Mother of Ashoka

The information about mother of Ashoka (c. 3rd century BCE), the Maurya emperor of ancient India, varies between different sources.

Mother of Ashoka
Empress consort of the Maurya Empire
SpouseBindusara
Issue
(according to Ashokavadana)
DynastyMaurya
FatherA Brahmin of Champa (according to Ashokavadana)
ReligionAjivika (according to Mahavamsa-tika)

Name

The various Buddhist texts provide different names for Ashoka's mother:

  • Subhadrangi, in Asokavadanamala[1][2]
  • Dharma (Pali: Dhamma), in Vamsatthapakasini or Mahavamsa-tika, a 10th century commentary on Mahavamsa[2]
  • Janapada-kalyani, in a Divyavadana legend;[3] according to scholar Ananda W. P. Guruge, this is not a name, but an epithet.[1]

Ancestry

Ashokavadana, which does not mention Ashoka's mother by name,[4] states that she was the daughter of a Brahmin from Champa.[5] According to the Mahavamsa-tika, she belonged to the Moriya Kshatriya clan.[2]

According to the 2nd century historian Appian, Ashoka's grandfather Chandragupta entered into a marital alliance with the Greek ruler Seleucus I Nicator, which has led to speculation that Ashoka's father Bindusara (or Chandragupta himself) married a Greek princess. However, there is no evidence that Ashoka's mother (or grandmother) was Greek, and the idea has been dismissed by most historians.[6]

Ashokavadana legend

The Ashokavadana legend about Ashoka's mother goes like this: She was the daughter of a Brahmin from the Champa city near the Mauryan capital Pataliputra. She was extremely beautiful, and some unnamed fortune-tellers predicted that she would marry a king. They also prophesized that she would bear two sons, one of whom will become a chakravartin (universal) king, while the other would be religiously-inclined. Accordingly, her father took her to Pataliputra, and offered him in marriage to king Bindusara.[7][8]

.

After some time, she gave birth to a boy. She named the child Ashoka, because she had become "without sorrow" (a-shoka) when he was born. Later, she gave birth to a second son. She named the child Vitashoka, because her sorrow had ceased (vigate-shoke) when he was born.[9]

Mahavamsa-tika legend

According to the Mahavamsa-tika, Ashoka's mother - named Dhamma - was a devotee of the Ajivika sect. During her pregnancy, she once said that she wanted to "trample on the moon and the sun to play with the stars and to eat up the forests". Based on an interpretation of this wish, an Ajivika ascetic predicted that her son would conquer and rule over entire India, destroy 96 heretical sects, and promote Buddhism. The ascetic also predicted that the son would kill his brothers for displeasing him (the text later states that Ashoka killed 99 out of his 100 brothers).[10]

gollark: It seems to have been a working strategy so far (well, for some things). Blatantly passing ridiculously broad internet monitoring laws, for example.
gollark: Imagine implying that the existence of one issue means you should just ignore all less bad ones.
gollark: Well, he does do a bunch of combat sports.
gollark: Is that *actually* 41 minutes?
gollark: I can probably type faster than I can... dictate at a computer, since while theoretically speech is faster than my typing, speech to text is inaccurate so I'd probably need to go back and revise things a lot.

References
  1. Ananda W. P. Guruge 1993, p. 19.
  2. Radhakumud Mookerji 1962, p. 2.
  3. Upinder Singh 2008, p. 332.
  4. Nayanjot Lahiri 2015, p. 323:"In the Ashokavadana, Ashoka's mother is not named."
  5. John S. Strong 1989, pp. 204-205.
  6. Romila Thapar 1961, p. 20.
  7. John S. Strong 1989, p. 204.
  8. Nayanjot Lahiri 2015, pp. 31-32.
  9. John S. Strong 1989, p. 205.
  10. Romila Thapar 1961, p. 26.
  11. Playing onscreen mother was a challenge: Pallavi Subhash, IBN Live, 31 January 2015

Bibliography
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