THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY INDIAN BUDDHISM 65Dispensaries and medicinal herb gardens were set up for the treatment of
human and animal diseases, wells were dug, and highways improved. Asoka
noted that previous kings had also provided public works of this last sort for
their subjects, but that his provisions differed inasmuch as his motivation was
directed at the Dharma. This difference in motivation suggests that he was in-
spired by the Buddhist maxim that the practice of the Dharma fares best in a
stable society, and that societies are most stable when prosperity is widely
shared (see Section 2.4).
Asoka's policy of Dharma instruction for the general populace was the
most original part of his policy. According to him, it took two forms: Dharma
injunctions and Dharma persuasion. The injunctions included laws forbidding
animal sacrifice; prohibiting the killing of many kinds of animals, in particular
those not used for food; and oudawing wasteful festivals. The persuasion con-
sisted of the presentation of edifying performances containing moral themes
for the populace, portraying the heavenly rewards of virtue, and an extensive
set of royal messages aimed at persuading his subjects to live more moral lives.
In 254 B.C.E. Asoka had a series of 14 edicts on topics related to the Dharma
engraved on rocks throughout his empire, and he instructed his officials to
read them to the public on festival days. Thirteen years later he began issuing
a similar series of seven edicts, which were inscribed on polished stone pillars.
These inscriptions are the earliest surviving compositions of a Buddhist lay
follower (Strong EB, sec. 2.6.3), and their perspective on the Dharma affords
an interesting contrast to the monastic perspective recorded in the canons.
Dharma for Asoka meant both moral action and skillful mental qualities.
The actions he recommended to his subjects included obedience to and hon-
oring of one's parents, teachers, and other elders; generosity to relatives, ac-
quaintances, and religious persons; abstention from killing animals; moderation
in spending wealth; kindness to serfs and servants; and above all, the gift of
Dharma, that is, mutual admonition among friends and family members as
to what is right and wrong. Mental qualities he recommended included self-
control, gratitude, devotion, compassion, forgiveness, impartiality, and truth-
fulness. He warned against irascibility, cruelty, anger, spitefulness, and pride.
The Dharma ofhis edicts, however, is not just humanistic morality. Asoka as-
serted that he had caused deities to mingle with human beings as they had
never done before. This may mean that by fostering offerings to holy individ-
uals and deities and by promoting Dharma, he had propitiated the spirits and
drawn them down to the altars and homes of his people. In addition, he ex-
tolled all the virtues he recommended as producing the merit leading to re-
birth in the heavenly worlds.
In addition to promulgating edicts, Asoka formed a new branch of the
government devoted to Dharma instruction, sending Dharma officials
throughout the empire to carry his message to the populace and to supervise
religious activities. His interference in the life of the religious sects, Asoka
said, was motivated by a desire that each sect develop fine traditions and its re-
ligious "essence," which to him meant tolerance: not praising one's own sect
to the disparagement of others. He recommended that the different schools