BRUTAL WAR AND ENDURING PEACE
(By Subbaram Danda)
(By Subbaram Danda)
It was the fiercest war ever fought in the early
history of India and also one that turned a victorious king into an apostle of
peace – the Kalinga war of 261 BC.
It was fought between Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan
dynasty and the ruler of Kalinga, a small prosperous independent country, on the banks of
River Daya at Dhauli in the present-day state of Odisha. It was so brutal that more than 150,000
warriors and civilians perished in it and the “river flowed red.”
Though Ashoka conquered Kalinga, the lives lost and
the havoc it caused made him repentant. It brought about a profound
transformation in his attitude towards humanity. The preachings of a Buddhist monk on futility
of war also impacted him. Ashoka
retained Kalinga under his fold but put a stop to any further military
expansionism.
Finally, the emperor embraced Buddhism, abjuring
violence of any kind. The scene of all
this action, Dhauli, lies at about eight kilometres from Bhubaneswar, the
capital city of Odisha.
Overlooking the Daya river, there is a hillock called
Dhauli Giri. It is on this hillock that
in 1972 a Vishwa Shanti Stupa, Peace Pagoda, came up through Indo-Japanese
collaboration. It is now a major tourist attraction.
A massive dome, the stupa stands with five chatris
(umbrellas) on its top, which represent the five moral precepts of
Buddhism. The tenets are: no harm to living beings, no stealing, no
sexual misconduct, no lying and no liquor consumption. The stupa can be reached by climbing a long
but easy flight of steps. The gleaming
white structure has a circular walkway around it for visitors to move and see different
sculptures of Buddha in niches and on wall panels. Statues of lions in bright yellow on the
peripheral wall of the walkway give the impression that they are standing guard
of the stupa.
Dhauli also houses edicts of Ashoka inscribed on a
massive rock that can be seen on the side of the road leading to the stupa on
the hillock.
We visited Dhauli Giri on our way to
Bhubaneswar. Here are some photos:
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| In front of the Vishwa Shanti Stupa |
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| The main Buddha statue in the stupa |
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| Buddha in a reclining position |
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| One of the lion statues on the outer wall of the walkway |
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| The umbrellas on top of the stupa |
My next presentation will be on Bhubaneswar.
April 15, 2017
