 10 sauptika

79. aisika / [aisika H] / (…14)

80. jalapradanika / [jalapradanika A]

81. stri / 11. stri

82. sraddha

83. abhisecanika

84. carvakanigraha

85. grhapravibhaga

86. santi / 12. santi / (sa)ni(i)parvvam 15

87. apaddharma

88. moksadharma

89. anusasanika / 13. anusasana

90. bhismasvargarohana

91. asvamedhika / 14. asvamedhika / asvamedhikam 16

92. anugita

93. asramavasa / 15. asramavasika

94. putradarsana / -- / (…17)

95. naradagamana

96. mausala / 16. mausala / (…18)

97. mahaprasthanika / 17. mahaprasthanika

98. svargarohana / 18. svargarohana

99. harivamsa / [khilesu harivamsas / …

100. bhavisyat / ca bhavisyac ca] / … khilesu


As at the time of the origination of the parvan list of Ms.Spitzer the confusing double row of (major) and (sub-) parvan did not yet exist, the question of the size and the subjects represented by the parvan names should now be raised. Evidently the vast doctrinal passages of the santiparvan were already incorporated in the epos, and even the khilas were regarded as belonging to the Mahabharata.

The Shanti Parva (Sanskrit: शान्ति पर्व; IAST: Śānti parva; "Book of Peace") is the twelfth of eighteen books of the Indian Epic Mahabharata. It traditionally has 3 sub-books and 365 chapters. The critical edition has 3 sub-books and 353 chapters. It is the longest book among the eighteen books of the epic.

The book is set after the war is over -- the two sides have accepted peace and Yudhishthira starts his rule of the Pandava kingdom. The Shanti parva recites the duties of the ruler, dharma and good governance, as counseled by the dying Bhishma and various Rishis. The parva includes many symbolic tales such as one about "starving and vegetarian Vishvamitra stealing meat during a famine" and fables such as that of "the fowler and pigeons". The book also provides what some have described as a "theory of caste" as well as a comparative discussion between a rule of truth versus a rule of rituals, declaring truth to be far superior over rituals. Shanti parva has been widely studied for its treatises on jurisprudence, prosperity and success.

Scholars have questioned whether parts or all of the parva was inserted or interpolated at a later age....

Shanti parva on caste

Chapters 188 and 189 of the parva begin by reciting Bhrigu's theory of varna, according to whom Brahmins were white, Kshatriyas red, Vaishyas yellow, and Shudras black. Rishi Bharadwaja asks how can castes be discriminated when in truth all colors are observed in every class of people, when in truth people of all groups experience the same desire, same anger, same fear, same grief, same fatigue, same hunger, same love and other emotions? Everyone is born the same way, carries blood and bile, and dies the same way, asserts Bharadwaja. Why do castes exist, asks Bharadwaja? Bhrigu replies there is no difference among castes. It arose because of differentiation of work. Duty and rites of passage are not forbidden to any of them. According to John Muir, Shanti Parva and its companion book Anushasana Parva claim neither birth, nor initiation, nor descent, nor bookish knowledge determines a person's merit; only their actual conduct, expressed qualities and virtues determine one's merit. There is no superior caste, claims Shanti parva.

Shanti parva on governance

The parva dedicates over 100 chapters on duties of a king and rules of proper governance. A prosperous kingdom must be guided by truth and justice. Chapter 58 of Shanti parva suggests the duty of a ruler and his cabinet is to enable people to be happy, pursue truth and act sincerely. Chapter 88 recommends the king to tax without injuring the ability or capacity of citizens to provide wealth to monarchy, just like bees harvest honey from flower, keepers of cow draw milk without starving the calf or hurting the cow; those who cannot bear the burden of taxes, should not be taxed. Chapter 267 suggests the judicial staff to reflect before sentencing, only sentence punishment that is proportionate to the crime, avoid harsh and capital punishments, and never punish the innocent relatives of a criminal for the crime. Several chapters, such as 15 and 90, of the parva claim the proper function of a ruler is to rule according to dharma; he should lead a simple life and he should not use his power to enjoy the luxuries of life. Shanti parva defines dharma not in terms of rituals or any religious precepts, but in terms of that which increases Satya (truth), Ahimsa (non-violence), Asteya (non-stealing of property created by another), Shoucham (purity), and Dama (restraint). Chapter 109 of Shanti parva asserts rulers have a dharma (duty, responsibility) to help the upliftment of all living beings. The best law, claims Shanti parva, is one that enhances the welfare of all living beings, without injuring any specific group.

