Ashoka : Portrait of a Philosopher King.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olivelle, Patrick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aśoka, King of Magadha, active 259 B.C.

Aśoka.

Buddhists--Biography.

Buddhists.

Buddhism--History--To ca. 100 A.D.

Buddhism.

Buddhism--India--History.

India--Kings and rulers--Biography.

India.

India--History--Maurya dynasty, ca. 322 B.C.-ca. 185 B.C.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (401 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2024.

Summary:

An illuminating biography reconstructing the life and legacy of a unique king in world history and the most famous emperor in South Asian history There are few historical figures more integral to South Asian history than Emperor Ashoka, a third-century BCE king who ruled over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent than anyone else before British colonial rule. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vastly heterogeneous empire not by a cult of personality but by the cult of an idea-"dharma"-which served as the linchpin of a new moral order. He aspired to forge a new moral philosophy that would be internalized not only by the people of his empire but also by rulers and subjects of other countries, and would form the foundation for his theory of international relations, in which practicing dharma would bring international conflicts to an end. His fame spread far and wide both in India and in other parts of Asia, and it prompted diverse reimaginations of the king and his significance. In this deeply researched book, Patrick Olivelle draws on Ashoka's inscriptions and on the art and architecture he pioneered to craft a detailed picture of Ashoka as a ruler, a Buddhist, a moral philosopher, and an ecumenist who governed a vast multiethnic, multilinguistic, and multireligious empire.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

Prologue

The Many Ashokas

Ashoka by Any Other Name

Part One

Raja: Ashoka the King

1. Maurya

2. Ruler

Territory and Population

Governance

The Imagined Community

Diplomacy

Society

3. Writer

4. Builder

Part Two

Upasaka: Ashoka the Buddhist

5. Deepening the Faith

Becoming a Buddhist

Going on Pilgrimage

6. Exhorting the Sangha

Instructing the Sangha

Admonishing the Sangha

7. Spreading the Faith

Ashoka's Buddhism

Part Three

Dharma: Ashoka the Moral Philosopher

8. Pivoting to Dharma

Dharma before Ashoka

9. Dharma as Moral Philosophy

Ahimsa as Dharma

Ashoka's Dharma

Gleaning from Silence

10. Preaching Dharma

Audience for Dharma: Gender and Class

Writing to Promote Dharma

Governance and Diplomacy in the Service of Dharma

Exemplar of Dharma

Part Four

Pasanda: Ashoka the Ecumenist

11. Religious Diversity

Ashoka and Pasandas

Ashoka and Popular Religion

12. Ecumenism

13. Civil Religion

Epilogue: Ashoka's Legacy and the Unravelling of the Ashokan Experiment

Appendix: Ashoka's Inscriptional Corpus

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-300-27490-4

OCLC:

1420173178