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History of India
Buddha has to be Dated to 1800 BC
by Prithviraj R
 One of the most important
calculations of Indian history has been done on the basis of the
lifetime of a certain Indian emperor called Ashoka, considered to be one
of the greatest emperors of world history. He was a Buddhist emperor who
was responsible for the spread of Buddhism, to distant corners of India
and the neighboring countries, by sending large number of Buddhist
missionaries to these places. He built thousands of Buddhist stupas and
established thousands of Buddhist monasteries all over his empire that
stretched from Iran to Bangladesh and from Central Asia (Afghanistan) to
South India. A large number of rocks and pillars, present all over his
empire, have been inscribed with his edicts and promulgations to his
subjects, written in Magadhi, Sanskrit, Greek, and Aramic languages. He
was initially a cruel king who killed a large number of his brothers in
order to ascend the throne. He inherited a large empire and tried to
expand it by waging a war against the neighboring kingdom of Kalinga. He
won the war, but the gruesome sight of thousands of mutilated dead
bodies at the war completely changed his heart. He felt repentant about
it, stopped his empire expanding spree, and converted to Buddhism after
being attracted to the Buddhist principles of non-violence and
renunciation.
We have two sources to thank for much of this information on Ashoka –
his rock edicts and Buddhist scriptures (one Indian and two Sri Lankan).
The scriptures talk about Ashoka of Mauryan dynasty. Mainstream
historians are not much aware of Ashoka of the Gupta dynasty. As per
them, there is only one Ashoka – Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty, as given
by the Buddhist scriptures. And these Ashoka’s rock edicts mention five
neighboring Greek and Egyptian kings – Antiochos, Ptolemy (second),
Antigonos, Magas, Alexander (second). Since these kings are dated to
250-300 BC, this has been the date arrived for Ashoka (Mauryan). As per
the Buddhist scriptures, Ashoka (Mauryan) was crowned two hundred and
eighteen years after the demise of the Buddha. This would mean that
Buddha’s date is roughly 500 BC. And this date tallies perfectly with
the date of 500 BC they arrived through the Aryan Invasion methodology.
The calculations seem completely perfect and pretty straight forward,
and mainstream historians have accepted these calculations completely
for the last two hundred years.
The most troubling aspect with these date calculations is that there are
two Chandragupts and two Ashokas in Indian history. And as per the
writings of Greek traveler Megasthenes, the Gupta dynasty was ruling
India at about 300 BC. And these writings of Megashtenes tally with the
Puranic calculations as well. And Indian history does not talk about two
Chandragupts or two Ashokas ruling India at the same time. While
traditional Indian and Greek sources talk about Ashoka of Gupta dynasty
ruling India at about 300 BC, mainstream historians have arrived at the
conclusion that Ashoka of Mauryan dynasty was ruling India at around 300
BC. So we either have to discard the writings of Megashtenes as well as
Puranic sources completely, or we have to see if mainstream historians
have got the date of Ashoka wrong.
Several mainstream historians are not aware of this controversy. Even if
they are aware, they dismiss Megasthenes as an unreliable writer and
dismiss the Indian scriptures as pure mythology. They even easily shrug
away the fact that other Greek accounts at the time of Megasthenes do
not talk much about the presence of Buddhism in India. And almost all
the mainstream historians are blissfully unaware of the presence of two
Ashokas in Indian history. A handful of Indian historians are aware of
this puzzle; they have suggested that the Ashoka of the Buddhist sources
belongs to Gupta dynasty and he ruled India around 300 BC. However, the
Buddhist scriptures clearly talk about the emperor Ashoka to be
belonging to the Mauryan dynasty, completely negate the arguments of the
few handful Indian historians who try to wriggle out of the conundrum.
This has been the biggest puzzle that has been haunting Indian
historical calculations for more than a century, almost like a Sherlock
Holmes and Hercules Poirot mystery.
Does this mean that the mainstream historians are completely happy and
are not at all puzzled by their calculations? The answer is,
surprisingly, no; they are still quite puzzled over the most important
things.
The rock edicts of Ashoka mention that Ashoka converted to Buddhism
because of the remorse he felt on account of Kalinga war. However, both
the Indian as well as the Sri Lankan Buddhist scriptures differ with
this; these scriptures do not talk anything about Kalinga war! They talk
about Ashoka being converted by the serene teachings of a certain novice
Buddhist monk Samudra/Nyagrodha15.
Why are Buddhist scriptures silent about
Kalinga war?
While scriptures talk about
84,000 monasteries established by Ashoka, the edicts are silent on this;
they do not mention any Buddhism related activities by Ashoka. The
Buddhist scriptures talk about Ashokan missionary activities to Kashmir,
Maharahtra, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Mysore, Himalayas, Western
India, and Greek country. However, the edicts talk about medical help to
his neighboring kingdoms; they talk about the names of the kings and
dynasties around his empire including Choda, Pandya, Satiyaputra,
Kerala, Sri Lanka, and five Greek kingdoms. The scriptures do not talk
about officials called Dharma Mahamatras in his kingdom, as professed by
the edicts. There are several other discrepancies as well in the basic
details of his life.
The Ashoka of Buddhist scriptures is an exceptionally devout individual
who used to fall prostrate at the feet of even the lay Buddhist monks.
He was desperate to be known as the greatest of all donors to the faith
of the Buddha. Indian scripture mentions that, at the end of his life,
he donated almost everything he had to Buddhist monasteries. He was
someone who wanted to ensure that Buddhism spread all across the globe.