-- Shanti Parva, by Wikipedia


On the other hand, the name of the anusasanaparvan [#13] is missing. It may be supposed that this parvan was already regarded as a part of the santiparvan, as it was in later times by Ksemendra, Alberuni and some mss.8 However, it is far more likely, that it was in those times unknown to the epos at all. We recall the statement of Winternitz: “While Book XII, even though it did not belong to the original epic, yet was probably inserted at a comparatively early date, there can be no doubt with regard to Book XIII, that it was made a component part of the Mahabharata at a still later time. It bears all the marks of a later fabrication. Nowhere in the Mahabharata, to mention only one thing, are the claims of the Brahmans to supremacy over all other strata of society vindicated in such an arrogant and exaggerated manner as in Book XIII.”9

Iyer, in 1923, compared different versions of Shanti Parva manuscripts found in east, west and south India, in Sanskrit and in different Indian languages. The comparison showed that while some chapters and verses on moral and ethical theories are found in all manuscripts, there are major inconsistencies between many parts of the manuscripts. Not only is the order of chapters different, large numbers of verses were missing, entirely different or somewhat inconsistent between the manuscripts. The most inconsistent sections were those relating to social customs, castes, and certain duties of kings. Iyer claims these chapters were smuggled and interpolated into the Mahabharata, or the answers rewritten to suit regional agenda or views.

-- Shanti Parva, by Wikipedia


Besides the anusasana, another parvan too seems to be a late interpolation: the virataparvan (4.), which is regarded by eminent scholars10 as a production not belonging to the original epos; cf. Winternitz: “there can scarcely be any doubt that the whole of Book IV (virata-parvan) is a later production than the magnificent battle-descriptions in the following books.”11 “I will only mention that we find in this book the whole battle of Kuruksetra, -- shall we say foreshadowed or repeated? –- but with the difference, that in the main story of the Epic it takes eighteen days of hard fighting, to conquer the Kauravas, and the final victory is only won by employing strategems which are anything but fair, while in the virata-parvan Arjuna puts the Kauravas to flight almost in no time.”12 Unfortunately, in Ms.Spitzer the word between aranyakam 7 (representing the third major parvan) and (ni)ryyanam 9 (representing the fifth major parvan) is missing, but the preserved part of the aksara a or a indicates that this word was not virata. It may be restored as a(raneya), (in conformity with the parvan list of the Harivamsa) or perhaps a(jagara), both being (sub-) parvan names of the aranyaka. As no (sub-) parvan of the virata begins with a or a, the virataparvan probably was missing altogether in the early Mahabharata represented by Ms.Spitzer, in accordance with the suggestion concerning this parvan by Professor Winternitz.

As Buhler has pointed out,13 a landgrant of A.D. 532/33, characterizing the Mahabharata as a compilation containing 100,000 Slokas (satasahasri samhita), proves with certainty, that the Mahabharata in those times had approximately the same bulk as at present. About the beginning of our era, the Mahabharata represented by Ms.Spitzer seems to have been much shorter, representing an earlier stage of development. The question of the extent of this earlier Mahabharata comes up, and indeed Ms.Spitzer promises an answer (fol. 100 + 90 + (x + 1) obv. 1.2) with the words: evam sarvvasya sloka[gram], “Thus the height of slokas14 altogether is …” Unfortunately, the gap between this fragment and the following could in no line be filled up with certainty, so that the number of missing aksaras and the restoration (sahas)r(a)m ekam sastis ca saha(s)r(ani) remains uncertain. Further investigation in the Ms.Spitzer perhaps will solve this problem.

_______________

Notes:

1. I owe the transcription of the underlined part of fol. 100 + 90 + x, the original of which is now missing, to the courtesy of Dr. Moritz Spitzer, Jerusalem, who transcribed the manuscript some 40 years ago.

