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THE GREAT BUDDHIST KINGS
been maintained since the coming of Megasthenes to the court of Candragupta, Aśoka sent teachers of the Buddhist Dharma to Antiochus II of Syria, Ptolemy II of Egypt, Magas of Cyrene, Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, and Alexander II of Epirus.28 The force of this Buddhist gesture toward the West is difficult 10 estimate, 30 but in the Orient the missions of Asoka mark an cpoch of decisive spiritual change.
Nor did the king confine his benefactions to the Buddhist community. “His Sacred and Gracious Majesty," we read in one of his edicts devoted to the subject of tolerance, "docs reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by gifts and various forms of reverence. His Sacred Majesty, however, cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there should be a growth of the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own scct by disparaging that of another man without reason. Depreciation should be for specific reasons only, because the sects of other people deserve reverence for one reason or another. ... Concord, therefore, is meritorious, to wit, hearkening and hearkening willingly to the law of piety as accepted by other people. For it is the desire of His Sacred Majesty that adherents of all sects should hear much teaching and hold sound doctrine." 80
The king gave practical example of his piety toward living beings by providing for his subjects a reign of peace that ap
28 These are recorded in Asoka's Rock Edict XIII. Cf. Vincent A. Smith, The Edicts of Asoka, London, 1909, p. 20. (This is an excecdingly rare book, only 100 copies having been printed. It revises the translations given by the author in his earlier volume, Asoka, The Buddhist Emperor of India, Oxford, 1901.)
20 Cf. J. Kennedy, "Buddhist Gnosticism, the System of Basilides," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, pp. 377-415.
30 King Asoka's Rock Edict XII; Sinith, op. cit., p. 17.
The rock-hewn cave sanctuary of the Ajivikas, which we had occasion to note, supra, p. 264, bears a dedicatory inscription of Asoka.
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