136 erik seldeslachts
ascetics.^17 Megasthenes explains the difference between the ascetics and
the Brahmans, a distinction more fundamental in ancient Indian culture
than the one we perceive between the two religions, Hinduism and
Buddhism. A distinction also much more natural for a heathen Greek
to make than going into the intricacies of Indian sectarianism. By the
way, neither in Greece nor in India were there Church-like religions
as we know them, only a plurality of traditions, rituals, cults, doctrines
of salvation, and philosophies. Maybe, with the promotion of the con-
cept of dhama, some decades after Megasthenes, emperor Aoka (ca.
273–237 BC) went a long way in the direction of a religion. Yet, Aoka’s
way of presenting things is remarkably similar to that of Megasthenes.
Aoka seems to have been personally an adept of Buddhism, but there
is nothing speci cally Buddhistic about his edicts, except those in which
he speaks in his personal name. In the edicts which he issued as the
head of state there is no trace of Buddhism.^18 Aoka does not show any
preference for Buddhism over other sects or Brahmanical institutions.
On the contrary, he exhorts his subjects to treat all religious groups
and individuals alike. His edicts are all about spreading a broadly
conceived dhama detached of all sectarian or group-related content.
In this, behind the naivety of his message, Aoka shows a clear and
ambitious vision: the spreading of the dhama as a unifying force in
his empire, as a means to consolidate his political power and to spread
his in uence further. Characteristic for this attitude is, for instance,
that, with all the remorse he expresses in his thirteenth rock edict for
the suffering caused to the people of Kalinga by his conquest, Aoka
shows no intention to give that people back its freedom. How ambi-
tious Aoka conceived his politics appears from the same edict, where
he speaks about the propagation of the dhama not only to his own
subjects, Greeks and Kambojas of Northwest India included, but also
to Syria, Egypt, Libya, Macedonia, and Greece.^19 In his second rock-
edict, Aoka noti es that he has established in the land of Antiochus
(^17) Cf. Christol 1984, p. 39.
(^18) Thapar 1961, pp. 147–181, especially p. 179; Filliozat 1963, p. 7; cf. Karttunen
1997, p. 265. 19
The kings of these countries mentioned are Antiyoka or either Antiochus II Theos
(261–246 BC) or Antiochus I (281/80–262/61) of Syria, Turamaya or Ptolemaeus
II Philadelphus of Egypt (283–246), Antikini or Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia
(278–239), Maka or Magas of Cyrene (300–258), and Alikasu(n)dara or Alexander of
Corinth (ca. 295–244) (rather than Alexander of Epirus (272–258), cf. Derrett 1959,
p. 130).