2. K. Watanabe, “The Oldest Record of the Ramayana in a Chinese Buddhist Writing,” JRAS 1907, 99-103. In Watanabe’s translation of the Chinese version by Yuan Chwang the passage runs as follows: “As a book called the Ramayana, there are 12,000 slokas. They explain only two topics, namely: (1) Ravana carries Sita off by violence, and (2) Rama recovers Sita and returns. The Buddhist scriptures are not so simple. Their forms of composition and meanings are respectively immensurable and infinite.”

3. The term manaviya (instead of manava) in the title of Manu’s law-book is not to be found in the dictionaries. It is quoted in Bhasa’s Pratima Nataka, p. 79: katya-pagotro ‘smi, sangopangam vedam adhiye, manaviyam dharmasastram, mahesvaram yogasastram, barhaspatyam arthasastram, medhatither nyayasastram, praceltasam srad-dhakalpam ca. Cf. also Ep.Inc. 34, p. 237: manaviye … dharmmasastre. With reference to the quotation manavam sutram udaharanti in Vas.Dharmas. 4. 5, indicating a sutra as predecessor of the metrical sastra of J. Jolly, Recht und Sitte (Strassburg, 1896), p. 12.

4. Beside the parvan list of the parvasamgraha, there exists a list of 20 parvan-names in the Harivamsa [H], 16195-16210: 1. adi, 2. astika, 3. sabha, 4. aranyaka, 5. arani, 6. virata, 7. udyoga, 8. bhisma, 9. drone, 10. karna, 11. salya, 12. gada, 13. stri, 14. aisika, 15. santi, 16. asvamedhika, 17. asramanivasa, 18. mausala, 19. mahaprasthanika, 20. svarga. Alberuni [A] (ed. Sachau, vol. I, p. 133) quotes 18 parvan-names, omitting the adiparvan and inserting the jalapradanika. The statements of Ksemendra [K] in his Bharatamanjari are discussed by G. Buhler and J. Kirste, “Indian Studies, No. II, Contributions to the History of the Mahabharata, Sitzungsber d. Kais. Ak. d. Wiss. Wien, Phil.-hist Kl., Bd.CXXVII, 12. In our list the statement of the parvasamgraha is reproduced, without regard to the various differences of the mss.

5. The gap in Ms.Spitzer, however, may have contained more than two names.

6. The transformation of the two names may be due to the confusion of a scribe.

7. With justification the late Professor V.S. Sukthankar has suggested, that the names of the major parvans were obtained from the (older) sub-parvan list; cf. “Epic Studies I. Some aspects of the Mahabharata Cannon,” JBBRAS, N.S.4; repr. in V.S. Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Vol. I, Critical Studies in the Mahabharata (Poona, 1944), p. 202, n. 1: “It will be noticed that 17 (out of the aggregate of 19) names of the (major) parvans, in this scheme, are identical with the names of the initial (sub-) parvan of each group. This is valuable because it suggests how the names of the 19 (major) parvans were obtained from the (older) list of the hundred (sub-)parvans.”

8. Cf. Buhler-Kirste, op. cit., p. 56f.

9. A History of Indian Literature I (Calcutta, 1927), p. 424f.

10. E.W. Hopkins, The Great Epic of India, p. 382f.; A. Holtzmann, Das Mahabharata II, p. 98.

11. A History of Indian Literature I, p. 458.

12. ABORI, V, p. 23.

13. Op. cit., p. 26.

14. slokagra, “the number of slokas”, cf.Mbh. 1, 2.135: slokagram api me srnu; 1,2.177: slokagram catra sasyate; 1,2.189: slokagram atra kathitam; 1, 2.95, no.: slokagram ca sahasram ca trisatam cottaram tatha.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

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Neil B. Edmonstone
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/1/21

Fort William College aimed at training British officials in Indian languages and, in the process, fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu. The period is of historical importance. In 1815, Ram Mohan Roy settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be the starting point of the Bengali Renaissance. Establishment of The Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784 and the Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata’s emergence as an intellectual centre.

Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali. Later, Marathi and even Chinese were added. Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. The Persian department was headed by Neil B. Edmonstone, Persian translator to the East India Company's government since 1794. His assistant teacher was John H. Harington, a judge of Sadar Diwani Adalat and Francis Gladwin, a soldier diplomat. For Arabic studies, there was Lt. John Baillie, a noted Arabist. The Urdu department was entrusted to John Borthwick Gilchrist, an Indologist of great repute. Henry Thomas Colebrooke, the famous orientalist, was head of the Sanskrit department. William Carey, a non-civilian missionary and a specialist in many Indian languages, was selected to head the department of vernacular languages. While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there was no suitable person in Calcutta who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days, the Brahmin scholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and they did not study Bengali. The authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in Serampore. He, in turn, appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Bachaspati as second pandit and Ramram Basu as one of the assistant pandits.

