Author: Ananda W. P. Guruge
Publisher: Guruge (Second Edition) 2014
The first edition of Guruge’s book came out in 1993. Charles Allen has done a masterful job mostly based on the work done by British scholars prior to Independence. Nayanjot Lahiri’s book came out after Guruge’s book and she claims that "she has written this book for a 'general educated audience' without sacrificing the scholarship. She also claims that she has tried to rely more on archeological evidence than on historical chronicles."
Guruge has written the most complete and most authoritative book on Asoka. After reading it, I felt that there is no need to write another book on Asoka unless you have found some new archeological evidence that shed more light on the Indian History during Asoka. In this sense, Lahiri’s book that came out 22 years later makes no sense and is disappointing, unless you take into consideration the Indian intellectual biases against Buddhism and the Buddhist Emperor. Naturally, Lahiri won some accolades and awards from some foreign organizations. (In her book she changed the name of Asoka to (Sanskritized) Ashoka and in a promotional talk she has changed the name again to (Modern-Indian) Ashok.)
There seems to be an absolute control of the direction of research of Buddhist and Sri Lankan history by few intellectuals. The most prominent of these intellectuals are Richard Gombrich, Gananath Obesekere, and Stanley Thambaiah. Unfortunately, all the others seem to be followers of these three just parroting their “ideas” without any critical investigations of their own. All three of them seem to blame the Sinhalese people for the 1983 riots without proper examination which would have revealed that it was a work of political thugs, not particularly from one ethnic group, except for their alliance to a certain political party lead by a President who came to power promising a "Just Society".
The following passage is from my own notes after reading Lahiri’s book few years ago:
I felt some discomfort throughout the book. I identify two defects in the book for this discomfort. The author has a bias towards Hindu religion and she is also suffering from 'post July 83 syndrome'. [This is a term I coined to those scholars who find it necessary to de-emphasize the value of chronicles like Mahawansa because of the narrative (propaganda) they choose to propagate after the July 83 riots. Late Stanley Tambiah, Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obesekere have shown symptoms of post July 83 syndrome.]
Fortunately, some younger Intellectuals from Sri Lanka are taking a critical look at the work of these “experts” and I hope they will publish their work in English. I also encourage them to completely ignore the critics of the west if they become overly critical of their work, because these critics are nothing but parrots of the so-called established doctrine.
While recognizing and appreciating the work of early pioneers of Asoka studies, Guruge was not very enthusiastic of some of the later scholars, especially some Indian scholars with "blatant biases and unjustified prejudices".
Obviously, Gombritch did not like the book. In his own admission, he did not read the book completely. However, he felt he could write a critical review of the book, perhaps because he is an "authority" in the field. Here’s some excerpts of his review.
"On the title page it is announced as A Dharma Jayanti publication to mark the 2300th anniversary of the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. It has a preface by the late President of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa, whose claim that he instigated the work is corroborated with detail by the author. …"
"The book thus aims to be propaganda: to propagate certain Buddhist values."
"In Guruge's overall assessment of the Sri Lankan historical tradition, the illogic is even more jarring: 'The most convincing evidence for the authenticity of the Sri Lankan historical tradition is the remarkable internal consistency of the account in so many different literary works spanning nearly two millennia' (p. 455). Any impartial reader can see that the likeliest reason for such consistency is that the sources were copying from each other!"
I invite you to read the book and see if these criticisms hold any water.
Guruge has divided the book into three parts: Life and Career of Asoka, Sources on Asoka, and Asoka’s Place in History and His Legacy. His unique contribution to Asoka studies is his logical and chronological division of Asoka Edits into eight “Dhamma Lipis”.
The First Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Rock Edicts 1 - 4 issued in the 13th year after consecration.
The Second Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Rock Edict 5 issued in the 17th year after consecration.
The Third Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Rock Edict 6 (not dated).
The Fourth Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Rock Edicts 7 - 14 issued in the 20th year after consecration.
The Fifth Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Pillar Edicts 1 - 3 issued in the 26th year after consecration.
The Sixth Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Pillar Edicts 4 issued in the 26th year after consecration.
The Seventh Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Pillar Edicts 5 - 6 issued in the 26th year after consecration.
The Eighth Dhamma Lipi: Asoka Pillar Edicts 7 issued in the 27th year after consecration.
This is the most complete, authoritative, and well-researched book on Asoka I have read. It is probably the best book among all books written on Asoka as well.
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