hrvatski

Asokini natpisi na stijeni: 14 proglasa (Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra, Kalsi, Girnar, Sopara, Dhauli, Jaugada, Erragudi, Sannati)

The article opens with a historical introduction to Aśoka's inscriptions, to the period of the Maurya Empire in India (ca. 322.-185. BC), the three most important rulers of the dynasty: Candragupta, Bindusāra and Aśoka, their hellenistic contemporaties and international context. Basic features of their state administration, of the society, of the religious life of the period are succintly explained. That was the period of the greatest empire India ever had, of far-reaching international relations, of religious diversity and dynamic exchanges of ideas, of the growth of the Ājīvikas and of Jinism and of the spread of Buddhism not only across India, but also to different foreign countries, which turned it into a great world religion. The translation of Aśoka's 14 rock edicts intends to be as faithful to the original as possible, as well as to give the impression of his style. It is accompanied by explanatory notes. Aśoka's inscriptions are the oldest preserved inscriptions in Indian history, spread over a vast territory of the empire, and stylized simultaneously in at least three different regional dialects. In that respect they are a unique source of dialectological information about the Middle Indo-Aryan of their time. Although containing official formulae, partly taken over from the preceeding Persian model and partly genuine Indian, these inscriptions have a strong personal note and introduce us Aśoka as a quite unusual and outstanding person. On the other hand, they inform us of the international context and relations, that we would in part completely ignore without them, and have therefore an immense historical value. Aśoka mentions only one war that he has waged and won, against Kaliṅga, but not in orded to praise himself, as Darius did, but, on the contrary, to express his remorse because of the great suffering of people, and to explain why he decided to make no war in future. After that war he wished to win only victories of dhamma (morality, or Buddha's teaching). His own deeds that he describes in the inscriptions are not military actions, but activities that had the purpose of improving the life of men, his subjects as well as his (even distant) neighbours, and, equally, of animals. To improve their life both materially and morally. There are similarities in style withe the Achaemenid inscriptions, which may have served as a model to Aśoka, but the attitude towards the people and all living beings leads us into a completely different new world inspired by Buddhist teaching. In the conclusion some salient features of the non-ritualist and compassionate dhamma Aśoka promoted are discussed, as well as his explicit or implicit polemics with the contemporary Brahmanic dharma. Aśoka was probably the mightiest ruler in the world of his time, but he did not regard his rule as his right, but as his duty towards people and other living beings. He seems to have tried to perform this duty with the greatest care, effort and compassion, and even if he imagined to have achieved more than was possible, he gives the impression of great sincerity and remains portrayed in his inscriptions through his convictions as one of the noblest rulers in the history of mankind, and, in some respects, beyond any comparison.

Asoka; natpisi na stijeni; Maurye; dharma; buddhizam; Kalinga; avihimsa; Alexandar Makedonski; helenistički vladari 3. st. pr. Khr.

nije evidentirano