Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 333

304 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA of the Mahākshatrapa Rudradāman I. The name Dharmāśoka is found in one Mediaeval epigraph, viz., the Sārnāth inscription of Kumāradevi.
During the first thirteen years of his reign Aśoka seems to have carried on the traditional Maurya policy of expansion within India, and of friendly co-operation with the foreign powers, which was in vogue after the Seleukidan war. Like Chandragupta and Bindusāra he was aggressive at home but pacific abroad. The friendly attitude towards non-Indian powers is proved by the exchange of embassies and the employment of Yavana officials like Tushāspha.? In India, however, he played the part of a conqueror. The Divyāvadāna credits him, while yet a prince with the suppression of a revolt in Taxila and the conquest of the Svaša (Khasa ?) country. In the thirteenth year of his reign (eight years after consecration), he effected the conquest of Kalinga. We do not know the exact limits of this kingdom in the days of Asoka. But if the Sanskrit epics and Purānas are to be believed, it extended to the river Vaitaraṇi in the north, the Amarakantaka Hills in the west* and Mahendragiri in the south.5
An account of the Kalinga war and its effects is given in Rock Edict XIII. We have already seen that certain places in Kalinga formed parts of the Magadhan dominions in the time of the Nandas. Why was it necessary for Asoka to reconquer the country? The question admits of only one answer, viz., that it
1 Dharmāśoka-narādhipasya samaye Śri Dharmachakro Jino yādrik tannaya rakshitah punarayañchakre tatopyadbhutam.
2 Note also the part played by the Yona named Dhammarakkhita (Mahāvamsa, trans., p. 82).
3 Mbh., III. 114. 4. 4 Kūrma Purāna, 11. 39, 9. Vāyu, 77, 4-13. . 5 Raghuvamsa, IV. 38-43 : VI, 53-54.