Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 14: Ashoka, PartII

With Om Puri as Ashoka, K.K. Raina as Radhagupta, Pankaj Beri as Town Crier, Nitin Kulkarni as Mahendra, Sadiya as Sanghmitra, Ila Arun as Asandhimitra, Aparajita Krishna as Devi, Achyut Potdar as Sukhvihar Virendra Razdan as Bindusara, Maqsoom Ali as Tissa, Anang Desai as Vikrambhatt, Lalit Tiwari as Agivika, and S.P. Dubey as Mahendrabhatt.

Ashoka is now the Emperor and is relaxing with a Vina recital in court. There is an interruption by the Buddhist emissaries from Ujjain on a tiding of gratitude for the nearlycompleted monastery. The funloving youngest prince Tissa is disrespectful to the visitors and makes matters worse by jocularly climbing on the imperial throne. The vexed Ashoka gives him capital punishment for the gross misdemeanour and mitigates it by granting a reprieve of seven days on the ‘throne’ with boundless merriment! Tissa, already under a Damocles’ sword, hardly enjoys the reprieve and, when finally pardoned, seeks solace in Buddhism.

As Nehru notes, only the southeast and a part of the south were beyond the empire’s sway. The old dream of uniting the whole of India under one supreme government fired Ashoka. On the news of skirmishes against the business community by the small Kalinga rulers and disruptions in trade, Ashoka mounted an allout attack on Kalinga on the east coast and, despite brave resistance by the independent people of Kalinga, his armies triumphed. There was terrible slaughter in this war, as officially recorded in one of Ashoka’s edict, cited by Nehru: Kalinga was conquered. … 150,000 persons were thence carried away as captive; 100,000 were slain and many times that died. … Thus arose His Sacred Majesty’s remorse for having conquered the Kalinga, because the conquest of a country previously unconquered involves the slaughter, death and carrying away captive of the people. That is a matter of profound sorrow and regret…

A highly penitent Ashoka, goes out to recall his missing brother Tissa. Travelling over hills and dales, the emperor locates Tissa’s monastery, but the monkbrother declines to return, saying he has discovered the ultimate Truth in his new reclusive life under Buddha’s teaching. Ashoka dons monk’s robe himself and both brothers devote themselves to the spread of Tathagata’s gospels of righteousness and goodwill. Ashoka creates public works for the people by digging wells, building roads and hospitals, and planting trees. He creates a unique communication system, by issuing numerous edicts carved in rock and metal spread out all over India. These edicts that are still with us, exhort the cause of education, show respect for all faiths, prohibit animal sacrifice and encourage abstention from alcoholic drinks. Above all, he makes himself available at any hour and at any place to work for the commonwealth.

As we see, an ardent Ashoka sends his own son and daughter, Mahendra and Sanghamitra, to Sri Lanka conveying his greeting and Buddha’s message. Nehru records how his ambassadors went to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, Cyrene and Epirus making an appeal to the mind and the heart. There was no compulsion. His messengers went to Central Asia also, beside Myanmar and Cambodia. Because of the growth of foreign contacts and missionary enterprises trade between India and other countries also grew.

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