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3 Asoka Edicts. Fantastic History of a Forgotten Era

By ArputhaRani Sengupta, on August 5th, 2011

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August 5th, 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Greco-India, Roman Empire, The History of Antiquity
  • http://historyhuntersinternational.org/ History Hunters International

    Dear Doctor,

    Many thanks for this wonderful paper, which my colleague here and I have studied in some detail and we concur with the likelihood that Izates II of Adiabene is the author of the Edicts. A part of this agreement lies in our understanding of the geopolitical situation, which allows for Izates to have a strong influence over Greco-India in the 1st century of this era.

    Izates is described by Josephus as a Jew by conversion and I therefore also support the suggestion by Eisenman that he is “The Great King of the Peoples Beyond the Euphrates” in the letter found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls:
    MMT as Jamesian Letter to “The Great King of the Peoples Beyond the Euphrates” - The Journal of Higher Criticism vol. 11, no.1, Spring 2005.http://www.roberteisenman.com/articles/MMT.pdf

    As I regard Qumran as the first, identifiable monastery, then I would see MMT as the foundational text for establishing monasteries in Greco-India.

    One of the allies of Izates is Artabanus II of Parthia (r. ca 10-38). Though scholarship generally understands this name to be Persian, I prefer to relate ‘banus’ to this character:

    “When I was about sixteen years old I had a mind to make a trial of the several sects that were among us. There are three of these, that of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the third that of the Essenes, as we have frequently told you. I thought that being acquainted with them all I could choose the best. ”So I consigned myself to hardship, and underwent great difficulties, and went through them all. Nor did I content myself with the trying of these three only, for when I was informed that one whose name was Banus lived in the desert, and used no other clothing than what grew upon trees, and had no other food than what grew of its own accord, and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both night and day, to purify himself, I imitated him in those things, and continued with him three years.”- Life 2 by Josephus

    There is a scholarly view that Banus is a follower of John the Baptiser and this well may be correct; my own view is that ‘banus’ means ‘bather’ -- i.e. baptiser -- and this has implications for understanding the name ‘Artabanus’. 

    According to Josephus (Antiquities, xviii.9), this Artabanus also allied himself with two Babylonian Jews named Anilai and Asinai, who controlled the marshes of Southern Mesopotamia -- the same area which became home to the baptising sect known as the Mandaeans who venerated John the Baptiser; this sect is from where Mani appears in the 3rd century, with his Jesus Chrest and ideas of Zoroaster and Buddha.

    Izates, then, has a foundational role in the development of theology, Churches and monasticism in the East and West, within a heavily politicised history of the early-first century.

    Thank you again for your contribution to our understanding of the early first century and
    Best regards,
    John