For further information see Pauline
Kolenda, “Purity and Pollution,” in T. N.
Madan (ed.), Religion in India, 1991.
Ashirvad
(“benedictory formula”) General term
used to denote words of blessing,
whether formal or informal. One of
the basic assumptions of Hindu reli-
gious life is that certain spiritually
powerful people—in particular,
asceticsand learned brahmins—can
confer blessings and curses at will.
Both the blessings and curses are
believed to take effect immediately
and without fail, which is why a pru-
dent person will always treat ascetics
and learned brahmins with the
respect that they deserve.
Ashoka
(r. 269–232 B.C.E.) The greatest ruler in
the Maurya dynasty, who reigned over a
kingdom stretching from Afghanistan to
southern India from his capital at
Pataliputra. Ashoka’s father, Bindusara,
and his grandfather, Chandragupta
Maurya, had created a centralized
empire. Aside from the far south, the
only area outside its influence was the
region known as Kalinga (modern state
ofOrissa).
Early in his reign, Ashoka’s armies
conquered Kalinga in a bloody cam-
paign, killing hundreds of thousands of
people; the carnage had a profound
effect on the young Ashoka. Several
years later Ashoka formally adopted
Buddhism and embraced the principle
of nonviolence (ahimsa). As a result he
formally renounced war as a means
of conquest.
Early historians believed that
Ashoka used his royal power to make
Buddhism the state religion, but this
position appears to misread the evi-
dence. Ashoka did seem to be attracted
to Buddhism, but his public pro-
nouncements on “Dhamma,” earlier
identified with Buddhist teaching, seem
to have been aimed at creating a cli-
mate of social responsibility, tolerance,
nonviolence, and harmony. These were
qualities that most reasonable people
would endorse, and some historians
have suggested that such vague guide-
lines indicate an attempt to unify a reli-
giously diverse empire.
Ashoka is by far the best-known figure
of his era, largely because he set up public
inscriptionsall over his kingdom. Rock
edictstended to be carved on rock faces
close to the empire’s borders, while pillar
edictswere inscribed on pillars erected
on the main roads.
The writing used for these inscrip-
tions varied in different regions of the
empire, although the language for all
was a Prakrit, one of the grammatically
simple vernacular languages that devel-
oped from Sanskrit. These inscriptions
are the earliest written Indian docu-
ments of any historical significance;
they reveal a great deal about Ashoka’s
public persona, his exhortations to his
subjects, and even something about the
man himself.
In modern India, Ashoka is the model
for the enlightened ruler, and the
Ashokan pillar capped with four lionshas
been adopted as the emblem of the mod-
ern republic of India.Ashoka Tree
(Jonesia ashoka) Flowering tree tradi-
tionally associated with love and fertili-
ty. When in bloom, the Ashoka tree is
covered with red flowers—a color typi-
cally associated with passion—that con-
trast with its green foliage. According to
tradition, the ashoka tree will not bloom
until it has been kicked by a young
woman’s foot, implying the transfer of
her fertile energy to the tree.
The Ashoka tree is also famous in the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two great
Hindu epics. When Sitais kidnapped by
Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, she
is imprisoned in a grove of Ashoka trees,
where she pines away waiting to be res-
cued by her husband Rama.Ashoka Tree