DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0252
Buddha the Gospel of Buddhism
originally, not perhaps altogether anti-social, but at least
non-social, has come to have an influence upon the social
order.
We shall gain a good idea of the social influence of
Buddhism by devoting attention to Asoka Maurya, the
most famous of the Buddhist rulers of India. Asoka
succeeded to the throne of Magadha about 270 B.c. and
received a more formal coronation four years later. The
first great event in his reign took place eight years later;
this was the conquest of Kalinga, a considerable territory
bordering the east coast, south of the modern Orissa;
with this addition, his territory embraced the whole of
India except the extreme south. This conquest involved
the slaughter of 100,000 persons, while half as many
again were carried into captivity, and many more
perished from famine and pestilence. Perhaps the
spectacle of so much suffering predisposed the Emperor
to consider with special attention that system of which
the sole aim was to point out the way of salvation from
Suffering, Dukkha.1 At any rate Asoka himself records
his adhesion to the Buddhist Dhamma in the following
terms:
“ Directly after the annexation of the Kalingas, began his
Sacred Majesty’s zealous protection of the Dhamma, his
love of that Dhamma, and his giving instruction therein.
Thus arose His Sacred Majesty’s remorse for having con-
quered the Kalingas, because the conquest of a country
1 “Victory,” says the Dhammapada, v. 201, “breeds hatred, for
the conquered is unhappy.” It is worth notice that it has been
suggested that the study of Buddhism is likely to receive a great
impetus in the immediate future, because of “its power to restrain
its adherents from those sanguinary outbreaks of international butchery
which occur about once in every generation in the West.”—Cambridge
Magazine, April 24, 1915.
182
originally, not perhaps altogether anti-social, but at least
non-social, has come to have an influence upon the social
order.
We shall gain a good idea of the social influence of
Buddhism by devoting attention to Asoka Maurya, the
most famous of the Buddhist rulers of India. Asoka
succeeded to the throne of Magadha about 270 B.c. and
received a more formal coronation four years later. The
first great event in his reign took place eight years later;
this was the conquest of Kalinga, a considerable territory
bordering the east coast, south of the modern Orissa;
with this addition, his territory embraced the whole of
India except the extreme south. This conquest involved
the slaughter of 100,000 persons, while half as many
again were carried into captivity, and many more
perished from famine and pestilence. Perhaps the
spectacle of so much suffering predisposed the Emperor
to consider with special attention that system of which
the sole aim was to point out the way of salvation from
Suffering, Dukkha.1 At any rate Asoka himself records
his adhesion to the Buddhist Dhamma in the following
terms:
“ Directly after the annexation of the Kalingas, began his
Sacred Majesty’s zealous protection of the Dhamma, his
love of that Dhamma, and his giving instruction therein.
Thus arose His Sacred Majesty’s remorse for having con-
quered the Kalingas, because the conquest of a country
1 “Victory,” says the Dhammapada, v. 201, “breeds hatred, for
the conquered is unhappy.” It is worth notice that it has been
suggested that the study of Buddhism is likely to receive a great
impetus in the immediate future, because of “its power to restrain
its adherents from those sanguinary outbreaks of international butchery
which occur about once in every generation in the West.”—Cambridge
Magazine, April 24, 1915.
182