In Bengal, one follower of Mahavira drew a picture showing Buddha bowing
at the feet of Mahavira. Ashoka came to know about this and ordered that
all Mahavira followers at that place be executed – 1800 of them were
slain in a single day! He decreed in a similar manner on another
occasion, promising gold to those who brought slain heads of
non-Buddhists! And Ashoka went out of his way to convert people into
Buddhism as some legends show. He wanted to convert his brother
Veetashoka to Buddhism; for doing this, he enacted a drama. One day, he
contrived with his ministers to get Veetashoka sit on the emperor’s
throne for a few minutes. He then, as if he was not aware of the
happenings, caught his brother in the act. He then declared that his
brother sitting on his throne is an act of treachery and decreed that
his brother be executed. Ashoka, however, gave one week time for the
execution and let his brother enjoy all the royal comforts for a week,
as if he (Veetashoka) were the emperor. At the end of the week, Ashoka
called his brother and asked him if he enjoyed the one week of heavenly
comforts of an emperor. Veetashoka told him that the death that was
hanging on his head did not allow him to enjoy the heavenly comforts at
all. Ashoka then told him, “if you are oblivious to pleasures just
because of one impending death, how do you expect enlightened monks to
be happy about comforts of this life when they have to fear the deaths
of hundreds of lives in future births?” Veetashoka was taken by this and
converted himself into a Buddhist monk.
However, the Ashoka of the rock edicts gives us a completely different
picture. In one of the edicts, he does profess his faith in the Buddha;
but that is about it. There is no evidence that he carried out any
missionary activities. None of his rock edicts mention anything about
the teachings of the Buddha. In fact, the Ashoka of rock edicts talks
about equality of all religions! One of the edicts, mentions the
following :
“Beloved-of-the-Gods,
King Piyadasi (Ashoka), does not value gifts and honors as much as
he values this - that there should be growth in the essentials of
all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways,
but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not
praising one's own religion, or condemning the religion of others
without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should
be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for
this reason. By so doing, one's own religion benefits, and so do
other religions, while doing otherwise harms one's own religion and
the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to
excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought "Let me
glorify my own religion," only harms his own religion. Therefore
contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and
respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King
Piyadasi (Ashoka), desires that all should be well-learned in the
good doctrines of other religions. Those who are content with their
own religion should be told this: Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi
(Ashoka), does not value gifts and honors as much as he values that
there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. And to
this end many are working - Dhamma Mahamatras, Mahamatras in charge
of the women's quarters, officers in charge of outlying areas, and
other such officers. And the fruit of this is that one's own
religion grows and the Dhamma is illuminated also.”
Unable to explain these
dichotomies, some mainstream historians have dismissed the Buddhist
scriptures as unreliable; they go purely by the rock edicts to get a
picture of Ashokan personality, while they rely on the Buddhist
scriptures for historical aspects. We can see as to how selective they
have been about the whole Ashokan episode – they have dismissed
Megasthenes as a liar, they have dismissed the Indian scriptures as pure
mythology, they have shrugged off other Greek writings, and they finally
have dismissed even the Buddhist scriptures! I think that they have a
whole lot of answering to do about the Ashokan episode, even if they
seem to currently think that their calculations are perfect.
I think the whole confusion
has arisen because there are two emperor Ashokas, and both are
Buddhists! The Ashoka of Buddhist scriptures belongs to the Mauryan
dynasty of 1500 BC. He was a compulsive individual, devout in his faith,
and took steps to spread his religion far and wide by sending
missionaries and constructing Buddhist monasteries and stupas. However,
he had nothing to do with the edicts and the Kalinga war. The Buddhist
scriptures are talking about Ashoka the Mauryan. The scriptures mostly
talk about parts within India - Kashmir, Maharahtra, Mysore, Himalayas,
Western India. Buddhism was not yet spread in India by his time – so the
scriptures are clearly talking of the spread of Buddhism within India
under Mauryan emperor Ashoka.
The Ashoka of the edicts belongs to the Gupta dynasty of 300 BC. He was
the one who was involved in Kalinga war. He felt remorseful and later
converted to Buddhism. However, by his time, Buddhism was already spread
far and wide and there was no need for him to send missionaries.
Moreover, by his time, Buddhism was reeling under the onslaught of
Sankarcharya and the Vedic religion was making a comeback. As we shall
see a little later in this discussion, Buddhism was in a confused state
about its ideology because of the theological attack launched by
Sankaracharya. Buddhism was in a transition stage and it did not give
much scope for missionary activities. So, Ashoka the Gupta was not
hawkish about his religion, but was much more tolerant of all religions.
And the places mentioned in his edicts are mostly his neighboring
kingdoms – the edicts are not talking about places within India. The
places mentioned in the edicts are Choda, Pandya, Satiyaputra, Kerala,
and Sri Lanka on the south of his empire in South India, and five Greek
kingdoms to the northwest of his empire. The places mentioned are
clearly not talking about spread of Buddhism within India.
The two Ashokas are completely different. The confusion has arisen
because both are Buddhists; so both the stupas and the edicts are being
attributed to one and the same person. If we consider that the edicts
belong to one emperor while the stupas and monasteries belong to
another, the riddle is solved. The two Ashokas have been merged into one
by historians.
So if we arrive at the date of 1500 BC for the Buddhist Mauryan emperor
Ashoka, as per the Buddhist scriptures, we can easily arrive at the date
of the Buddha. Buddha precedes Ashoka by two hundred and eighteen years.
So this would put Buddha at anywhere between 1700 BC and 1800 BC. This
roughly tallies with the Puranic calculations as well, which put
Buddha’s date to around 1800–1900 BC.
Source:
Excepts from author's forthcoming book on history - 19000 Years of
World History: The Story of Religion.
He can be reached at
prithvi.book@gmail.com
June 14, 2009
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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