Guest guest Posted January 7, 2008 Report Share Posted January 7, 2008 Also read `Ashoka the Great' by D.C.Ahir--- On Sun, 6/1/08, Kishore patnaik <kishorepatnaik09 wrote: Kishore patnaik <kishorepatnaik09 Fwd: Re: Ashok’s Conversion: A Buddhist Myth? Date: Sunday, 6 January, 2008, 10:03 PM INDOLOGY@ s.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig >wrote:Dear Mr. Chavan,You will find some important contributions to the study of Ashoka and Buddhism in the e-book athttp://www.buddhane t.net/pdf_ file/king_ asoka.pdf(read especially the papers by Richard Gombrich, Romila Thapar, Ananda W.P. Guruge, and N.A. Jayawickrama. )Check out also the English rendering of Ashoka's Edicts athttp://www.accessto insight.org/ lib/authors/ dhammika/ wheel386. html(search for the term "buddh" in the page to find all the references to Buddha and Buddhism in the Edicts and in Ven. S. Dhammika's Introduction. )Kindest regards,Francesco BrighentiINDOLOGY@ s.com, "Mahavir" <jainismus@> wrote:>> Ashok's Conversion: A Buddhist Myth?> > Recently I read a History text book published by NCERT for high > school students. In a chapter, there is lot of information about > Mouryan Emperor Ashok, but the book does not give any information on > his conversion to Buddhism. In the same chapter, while discussing > about Ashok's religion, the book gives some information on his > religion, but it doesn't mention anything about Buddhism.> > I have read some authentic books on Ashok's inscriptions. None of his > inscriptions mentions that he had adopted Buddhism. Most of his > inscriptions preach to donate to `Bramhins and Shramans'. Buddhists > present Ashok as opponent of Vedics, but here you clearly see that > Ashok shows his respect for Bramhins and that too at beginning. > Further the word Shraman means not only Buddhists, as there were 6 > major schools of Shramanic traditions including the most famous > Jainism and Ajivak philosophy. So if we see through his inscription, > we do not get any evidence of his conversion to Buddhism. Moreover we > do not get any evidence of his special attention towards Buddhism.> > Ashokas inscriptions are in Prakrit language, not in the Buddhist > Pali. Ashok has used the word `Dhamma' everywhere in his > inscriptions. It is originally a Prakrit word and was equivalently > used by all Shramanic traditions.> > The story of Ashok's conversion is found only in some Buddhist texts. > But it has not supported by any archaeological proofs.> > I would like to get comments from the scholars and learned students > of this subject.> > -M.S. Chavan> http://jainology.. blogspot. com>--- End forwarded message --- Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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