CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 83 of 120

Correct — A, 1 only. Statement 1 holds. The Rummindei pillar inscription, set up at Lumbini in present-day Nepal, records that when King Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty years he came in person and worshipped at the spot because the Buddha Shakyamuni was born there, and it goes on to record a concession in the village's revenue dues to mark the visit. The Nigali Sagar pillar records that he enlarged the stupa of the Buddha Konakamana to twice its size in his fourteenth regnal year and came and worshipped there in his twentieth. Both are unambiguous royal acts of Buddhist devotion, made permanent in stone. Statement 2 fails, and it fails on the word sudden. Minor Rock Edict I is precisely the text that shows the change was gradual: the king says he had been a lay follower for more than two and a half years without making much progress, and that only for a little over a year had he drawn closer to the Order and become more ardent. That is a description of a slow deepening over three or four years, not of a conversion in a moment.

• (b)2 only — Keeps the wrong half. Minor Rock Edict I is evidence of Ashoka's Buddhism, but the very passage that proves it also describes a change spread over years — more than two and a half as an unenthusiastic lay follower, then over a year of drawing closer to the sangha.
• (c)Both 1 and 2 — Correct on the pillar inscriptions and wrong on the edict. Only the word sudden separates statement 2 from a true statement, which is exactly where this item places the mark.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Denies both, but the Rummindei and Nigali Sagar pillars are among the plainest pieces of evidence for Ashoka's Buddhism that survive — a visit to the birthplace of the Buddha and the enlargement of an earlier Buddha's stupa, both recorded by the king himself.

Ashoka's inscriptions fall into groups: fourteen Major Rock Edicts, a set of Minor Rock Edicts, seven Pillar Edicts, and a small number of commemorative pillar and cave inscriptions. Most of them call the king only by his titles, Devanampiya Piyadasi — beloved of the gods, of pleasing appearance — and it was the discovery of the Maski version of Minor Rock Edict I, which spells out the name Ashoka, that tied the inscriptions firmly to the Mauryan ruler known from the literary tradition. The Rummindei and Nigali Sagar pillars are commemorative rather than doctrinal: they record what the king did at a particular place.

The trap here is a single adjective, and questions on Ashoka are often built that way. A candidate who knows that Minor Rock Edict I is the great personal statement of the king's relationship with Buddhism will be tempted to mark statement 2 correct without noticing the word sudden. Read the edict's own arithmetic instead: two and a half years of lukewarm lay adherence, then a year and more of close association with the sangha. The literary tradition, which dates the turn to remorse after the Kalinga war described in Major Rock Edict XIII, also describes a process rather than an instant. The habit worth taking away is to treat words such as sudden, only, first and never as claims to be tested separately from the fact they are attached to.

• The Rummindei pillar inscription at Lumbini records that the king, twenty years after his anointment, came and worshipped the spot because the Buddha Shakyamuni was born there.
• The Nigali Sagar inscription records that he doubled the size of the stupa of the Buddha Konakamana in his fourteenth year and visited it in his twentieth.
• Minor Rock Edict I records that he had been a lay follower for more than two and a half years without much progress, and had drawn closer to the sangha for a little over a year.
• The Maski version of Minor Rock Edict I is the one that gives the personal name Ashoka rather than the titles Devanampiya Piyadasi.
• Major Rock Edict XIII is the text that describes the Kalinga war and the remorse that followed it.

• Reading Minor Rock Edict I as evidence of a sudden conversion; its own timeline is gradual.
• Assuming every edict names Ashoka; almost all use the titles Devanampiya Piyadasi, and Maski is the well-known exception.
• Confusing Rummindei, which commemorates the Buddha's birthplace, with Nigali Sagar, which concerns the stupa of an earlier Buddha.

As a two-statement item on what a named inscription proves, as which edict names Ashoka, or as a match between an edict site and its content.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Rummindei pillar inscription of Ashoka commemorates his visit to

  • (a)Bodh Gaya
  • (b)Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha
  • (c)Sarnath
  • (d)Kushinagar

  Answer(b) Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha — the inscription says he came and worshipped there in the twentieth year after his anointment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nigali Sagar pillar inscription records that Ashoka enlarged the stupa of

  • (a)the Buddha Konakamana
  • (b)the Buddha Shakyamuni
  • (c)Mahavira
  • (d)Bindusara

  Answer(a) the Buddha Konakamana — he doubled its size in his fourteenth regnal year.