Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/172

 138 ASOKA MAURYA order of monks, and actually assuming the yellow robe. He does not appear to have abdicated at the same time, for edicts issued six years later were still published by his authority and with his sanction; it is probable, however, that he withdrew from active participation in secular affairs, and left the administration in the hands of his ministers and the heir apparent or crown prince. But this supposition is not necessary to explain his con- duct. His submission to the Ten Precepts, or ascetic rules, binding upon ordained monks, did not inev- itably involve his withdrawal from the duties of roy- alty, and he would have found no difficulty in form- ally complying with the obligations of mendicancy by a begging tour within the spacious palace pre- cincts. The case of Asoka is not unique. A perfect parallel is furnished by Chinese history, which records that Hsiao Yen, the first emperor of the Liang dynasty, who was a devout Buddhist, actually adopted the monastic garb on two occasions, in 527 and 529 A. D. A less completely parallel case is supplied by the story of a Jain king of Western India in the twelfth century, who assumed the title of " Lord of the Order," and at vari- ous periods of his reign bound himself by vows of con- tinence and abstinence. Whatever may have been the exact procedure adopted, there is no doubt that Asoka was formally ordained as a monk, and the fact was so notorious that a thousand years later his statues were still to be seen, vested in monastic garb. The latter years of his reign