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I first thought about Samrat Ashoka when I visited Junagadh, to climb the famed Girnar Pilgrimage, way back in the winter of 2012. I mean that was not the first time that I ever heard of him, or knew that he had existed or read about him. Simply, it was the first time that I actually felt like he was worth a thought, and I have not stopped thinking about him ever since.

Ashoka was a great ruler, born more than two millennia ago. His 24 spoke blue Chakra flies on our National flag today, as a proud symbol of our country. The Far-East calls Buddhism its main religion, today, because of him. The list is endless. The tale of his life was so wonderful & Awe-inspiring, that it inspired me to write a 3 book series based on his life called the Ashoka trilogy.

But let us take a pause. It’s been many years since 2012. Why am I going back to all that now, four years later? Well, there is a reason. And the reason is the Controversial Shivaji statue which has been hogging the limelight in newspapers since the last month. There have been supporters for the issue, and staunch reactionaries about the same. But where does Ashoka figure in all of this?

Like I said, Ashoka was a great ruler. But surprisingly, it took me 17 years of my life to really think about him and it required an incentive. I received that incentive while visiting the famous underground Buddhist caves in Junagarh, a marvel of architecture from those times, and I had to wonder. Who is this King who made all of this possible? The architecture of the caves has to be seen to be believed, and the fact that they were built in the third century B.C. makes them all the more splendid. And why was he building such massive structures so far away from the center of his actual kingdom, which was in the Far East, in present day Bihar?

Why did it take me 17 years of my life to understand Ashoka’s greatness? Therein lies the catch. Unfortunately, this incentive that I received in the seventeenth year of my life at Junagarh could not be given to me by the education system I studied in, the movies and TV shows, that I watched in my childhood nor the books that I had read until then. And trust me, I read a lot of books. The coverage of Ashoka in present day Art, Literature & Media is close to Nil.

When the News of the Statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji broke out in the papers, I could not help but think: It should have been a monument for Ashoka.

And in no way, am I dwarfing the greatness of Chhatrapati Shivaji with these thoughts. I am a proud Maharashtrian myself and I know that much of the freedom in our society today has to do with what Shivaji Maharaj did back in the 1600s. I even have a planned Novel series based in his empire for the future.  I’m not saying that Chhatrapati Shivaji wasn’t great. All that I’m saying is that Ashoka was greater. If Shivaji is Narayan Murthy, Ashoka is Bill Gates. If Shivaji is Nelson Mandela, Ashoka was Mahatma Gandhi. If Shivaji was Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Ashoka was Honorable PM Narendra Damodardas Modi.

Moreover, the Chhatrapati is  much more alive than Ashoka in our culture even to this day. We study about him in our history lessons at school. We watch his persona invoked in Movies and fortunately, India has no lack of historians and novelists who have since long penned countless immortal treatises on Shivaji’s life. He is very well alive in chants and calls of the common people as well as the political parties. The forts he built and the great feats he accomplished are still very alive to this day in the rolling hills of Sahyadri. However, Ashoka, in our Culture is non-existent!

People will argue with me saying that the two can’t be compared at all. Shivaji lived for fewer years, inherited almost nothing and had to build everything himself. However, such is the case with any two comparisons in the world, for no two persons or things ever have the same background. However unfair it is, what should actually matter after their death is the legacy that they created and not what they could have created.

And with all this in mind, we come to our final point, of the statue. What is to be thought of when investing such large amounts in a monument of this scale is the long term goodwill that it will produce. The ROI from Tourism is to be neglected in this. If the government wanted to build a mega-structure for attracting tourists, it was better off building another Burj Khalifa instead. The purpose of a statue of a historical figure is something entirely different and noble.

The purpose of a statue of a historical figure is something entirely different and noble.

When Samrat Ashoka spent millions in those times to create his Inscriptions, Stupas and Caves all over the Subcontinent of which the Junagadh caves were one, he was doing a similar noble investment for future goodwill of the public. It was not a mere PR Exercise. He was already a much-loved ruler. He did it to instill a sense of unity in the people of the Subcontinent. India was not a country then, just a land of fragmented kingdoms, which Ashoka managed to unite under one empire. true, he fought wars to do it, but once it was done, He disbanded the army and ushered in a Golden Era of Eight long decades. The fact that we are a country today, goes in some portions to the acts of this legendary Emperor, of two thousand years ago. Ashoka stood for unity and not for division. He stood for progress and not for war. And above all, he stood for freedom and not slavery.

So what should be the purpose of a 4000 Crore statue? For a country of 1.25 Billion, the purpose can be two-fold. Either the statue can be a symbol of what the country stands for. Like The statue of Liberty in New York which resonates with one of the values over which the US Constitution was written. Or it can stand to inspire the populace to its everlasting persona, in the likes of Christ the Redeemer of Rio.

And that is where a monument of Ashoka could have served both the purposes. An Ashoka Pillar, carved over the Indian Ocean could have stood for the riches of this Country from Ancient times and the bright future that awaits our people. Moreover, it could have invoked in people a realization of our Ancient Heritage and the values of Peace, Technological innovations and Change that Ashoka stood for. Such a statute could awaken the Ashoka hidden deep within each of us. And our Scholars know all this and still, they will choose the statue of Shivaji because it will give them better returns in the next elections.

And that is where, unfortunately, we go wrong. And in the Heavens, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj sheds a tear.