-- Fort William College [East India College Calcutta], by Wikipedia


Image
Neil B. Edmonstone

Neil Benjamin Edmonstone (1765–1841) was a civil servant in and director of the East India Company.

Early life

Edmonstone, born on 6 December 1765, was fifth son of Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, M.P. for Dumbartonshire 1761–80 and 1790–6, and the Ayr Burghs 1780–90, who, made a baronet in 1774, died in 1807. He obtained a writership in the East India Company's civil service, and reached India in 1783. He was soon attached to the secretariat at Calcutta, and was appointed deputy Persian translator to government by Lord Cornwallis in 1789, and Persian translator by Sir John Shore in 1794.

Career

On the arrival of Lord Wellesley, in 1798, the new governor-general appointed Edmonstone to be his acting private secretary, and in that capacity he accompanied him to Madras in 1799. Lord Wellesley now determined to crush Tippoo Sultan, and finally annihilate the power which the French officers were building up in India by taking service with Nizam Ali Khan and other native princes. Edmonstone was by his chief's side throughout this important year, and translated and published the documents found in Tippoo's palace, which formed the principal justification of the English attack upon him. That the whole policy of Lord Wellesley in making the company the paramount power in India by means of his system of subsidiary treaties was largely due to Edmonstone there can be no doubt, though he modestly kept in the background.

Sir John William Kaye speaks of him, in his Lives of Indian Officers, as "the ubiquitous Edmonstone, one of the most valuable officials and far-seeing statesmen which the Indian civil service has ever produced". On 1 January 1801 he was appointed secretary to the government of India in the secret, political, and foreign department, and he played as important a part in forming the plans which were to crush the Marathas as he had done in the war against Tippoo Sultan. He continued to hold his office after the departure of Lord Wellesley, and as Lord Cornwallis did not survive long enough to counteract the policy of that statesman, Edmonstone was able to carry on the system he had done so much to initiate during the interregnum after his death. When Lord Minto arrived as governor-general in 1807, Edmonstone acted as his private secretary, as in former days to Lord Wellesley, and soon obtained much the same influence over him.

Later life

On 30 October 1809 he became Chief Secretary to Government, and on 30 October 1812 he succeeded his old friend and colleague James Lumsden as member of the Supreme Council at Calcutta.

The Supreme Council of Bengal was the highest level of executive government in British India from 1774 until 1833: the period in which the East India Company, a private company, exercised political control of British colonies in India. It was formally subordinate to both the East India Company's Court of Directors (board) and to the British Crown.

The Supreme Council was established by the British government, under Regulating Act of 1773. It was to consist of five members, including the Governor General, and was appointed by the Court of Directors (board) of the East India Company. At times it also included the British military Commander-in-Chief of India (although this post was usually held concurrently by the Governor General). Hence the council was also known as Governor-General-in-Council.


The Charter Act of 1833 formally separated the East India Company from political control, and established the new Council of India.

-- Supreme Council of Bengal, by Wikipedia


Having completed his five years in this appointment, he left India after thirty-four years' service there, and returned to England. He was soon after, in 1820, elected a director of the East India Company, and continued to act in this capacity until his death.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826 as "an East India Director, and late Vice President of the Supreme Government of Bengal, (of 49 Portland Place) a Gentleman eminently versed in Oriental Literature and much attached to Science."[1]


He died at his residence, 49 Portland Place, on 4 May 1841. He married the daughter of Peter Friell, by whom he had a family of five sons and six daughters, of whom the most distinguished was the fourth son, Sir George Frederick Edmonstone, who was Lord Canning's foreign secretary, and governor of the north-western provinces after the Sepoy Mutiny. The eldest son, Neil Benjamin (born 13 June 1809), was also in the East India Company's service. He also had an Indian family which he provided for and maintained quite separately from his European one.[2]

References

1. "Library and Archive catalog". Royal Society. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
2. Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 Christopher Bayly
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