After the death of the Buddha, his teachings were hardly known beyond the eastern part of India. It was Ashoka, the emperor, who spread Buddist teachings across India and Asia. Through his patronage and efforts, in effect, Ashoka created the world’s third largest religion, Buddhism. Yet, Ashoka’s story is largely forgotten. Why was knowledge of his achievements lost for over 1000 years?
I am a judge for the writing prize of yeaterday’s Friends of the Ridgeway Swire Art Prize. Because my latest novel Reptiles ends by the 3,500 year old White Horse carved into the hill above Uffington, fellow historical fiction writer, Linda Proud, and I had a book launch there. Answering a question on authenticity, I said that I don’t muck up history. I invent characters to tell the story but I don’t alter events. I have a desire to tell untold or forgotten stories which, in my opinion, are important. One of those stories is that of Ashoka . Just as Jesus wasn’t a Christian – he was a Jew, Buddha was not a Buddhist but a Vedic teacher with a large following in North East India. The man who effectively created Buddhism was Ashoka and few in the West know about him. Buddhist history is becoming more popular in Asia so is an important subject. When it comes to believing change can happen and good governance is possible Ashoka is an inspiration.
Ashoka did not persecute the Brahmins. But as Buddhism gained prominence during his reign, the Brahmins had lost their power; Ashoka is said to have built 84,000 stupas, most with edicts inspired by Buddhist teachings. After Ashoka’s death, as the Brahmins recovered their influence under King Pushyamitra Sunga (a Brahmin) they started destroying the stupas and monasteries. As E J Rapson writes:
‘Pushyamitra figures as a great persecutor of Buddhists bent on acquiring fame as the annihilator of Buddhist doctrine. He meditated the destruction of the Kukkutamaras, the great monastery which Ashoka has built for one thousand monks to the south east of Pataliputra…he then went to Sakala (Sialkot) in the eastern Punjab and attempted to exterminate the Buddhist community there offering a reward of 100 dinaras for the head of every monk.’
Knowledge of him and of the teachings of the Buddha continued in Nalanda, the world’s first international university, until Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji invaded India and destroyed the university, burned all the books and killed all the monks so Ashoka was forgotten for 1000 years because Brahmi ceased to be understood so no one could read his rock edicts etc.
The main fictional historical character in Sculpting the Elephant is one of the Englishmen who helped rediscover him. I wrote this feature for the Madras Courier.
https://madrascourier.com/opinion/when-fanatical-brahmins-islamists-tried-to-decimate-buddhism/
The need to tell the WHOLE story of Empire.
The reason our country looks the way it does is because of Empire and it’s not taught enough in schools or universities. We can’t properly understand this country without knowing about the British Empire. There are politicians and historians who would like to whitewash the evils of Empire. I am not one of them. The whole story needs to be told. In India, that includes the venality of the East India Company destroying the local textile industry and forcing the growing of opium leading to famines. We must not ignore the racism, torture and massacres following the First War of Independence, the Bengal famine (1943) and the biggest ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen was when we partitioned India. I can write with authenticity about it because my Indian (Hindu) born husband, Atam, was born near Lahore in what is now Pakistan, so became one of those millions of refugees. I wrote this related feature.
http://madrascourier.com/opinion/can-india-and-pakistan-overcome-partition/
The Age of Imperialism is returning and we must not forget what that means. India was the richest country in the world in the C17th but the British Raj drained it of its wealth. Despite that, when talking about Empire, some nuance is required. The institution should be criticised but many of the people who worked for the Empire were good hardworking people who genuinely wanted to improve the world. That is what I tried to reflect in my novel Sculpting the Elephant – the good and the bad.
It’s possible to read Sculpting the Elephant as a moving love story and ignore the historical subplot but I hope the latter grips readers. I invented a Victorian polymath, Bartholmew Carew who leaves for India believing in the colonial myths. As an open minded and curious man, he soon becomes disillusioned with the Raj. I asked Dr. Jim Bennett, the former director of the Museum of the History of Science, if he could suggest a scientific project that Batholomew could be involved in.
Jim suggested the Great Trigonometrical Survey – the nineteenth century equivalent of the endeavour to get into space in the C20th! The inspirational thing about this 70 year long project to map the whole of India including the Himalayas is that the Indians and Brits worked together and respected each other. Put simply the mapping of India was one of the greatest scientific achievements of the C19. Measuring the Himalayas with heavy C19 equipment meant it was an achievement of human endurance too. The story of this survey is a great and often forgotten achievement and also defined the country we know as India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-C5CQz-PKg&feature=youtu.be
There are legacies of Empire that Indians appreciate: the railways and the English language have helped unite the subcontinent. The legal and parliamentary systems and the Indian Army are modelled on the British legacy. There were and are many genuine scholars interested in the history, philosophies and culture of India and men like them rediscovered Ashoka. That story is part of the historical subplot in Sculpting the Elephant.
