Intellectual life centred chiefly in monasteries. But learning and culture seem to have spread even among the masses. The fact that Asoka's Edicts were written not in Sanskrit but in vernacular dialects, on the assumption that the masses would read and understand them, indicates a high standard of literacy among the ordinary people.
Vincent A. Smith says: "I think it likely that the percentage of literacy among the Buddhist population in Asoka's time was higher than it is now in many provinces in British India."
In Asoka's time there were many large cities in India, each as Pataliputra and Vedisa. Mehasthenes, the Greek ambassador of Seleucus to the Court of Chandragupta, describes Pataliputra as having a wall defended by 570 towers and pierced by a number of gates.
Around the city was a ditch 600 feet broad and 30 cubits deep. The building of Srinagar in Kashmir and city in Nepal are attributed to Asoka himself. The country was full of great monasteries such as the Asokarama in Pataliputra and stupas such those of Sanchi and Bharhut.
"The truth is that, so far as Buddhism is concerned, the cult of the relic-stupa was virtually initiated by Asoka." Asoka was not a Buddhist by birth. Although we are not quite certain about the religion of his father and grandfather, we can be sure that they were non-Buddhists.
A Jain tradition, which is neither corroborated nor contradicted elsewhere, says that his grandfather Chandragupta was or became a Jain, and towards the end of his life abdicated to spend his last days as an ascetic. The Divyavadana records that an Ajivaka saint named Pingalavatsa was invited by King Bundusara in connection with the question of Asoka's succession to the throne.
The Mahavamsa Tika, borrowing from the old Sinhalise commentary on named Janasana was the family-priest of the royal house of Bindusara, and that Janasana was a naked ascetic. We may infer from this that he was a Jain belonging to the Digambara sect.The Mahavamsa- Tika has another reference to this same Janasana which says that he was the friend and counsellor of Bindusara's queen.
Both the Samantapasadika and the Mahavamsa agree that Bindusara was of brahmanic faith (Brahman-bhatto), that he entertained brahmins and brahman ascetics of various orders and that Asoka followed his father's practice for three years but that in the fourth year, after his coronation, he became a Buddhist.
The grant by Asoka of certain caves to Ajivikas also indicated that he honoured his ancestral religoin which he himself had followed for a time. Asoka became an upasaka, that is, a lay Buddhist, a few years after his coronation. But for about two or three years he was indifferent to his new faith.
It was only after he came into close contact with the Sangha, the Order of Buddhist monks, that he became really devoted to Buddhism, and gave himself up to the exercise of piety. The Mahavamsa says that Asoka in early days was known as Candasoka (Asoka the Cruel) because of his atrocities, but that later when he became a pious man he was known as Dhammasoka (Asoka the Pious).
After witnessing that terrible destruction of human life and the enormous suffering involved in the Kalinga war, in the eighth year of his coronation and through the good influence of the Sangha, Asoka became a changed man. This was the turning love of Dhamma, and his preaching of Dharma became intense."
He sheathed his sword never to draw it again for any more conquests, and thence forward he concentrated on moral and spiritual conquest called "Dharmavijaya, which is considered by His Sacred Majesty to be the chief conquest."
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