sambodhi in aśoka's 8th rock edict

7/28/2019 Sambodhi in Aoka's 8th Rock Edict

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THE JOURNAL OF THEINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OFBUDDHIST STUDIES

E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F

A . K. NarainUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

E D I T O R SHeinz Bechert Leon Hurvitz

Universitat Gottingen FRG University of British ColumbiaVancouver, Canada

Lewis Lancaster A . W . MacDonaldUniversity of California, Berkeley, USA Universiti de Paris X, Nanterre, France

B. J. Stavisky Alex WaymanWCNILKR, Moscow, USSR Columbia University, New York, USA

A S S O C I A T E E D I T O R

Stephen BeyerUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Volume 2 1979 Number 1


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T A BL E O F C O N T E N T S

I . A R T I C L E S1 . The Mongo l Khans and Ch inese Buddh i sm and Tao i sm, by

Sechin Jagchid2. From Madhyamika to Yogacara, an Analysis of MMK,XX IV. 18 an d MV, 1.1-2, by Gadjin m. Nagao3 . Dynamic Libera t ion in Yogacara Buddhism, by Alan

Sponberg4 . Yogacara and the Buddhis t Logic ians , by A lex Wayman

I I . S H O R T P A P E R S1. Sambodhi in ASoka's 8th Rock Edict , by A . L. Basham2 . Can Medi ta t ional Prac t ice be Measured? A Report on aQuant i ta t ive Survey , by Jacques Maquet3 . Nirvana and Metaphysica l Exper ience , by Ismael Q uiles

I I I . B O O K R E V IE W S A N D N O T I C E SReviews:

1 . Wo r l d C o n q u e ro r a n d Wo r l d R e n o u n c e r , by S.J. Tambiah2 . Compara t ive E th ic s in Hindu and Buddh i s t Trad i t ions , byRoderick Hindery.3 . Mahayana Buddh i s t Med i t a t ion : Theory and Prac t i ce , by

Minoru Kiyota, assisted by Elvin W. Jones4. C h a n d i B o r o b u d u r : A M o n u m e n t o f M a n k i n d , by Dr.

SoekmonoObituary:

1. Paul Demieville, by A lexander W. Macdonald

818491

99103106108

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Sarpbodhi in Asoka's 8th Rock Edict.

by A . L. Basham

Asok a 's 8 th Rock Edict (G irn ar vers ion) rea ds . . . raja dasa-vasabhisitto samto aydya sambodh im. All o ther vers ions subst i tu tea verb der ived f rom the Sanskr i t roo t kram with the prefix nisfo r th is and o ther occurrences o f der iva t ives o f the roo t yd inthe ed ic t. T h u s w e m us t a s sume tha t the o r ig ina l do cu m en t onwhich the inscr ip t ions were based con ta ined niskram. Why theGirnar sc r ibe subs t i tu ted yd is not clear.Earl ier scholars (Senart , Buhler , Smith) bel ieved that th is

m ea nt tha t Asoka had taken a so lemn Bu dd his t vow, o r hadeven en te re d t he Or de r . N ow aday s it is a lmo st universal ly accepted that ASoka is tell ing his subjects that he made a pilgrimage to the Bodhi Tree a t Gaya . This in te rpre ta t ion seems tohave been f i rs t made by D. R. Bhandarkar (p . 294) .Eggermont (pp . 79-81) s t rongly suppor ts th is now convent iona l exp lana t ion . The ob jec t ion tha t the famous t ree i s no tgenera l ly re fe r red to as Sambodhi he ove r ru le s by add uc in g on erefe rence f rom ajdtaka ( iv .26) , a l ready noted by others , andsix from the Dlpavamsa. The la t ter text a lso conta ins 22 passages where the t ree is referred to as Mahdbodhi o r Bodhi. H efi ts th is in terpreta t ion in to the br i l l iant chronological schemewhich he has devised for Asoka 's re ign.In our v iew there a re s t rong a rguments aga ins t the now conven t iona l in t e rp re ta t ion :i ) Admit t ing that , in texts produced in Sr i Lanka several centur ies la ter, th e B od hi T r e e was occasional ly re fer red to as

