Tradition
Ashokavadana
Overview
The Ashokavadana (Sanskrit: अशोकावदान; IAST: Aśokāvadāna; lit. 'Narrative of Ashoka') is an Indian Sanskrit-language text that describes the birth and reign of the third Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. It glorifies Ashoka as a Buddhist emperor whose only ambition was to spread Buddhism far and wide.
Ashokavadana, also known as Ashokarajavadana, is one of the avadana texts contained in the Divyavadana (Divyāvadāna, "Divine Narrative"), an anthology of several Buddhist narratives. According to Jean Przyluski, the text was composed by the Buddhist monks of the Mathura region, as it highly praises the city of Mathura, its monasteries, and its monks.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Seven or eight li to the west of the city there is what is called the King's new monastery, the building of which took eighty years, and extended over three reigns. It may be two hundred and fifty cubits in height, rich in elegant carving and inlaid work, covered above with gold and silver, and finished throughout with a combination of all the precious substances. Behind the tope there has been built a Hall of…
Confucius, Chinese literature
States what Ashokavadana is.
The one part, which really is orthodox, has no other purpose than to make the deliverances of the Vedas clearer, or to derive from the text of these original treatises an ingeniously thought-out Psychology. This system is called Mimansa, and two schools proceed from it. Distinguished from these there are other systems, amongst which the two chief are those of the Sanc’hya and Nyaya. The former again divides into two…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Ashokavadana is.
We usually step from what is known to what is unknown. A war of giants would not be imagined, until some men more robust than the rest had been seen to tyrannize over their fellow-men. To imagine the like in heaven, the Brahmins must either have experienced violent discords among themselves, or at least have witnessed them among their neighbors. Be that as it may, it is an astonishing phenomenon that a society of…
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
States what Ashokavadana is.
Related ideas
- Ashoka
- Princeton University Press
- Ājīvika
- Jainism
- Bodh Gaya
- Mahavira
- Reincarnation
- Sanskrit
- Mathura
- Anthology
- Buddhism
- The Buddha
- University of Calcutta
- Chinese language
- Pundravardhana
- Benimadhab Barua
Place in the tradition
Part of Ājīvika.