Part 4: India’s Glorious Past, Which Has Great Potential to Shape the Future Today
Let us know our own heroes who made India shine and flourish. The Macaulay education system since 1835 systematically tried to erase this history and implant our invaders' history in our minds and knowledge systems, but India has demonstrated it can rise from the ashes again and again.
Ashoka (r. c. 268–232 BCE), the third Mauryan emperor often called Ashoka the Great, unified much of the Indian subcontinent under a centralized administration that emphasized welfare, ethical governance through his policy of Sanskrit:धम्म dhamma, and public works, fostering unprecedented peace, trade, and cultural integration across diverse regions. After the devastating Kalinga War, he renounced violence, promoted religious tolerance, and invested empire revenues in infrastructure and social services, creating stability that boosted agriculture, commerce, and Buddhism's spread.
Rise and Empire
Ashoka ascended amid a succession struggle following his father Bindusara's death, emerging victorious to rule from Pataliputra over territory from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, excluding southern tips. His early conquests, notably Kalinga in his 8th regnal year (c. 260 BCE), caused massive casualties—100,000 killed, 150,000 deported—prompting profound remorse and a shift to non-violent "conquest by dhamma."
Provincial capitals like Taxila and Ujjain, governed by princes or viceroys, supported a bureaucracy of officials handling justice, revenue, and welfare under royal oversight.
Administration and Dhamma Policy
Ashoka's centralized system divided the empire into provinces ruled by governors (kumara or aryaputra), with dhamma-mahamattas—special officers—overseeing moral propagation, aid to the vulnerable (women, elderly, prisoners), and interfaith harmony. Rock and pillar edicts, inscribed in Prakrit, Greek, and Aramaic, publicized dhamma—a universal ethic of non-violence, truth, compassion, and respect for all sects—ensuring impartial justice and curbing animal sacrifices.
This policy fostered unity in a multi-ethnic realm, replacing war drums (Sanskrit:भेरीघोष bherighosha) with dhamma proclamations, while officials toured every five years to preach and inspect.
Economic Prosperity
Agriculture, the economic backbone, thrived via state irrigation canals, wells, and crop promotion (rice, barley, wheat), generating land revenue that funded welfare. Roads, rest houses, shade trees, and herb gardens linked trade hubs like Pataliputra to Hellenistic kingdoms, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean, exporting silk, spices, textiles, and ivory.
Standardized coinage, guilds, state industries (mining, forests), and abolition of harsh punishments like death spurred commerce, elevating living standards and connecting India globally.
Welfare and Infrastructure
Ashoka pioneered public health with hospitals for humans and animals, medicinal plantings, and famine relief, extending aid even to neighbors like Cholas and Pandyas. Vast networks of roads, canals, and shady avenues facilitated travel, trade, and pilgrimage, while edicts mandated frugality, generosity, and obedience to parents.
These initiatives, budgeted from taxes, reduced crime, enhanced productivity, and symbolized benevolent rule.
Cultural and Religious Flourishing
A Buddhist patron post-Kalinga, Ashoka built stupas (e.g., Sanchi, Sarnath), monasteries, and the Third Buddhist Council, dispatching missionaries—including son Mahinda to Sri Lanka—to spread teachings abroad. Yet dhamma transcended Buddhism, promoting tolerance for Brahmanism, Jainism, and Ajivikas, with edicts urging mutual respect among sects.
This pluralism spurred art (pillars, sculptures), education, and ethical discourse, embedding non-violence in governance.
India's Flourishing under Ashoka
Ashoka's dhamma-driven rule brought rare continental unity, slashing warfare for economic boom via secure trade routes and agrarian surplus. Welfare infrastructure and tolerance created social harmony, prosperity, and cultural radiance, marking a golden era of ethical imperialism that influenced future Indian ideals.
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