Ashoka’s rule gives us an alternative model of a righteous king and a just state.
He instructed his officials, the yuktas (subordinate officials), rajjukas (rural administrators) and pradesikas (heads of the districts) to go on tours every five years to instruct people in dhamma (Major Rock Edict 3).
Ashoka’s injunctions to the officers and city magistrates stressed that all the people were his children and he wished for his people what he wished for his own children, that they should obtain welfare and happiness in this world and the next.
These officials should recognise their own responsibilities and strive to be impartial and see to it that men were not imprisoned or tortured without good reason.
He added that he would send an officer every five years to verify if his instructions were carried out (Kalinga Rock Edict 1).
Ashoka realised that an effective ruler needed to be fully informed about what was happening in his kingdom and insisted that he should be advised and informed promptly wherever he might be (Major Rock Edict 6).
He insisted that all religions should co-exist and the ascetics of all religions were honoured (Major Rock Edicts 7 and 12).
Providing medical care should be one of the functions of the state, the emperor ordered hospitals to be set up to treat human beings and animals (Major Rock Edict 2).
Preventing unnecessary slaughter of animals and showing respect for all living beings was another recurrent theme in his edicts.
In Ashoka’s edicts, we find an alternative humane and empathetic model of governance.
The edicts stress that everybody, officials as well as subjects, act righteously following dhamma.
