Propagation of Dhamma in External Relations
Ashoka organised an efficient system of foreign missions with a desire to diffuse the blessings of his ethical system in all the independent kingdoms with which he was in touch. His conception of the idea of foreign missions was absolutely original, and produced the well considered results. Royal missionaries were dispatched to all the dependent states and tribes on the borders of the empire, and in the wilder regions within its border to independent kingdoms of Southern India, and to the five Hellenistic countries of Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Mecedonia and Epirus. Ashoka for the same purpose sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghmitra to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the reign of Tissa.
The borderstates and tribes brought in this way within the circle of his ethical system includuded the Kambojas; the Gandhars and Yavanas of the Kabul valley regions; the bhojas, Pulindas and Pitenikas dwelling among the Vindhya range and Western Ghats, and the Andhra Kingdom. Four independent Southern Kingdoms; the Chola, Pandya, Keralputra and Satiyaputra were on such good terms with Ashoka that he was at liberty to send his missionaries to preach the people of these lands.
In organizing such missions to foreign countries at the expense of India, Ashoka perhaps felt that India also would be benefited along with them. These were the countries with which India had active intercourse in those days, and it was desirable that they should conform to common codes and ideals of conduct and thought. The influx of foreigners to India in those days is quite apparent from the statement of Megasthenes that there was a separate department of administration to deal with their special interests. The history of the Western Greek countries does not preserve any record showing how Ashoka’s missionaries fared there, but we need not assume on a priori grounds that those countries did not welcome the Indians who too brought them only a message of peace and good will. It is difficult to dispute that Buddhist thought has left its marks upon some phases of Western thought, notably “the heretical Gnostic sects and some of the more orthodox forms of Christian teaching”.
It is almost certain that Ashoka, by his comprehensive and well-planned measures, succeeded in transforming the doctrine of a local Indian sect into one of the great religions of the world. He did not attempt to destroy either Vedic Brahmanism or Jainism; but his prohibition of bloody sacrifices, the preference which he openly avowed for Buddhism and his active propaganda, undoubtedly brought his favourite doctrine to the front and established it as a dominant faith in India as well as Ceylon (Sri Lanka).