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Ashoka by Charles Allen Book Review

By

Partha Chatterjee

Title : Ashoka

Author : Charles Allen

Pub : Hachett ( Little, Brown)

PP : 480

Price : Rs 750

Charles Allens Ashoka is an erudite, entertaining book on Emperor Ashoka or the The King without

sorrow who ruled over a united India some 2250 years ago. He turned a Buddhism into a world

religion and introduced moral concepts whose impact on Asia can be felt to this day. But Ashokas

moral battle was won after a terrible crisis of conscience following the battle of Kalinga, the bloodiest

one of the time, in which tens of thousands were killed. Strange but true Ashoka, lay forgotten as a

historical figure, quite literally buried under the sands of time, until the British introduced the discipline

called archeology and sent scholar-administrators to India to study Sanskrit and Pali and to learn from

Hindu and Jain scholars the art of interpreting old manuscipts, and, to perhaps evolve a logical method

of decoding the ancient past. Among the very first British scholars was Sir William Jones who came to

Calcutta in September 1783. Jones died 1n 1794 but not before he had set up the Asiatic Society,modelled on the Royal Society in England. A new chapter in Indias history had begun.The light of

reason would now be brought to bear on Joness sixteen objects of enquiry, leading to a new

understanding of Mother India as the nurse of sciences, the inventress of delightful and useful arts, the

scene of glorious actions,fertile in the production of human genius.One of the objectives of Joness

quest was to recover Indias forgotten pre-muslim history.

One of the lasting achievements of the British archeologists and their Indian

colleagues,whom they trained, was to bring to light the Ashokan world and its premier place in the

history of human civilisation. Ashoka was the first ruler, possibly in the world ,to espouse the cause of

non-violence as a way of life and was a beacon to M.K.Gandhi who did the same in early 20th

century

India ruled by the British.Allens book is strewn with the names of people who, having persevered

through the most trying hardships to unravel the hoary past and offer new pe rspectives in theinterpretation of History.There is an oil painting , courtesy APAC,British Library, of Colin Mackenzie

Flanked by Jain and Brahmin pandits, after his appointment as Surveyor General.There are many

reproductions of ancient sites and of Reliefs on stone. Indian artists like Shaikh Abdullah, Murugesa

Moodaliar, amongst others, are duly acknowledged for their contribution as are scholars Ramakrishna

Gopal Bhandarkar, Dr Bhau Daji and Bhagwan Lal Indraji, archeologists Dr Daya Ram Sahni, R. D.

Banerjee. There are, of course, many others also duly acknowledged for their contribution in their

respective disciplines. The stars from the British side are many but the two names that stand out are

General Sir Alexander Cunningham in the first half of the 19th

century and John Marshall in the first two

decades of the 20th

century.

Allens subtle thesis suggests, that it is over the debris of the previous civilisation is another built. The

Jain and Buddhist civilations were violently overwhelmed by that of the Hindus, whose claims to peace,

love and harmony in our times is mythical. He wrly observes in his Preface : The politicians who in

1991 egged on the mob that destroyed Baburs mosque at Ayodhya on the grounds that it was built over

the Hindu warrior-god Ramas fort may be surprised to know that some of the most famous Hindu

temples in India almost certainly began as Buddhist structures, often incorporating Buddhist icons,

either in the form of dieties or as lingams. Four likely examples selected simply because they come

from the four corners of the subcontinent are the Badrinath shrine in the far north Garhwal Himal,the

Jagannath temple at Puri on the east coast, the Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala in Kerala and the Vithalla

shrine at Pandharpur in Western Maharashtra.

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Ashoka is an example of dedicated scholarship worn lightly. It is refreshing in its insights and is written

with the same ease and elegance as his earlier books on India and the Indian experience. Profusely

ilustrated,this book easily bridges the gap between dry scholarship and and its transformation into a

pleasurable read. The reproductions, particularly of photographs, could have been sharper.