Bharatvarsh: Ashoka - Page 4

Originally posted by: nikii11

Yep Posted it Gargi di.Though I felt it was not the right place. As I don't watch CAS now. 😕 😳

Bharatvarsh: Ashoka

I see that everyone here is ecstatic about it, and not without reason. Only Babur, while you might be happy that there is no romance, there are no battles either , nor any bloodshed. Not even an inside glimpse of Ashoka's Hell, alas!

It is throughout in the documentary style, with four main points made.

- Ashoka was disliked by his father because he was kurup, which makes the choice of Aham Sharma ludicrous. How can such a handsome young man be described as so kurup that the women in the palace have ghrina for him and don't want to touch him? So he has a whole lot of them wrapped in their own clothes and burned alive.

His father's open preference for Sushim and continual putting down of Ashoka ends when Radhagupt gets him to Pataliputra ahead of Sushim, and Ashoka seizes Pataliputra and, like Napoleon 2000 years later, simply crowns himself.

- The traditional accounts of Chand Ashoka were most likely exaggerated in the Buddhist chronicles, in order to magnify the eventual positive influence of Buddhism on him after Kalinga. It was clearly demonstrated, on the basis of the rock edicts, that he did not kill all his 99 stepbrothers to ascend the throne.

- Ashoka might have been tremendously influenced by the horrors of the Kalinga war, but he had been undergoing a change of heart for over a year and a half already, thanks to a Buddhist monk who was Sushim's son. This sorted out one of my main doubts - whether the Kalinga battle alone could produce such a epiphany in such a battle-hardened warrior. It was apparently not the sole catalyst, but the culmination of a more long drawn out process.

Aham's Ashoka: He was splendid in his anguish on the battlefield after the Mauryan victory. This was one of the three places in the script where he got an extended opportunity to display his strength as an actor. The others were when Sushim's son, the Buddhist bhikshu, comes to the court and becomes the catalyst for Ashoka's slow transformation, and earlier when Ashoka defies a dying Bindusara, asserts his right to the throne on the basis of sheer merit, and crowns himself.

Otherwise, Ashoka was shown mostly in long shots, often when seated in the court. In the touching scene just before his death, where Aham could have been very impressive - remember the magnificent, extended death scene of Karna in the Mahabharata? - he is so smothered in a long beard and longer white hair that one could hardly see his features. The director clearly does not believe in close ups!

- Dhamma Ashoka's rule was marked not only by extremely praja- friendly administration, but by an unprecedented level of direct communication between the Samrat and the people thru the setting up of over 84000 rock and pillar edicts all over the empire, of which only a few dozen have survived. If only even half of the edicts had survived, or even just 10%, think of what a treasure trove for historians they would have been!

Besides an efficient and extensive Chanakya style administrative apparatus from the capital to the village level- with the adminstrators being kept under surveillance by spies - there was a unique institution, that of religious preachers-cum-supervisors, whose job it was not only to spread the Dhamma but to make sure that the people lived moral lives. This degree of direct involvement by the administration in the personal lives of the citizens to keep them on the path of Dhamma in absolutely unprecedented, not only in India but worldwide.

And the emphasis on total acceptance of the beliefs and traditions of all segments of society predated our modern secularism, not only in India but anywhere in the world, by well over two millennia.

There was absolutely no reference to his private life, whether about his queens or his children - not even Mahendra and Sanghamitra - or about his successor. Nor was there even a passing mention of the reasons that might have led to the collapse of the Mauryan empire just 47 years after the passing of Ashoka. Nor about Ashoka's foreign policy, his relations with the rulers of Greece and Syria, or about the extent of foreign trade during his rule.

The sets were dim and rich and often quite beautiful.

All in all, it was a very good production. But I would have liked them to add 5 more minutes to cover the aspects mentioned above that have been left out completely.

Shyamala/Aunty

PS: Next week's episode will be about Adi Shankaracharya

Originally posted by: babur1527

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbYQ1Y2qHTA

Anyone watching it tonight? This is too good to pass up.

Aham looks so natural as Ashok. And story is so perfect. 👏

Him taking the crown from Bindusar. Declaring war all around Magadh. And burning the harem women.

CHAND ASHOK! 😎

Originally posted by: mistofshadows

Bharatvarsh is brilliant Babur. This is everything CAS should have been

Originally posted by: MuguetDScorpion

Burning the harem women was disgusting. Burning them because they weren't happy with him. Like seriously ? 🤢 I just want this image out of my head. 😆

I liked the second half better than the first.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Bravo, MDS! Je suis tellement contente de vous! 🤗C'etait vraiment affreux, degoutant, comme vous avez remarque.

(For non-francophones: I am so pleased with you! It was really horrible, disgusting, as you have said)

If you had not seen it already in the EDT, do take a look at my review above, with the opening comments about this very segment. I could not get it out of my head either.

But I don't believe this was true. I think it was one of the many grossly exaggerated accounts of Chand Ashoka's cruelty put out by the already highly politicised Buddhist monkhood, wanting to magnify the achievement of Buddhism in converting such a veritable monster, as they made him out to be, into the paragon of Buddhist piety that Dhamma Ashoka was. Exactly like the other canard that he had killed all 99 of his brothers - bar Vittashoka - to get to the throne (thus making Bindusara out to be Dhritarashtra +, with 101 sons instead of 100).


Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: swathiinduru

I 'll definitely watch,aham ll nail it for sure,he was phenomenal as karna,couldn't wait more to see this chand ashoka

One question did he really burned harem women,I heard so but still was this true?