Around 185 BCE, Pushyamitra Shunga assassinated the last Mauryan ruler Brihadratha and founded the Shunga dynasty. This regime change marks the end of Mauryan state structures that had supported Ashokan-era Buddhist monuments, edict networks, and monastic regulation.
Ashoka’s successor Dasharatha Maurya dedicated caves at the Nagarjuni Hills to the Ājīvikas shortly after accession, showing continued Mauryan practice of supporting ascetic institutions via royal endowments. This continuity helps contextualize how “state support” operated in the Mauryan religious landscape, alongside Buddhist patronage.
Later Major Pillar Edicts represent a mature stage of Ashoka’s public policy communication, consolidating dhamma as a governing ethic and reinforcing the administrative environment that underwrote Buddhist institutional stability during the late Mauryan period.
Ashoka issued “Schism Edicts” (minor pillar inscriptions) warning against creating divisions in the monastic community and prescribing sanctions such as expulsion. These proclamations indicate direct imperial concern with disciplining and stabilizing Buddhist monastic institutions.
The Lumbini (Rummindei) pillar inscription records Ashoka’s visit identifying Lumbini as the Buddha’s birthplace and notes special fiscal treatment for the locality (commonly summarized as tax relief and reduced land revenue). This is a clear case of state patronage for a Buddhist sacred site.
The Great Stupa (Stupa No. 1) at Sanchi was originally built in the 3rd century BCE under Ashoka and is associated with relic veneration. Its foundation represents a major state-linked investment in Buddhist monumental architecture and pilgrimage infrastructure.
Major Rock Edict XII urges restraint in praising one’s own sect and condemning others, reflecting a state policy of religious concord. This ideological framework helped stabilize conditions in which Buddhist institutions could function alongside other communities under Mauryan rule.
The Nigali Sagar Minor Pillar Edict states that in Ashoka’s 14th regnal year he enlarged a stupa of the past Buddha Konakamana/Kanakamuni (and later visited and erected a pillar). This is an epigraphic example of Mauryan royal involvement in stupa-linked sacred geography.
Ashoka’s edicts describe the appointment of dharma-mahamatras (superintendents of morality) to promote and administer dhamma. This marks a key step in institutional support: embedding a moral-religious agenda within the imperial bureaucratic apparatus.
Major Rock Edict II describes state-sponsored welfare works—medical treatment for humans and animals, importing/planting medicinal herbs, and building wells and roadside trees. These initiatives reflect the Mauryan administration operationalizing dhamma through public goods, often associated with Ashoka’s Buddhist-inflected governance.
Inscriptions at Barabar Hill record royal dedications of caves during Ashoka’s reign (notably in his 12th and 19th regnal years). While dedicated to Ājīvikas, the projects demonstrate Mauryan state capacity for subsidizing ascetic institutions and monumental religious infrastructure in the period of Ashoka’s Buddhist patronage.
Ashoka’s Minor Rock Edicts belong to the earliest phase of his inscriptional program (dated in part by regnal years). They illustrate the state’s institutionalization of moral and religious communication through durable public media—an important support structure for Buddhist-linked dhamma ideals.
Ashoka’s early Greek–Aramaic inscription at Kandahar (Afghanistan) shows state use of public epigraphy to communicate dhamma beyond the subcontinent—an early material indicator of imperial capacity to support Buddhist-associated moral messaging across a multilingual empire.
In his own inscriptions (notably Major Rock Edict XIII), Ashoka links the Kalinga conquest to remorse over violence and a renewed commitment to governing through dhamma—a shift that framed later state-backed support for Buddhist ethical ideals and institutions.
State patronage and institutional support for Buddhism under the Mauryas (c. 268–185 BCE)
