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A review by nrajanala
Ashoka: the Search for India's Lost Emperor by Charles Allen
3.0
This book is interesting to read across all pages except for the final chapter wherein for the first time the author shares his own perspective on modern India. The narrative becomes suddenly out of place and merely toots the same discourse every Indian is so used to hearing on Hindu nationalism, casteism and political wisdom. The book deserves a three star and nothing beyond that also for the same reason that there is no meaningfully original contribution from the author himself on the history of Ashoka beyond documenting the exceptional work done by historians and archaeologists of the British East India company.
What Charles Allen does really well is create that curiosity and excitement on the painstaking research done across centuries to bring the mysterious glory of Ashoka's history to light. Be it how the rock edicts and stupas were identified, how Pali and its script was deciphered and how the impression of Ashoka changed in his lifetime, every detail opens up like a mystery although many facts were derived accidentally by historians of the past who didn't benefit much from each other's work.
The author himself doesn't stand out as an authority on any particular subject although he stands out as a good writer of history that could otherwise be disposed as boring. By calling everything that went against Ashoka as the work of Brahmanical forces, he merely repeats what European orientalist historians have been parroting for long. But how then did Ashoka and his dynasty rise under the same so-called Brahmanical power is brushed through without any analysis done. He also treads the same path that I've seen several historians take, which is that anything Buddhist is pacifist just because the Buddha was so. Hence, the destruction of Buddhist relics and monasteries is not given the political tone that it deserves and the reader may almost be made to believe that some evil force (Brahmanical) destroyed the greatness that was created. The author as a result fails to elucidate his own points raised in the book about how many of the powerful Buddhist converts were Brahmins too and also doesn't give much weight to what was the destruction and death created by Ashoka and his brother on the lands he conquered.
This book is unfortunately not a history of Ashoka as much as it is about the wonderful work done by historians to recreate India's lost history during the Mauryan period. There is more work to be done to really build a better picture of Ashoka and I'm not talking about his physical appearance where the author takes special interest in and in a silly manner mentions the name of the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in a reference that was not worth mentioning in such an important book.
Read it for the pleasure of knowing about the historical places in the Indian subcontinent that helped grow the Greek and Mauryan empires and the global spread of Buddhism with missionary zeal two hundred years after the demise of the great Buddha! Doesn't that teach a little about the nexus between religion and politics even in this modern day!?
What Charles Allen does really well is create that curiosity and excitement on the painstaking research done across centuries to bring the mysterious glory of Ashoka's history to light. Be it how the rock edicts and stupas were identified, how Pali and its script was deciphered and how the impression of Ashoka changed in his lifetime, every detail opens up like a mystery although many facts were derived accidentally by historians of the past who didn't benefit much from each other's work.
The author himself doesn't stand out as an authority on any particular subject although he stands out as a good writer of history that could otherwise be disposed as boring. By calling everything that went against Ashoka as the work of Brahmanical forces, he merely repeats what European orientalist historians have been parroting for long. But how then did Ashoka and his dynasty rise under the same so-called Brahmanical power is brushed through without any analysis done. He also treads the same path that I've seen several historians take, which is that anything Buddhist is pacifist just because the Buddha was so. Hence, the destruction of Buddhist relics and monasteries is not given the political tone that it deserves and the reader may almost be made to believe that some evil force (Brahmanical) destroyed the greatness that was created. The author as a result fails to elucidate his own points raised in the book about how many of the powerful Buddhist converts were Brahmins too and also doesn't give much weight to what was the destruction and death created by Ashoka and his brother on the lands he conquered.
This book is unfortunately not a history of Ashoka as much as it is about the wonderful work done by historians to recreate India's lost history during the Mauryan period. There is more work to be done to really build a better picture of Ashoka and I'm not talking about his physical appearance where the author takes special interest in and in a silly manner mentions the name of the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in a reference that was not worth mentioning in such an important book.
Read it for the pleasure of knowing about the historical places in the Indian subcontinent that helped grow the Greek and Mauryan empires and the global spread of Buddhism with missionary zeal two hundred years after the demise of the great Buddha! Doesn't that teach a little about the nexus between religion and politics even in this modern day!?