Before proceeding farther in tracing the story of Asoka's religious development, which is the history of his life and reign, it will be convenient to pause and explain the nature of the dharma, or Law of Piety, which he loved, protected, and promulgated with all the energy of his temperament and all his power as a mighty sovereign. We must also consider how he managed to reconcile the apparently inconsistent positions of monk and monarch.
Dharma, or Dhaṁma, means to a Hindu the rule of life for each man as determined by his caste and station, or, in other words, the whole duty, religious, moral, and social, of a man born to occupy a certain position in the world. For many ages past this conception of dharma has been inseparably associated with the notions of caste. Each caste has its own dharma, and conduct most proper for the member of one caste is reprehensible in the highest degree for a member of another. In Asoka's time caste, although in some respects less rigid than it has been since the shock of the Muhammadan invasions, which did so much to solidify the institution, was well developed, and the now current Hindu notion of dharma does not seem to diverge widely from that then entertained by the followers of the Brahmanical law. The dhaṁma of the Edicts is that Hindu dharma with a difference, due to a Buddhist tinge, nay, rather due
The position adopted in this edition, which has the support of Mr. F. W. Thomas as well as of M. Senart, was opposed by Fleet, whose latest article appeared in J. R. A. S., 1913, p. 655.
