Why King Ashoka’s birth anniversary is not celebrated?
These days a question is making headlines in many WhatsApp Groups asking
“Why King Ashoka’s birth anniversary is not celebrated in our country, when the historians view the period of his rule over India as Golden Era of India and that when India was referred as Vishwa (World) Guru because of the Universities then like Nalanda and a golden bird because of the strong economy during his rule?
At the outset I would like to say that neither Renaissance is a bad thing nor recollecting the distant past if as a student it’s from historical perspective and not for arousal of raw emotions of the masses to satiate cheap political gimmicks or for dividing the society on religious lines.
Though this is just my observation but there could be some other reasons too. Before the Battle of Kalinga Emptor Ashoka was a tyrant, who even killed many including his brothers (Mughals are not an exception) for securing his throne.
After the battle of Kalinga, there was a change of heart and Ashoka renounced his Vaidic Dharma to become a devout follower of Buddhism. Not only that his kingdom became a Buddhist Kingdom and he sent his messengers far and wide to spread Buddhism and its teachings.
As spread of Buddhism became a big threat to Vaidic Dharma, and seeing its base eroding there were conflicts between the followers of both the religions.
A Google search shows that
Early Buddhists in Southeast Asia devoted considerable attention to their competition with Hinduism for devotees and resources. In China, Hinduism never made an impact, but in Southeast Asia the two religions competed on more or less equal terms for adherents for about a thousand years.
Since the spread of Buddhism was state sponsored, being the religion of the state, therefore, with the weakening of powers of those Buddhist rulers and dynasties particularly the Gupta and Pala dynasties, the financial support from the state started to dwindle. This hampered the spread of Buddhism.
Also there were revivalist movements for revivalism of Vaidic religion. In this regard Adi Shankaracharya is credited with revitalizing Hinduism and helping to drive Buddhism out of India.
The practice of Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE, after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The last large state to support Buddhism—the Pala Empire—fell in the 12th century. By the end of the 12th century, Buddhism had largely disappeared from India with the exception of the Himalayan region and isolated remnants in parts of south India.
Therefore, with the dwindling followers of Buddhism in India, Ashoka’s influence over the masses also became marginalised and with majority of India’s population being followers of Hinduism, they had their own heroes to follow and worship, instead of a king who renounced Vaidic Dharma and put his energies as well as state resources for spreading another religion.