Sambodhi, would i t have meant th is to the average educa ted Indian of c .250 B.C. , who had no specia l knowledge of Buddhism ? Probably no t . He wou ld have in te rpr e te d it a s me an ingtha t Asoka was in search of en l igh tenment .i i ) Geographical factors suggest that ASoka, as a recent and

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very devoted conver t , would have made several t r ips to theB od hi Tr e e in the two years betw een his conve rs ion and thehypothetical visi t mentioned in the 8th Rock Edict . Gaya isab ou t 100 ki lom etres f rom Patal ipu tra an d ASoka could havevisi ted i t on horse- or elephant-back, or in a chariot , with onlyone or two nights away from his palace. If the phrase refers toa pilgr im ag e or cere m on ial visit it is su rp ris in g tha t he w aitedso lon g be fore m ak ing i t, an d t ho ug ht fit to reco rd it thu s . Th is ,incidentally, is the only specific reference to Buddhism in theMajor Rock Edicts , i f we accept Asoka's Dhamma as Righteousness genera l ly , and no t the Buddhis t Dhamma.iii) Bec ause the Gi rn ar vers ion is am o ng th e best pre serv edversions of the Major Rock Edicts i ts readings tend to be favoured by h is tor ians . The occur rence of kram in al l the otherversions, however, makes i t vir tually certain that this and notyd is the corre ct re ad in g. T h e sam e verb is used ear l ier in theedict wi th reference to the pleasure t r ips which kings formerlymade. Between the two verbs there are def ini te shades ofm e a n i n g . Niskram pu t s t he emphas i s on depa r tu re , r a the r t hanarr ival . Yd on the other hand, indicates arrival at a specific goal ,unless the fai lure to arrive is explici t ly stated. ASoka intendedto tell his subjects that he had set out for Sambodhi but had no tye t a r r ived th ere .

iv) Bloch objects (p.l 12,n6), that to take Sambodhi in a psychological or spiri tual sense would imply that at the t ime ofASoka a doctr ine which only appears in Mahayana texts wasalread y cu rr en t . T his object ion is har dly ser ious . We can no t te llhow long i t took for Mahayana Buddhis t doc t r ines to becomeformally codified in l i terature; nor can we tel l how much edi t ing the ear l ie r o ra l sacred tex ts o f Buddhism underwent before they were com m it ted to wr i t ing . We m us t rem em be r tha t ,even accord ing to the Theravada t rad i t ion , there were no wr i t ten Buddhist texts at the t ime of ASoka.

Whi le we cannot re jec t the in te rpre ta t ion of Sambodhi as thesacred tree at Gaya out of hand, we believe that the weight ofthe eviden ce is s t rongly in favou r of the old er in te rpr eta t ionbeing correct . In the evolving Buddhism of the t imes the custom already exis ted of devotees making a solemn vow to a imdi rec t ly for en l igh tenment . Ni rvana , on the o ther hand , i s ment ioned nowhere in ASoka 's edic ts , and we may conclude that82


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the vow was made with largely al truis t ic motives, l ike the GreatResolve of the Bodhisa t tva in Mahayana .Som e con f i rmat ion of th is in te rpre ta t io n m ay be ga the redfrom ASoka's M ino r R ock E dict (Bloch, pp . 145-51) , wh erehe dec lares tha t he had been an upasaka for more than two anda ha l f years , but had not made much progress , unt i l , over ayear before , he had 'd rawn near to the Samgha,, after which hehad made much p rogres s . Th i s d r awing nea r t o t he Samghamay be l inked in some way with his 'set t ing out for Sambodhi'Pe rhap s , in the cou rse of h is sp i r itua l jou rne y, he subm i t ted

himself more closely than before to the discipl ine and pas toralca r e o f monks among whom Mahayana i deas wer e a l r eady de ve lop ing .

BibliographyBloch, Jules : Les Inscriptions d'Asoka. Paris, 'Les belles Lettres,' 1950.Bhandarkar, D. R.: Acoka. University of Calcutta, 1925.Eggermont, P. H. L.: The Chronology of the Reign of Asoka Moriya. Leiden,Brill, 1956.

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sambodhi in aśoka's 8th rock edict

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