Thread by @kennethhite

Seeing as nothing much is going on this week, I figured it's a good time for a little story I like to call* KING ASHOKA VS. KILLER BUDDHA ROBOTS

*The 12th-century Burmese monk who wrote it down first** called it "The Tale of Romavisaya"

**That we know of

Our tale starts not with King Ashoka but 200 years earlier in the days of King Ajatashatru who reigned in Pataliputra, the greatest city in the world.

Except it had no robots.

A young craftsman named oh let's call him Vishva wants to change that.

The kingdom of Romavisaya,* far to the west, has ample robots. Their yantakara ("machine-makers") make robots for "commerce, agriculture, capturing, and executions."

*Rome, yup! Although in Ajatashatru and Ashoka's time it should rightfully be "Yavanavisaiya" or Greece.

But the jerk Romavisayans don't share robots, and their yantakara all have to sign a book in Rome each month so they can't stray. If they do try to flee, flying execution robots come kill them.

So Vishva wants to get the secret of Romavisayan robots. But how?

Simple! Vishva kills himself and gets reincarnated as a Roman!

Once in Romavisaya he woos the daughter of the chief yantakara and marries her, and has a son. When his son is grown, he gets her to filch the plans for robots from her father.

And sews them into his leg.

Vishva tells his son "I want to be buried in Pataliputra, the greatest city in the world."*

Then he flees Romavisaya. The flying execution robots catch and kill him. His son collects his body and takes it to Pataliputra.

*The Chicago of its day, with fewer robots

Where (one assumes before burning the body) Vishva's son removes the plans for robots from his father's leg and builds "bhuta vahana yanta" (spirit movement machines) aplenty for King Ajatashatru.

King Ajatashatru, historically*, gets credit for two big things:

1. Expanding the Maghadan kingdom using war machines

2. Building the burial stupa of the Buddha, who probably died during his reign

*Meaning in other legends with fewer robots

Perhaps Vishva's son also designed the mahshilakantaka (catapult) and rathamusala (blade chariot) that King Ajatashatru used in battle.

But he definitely built sword-swinging, whirling, spinning killer robots to guard Buddha's tomb.

200 years pass, and with one thing and another the secret of robots is lost.

King Ashoka converts to Buddhism shortly after killing a zillion people expanding his empire. A question haunts him: What would Buddha want? (Besides "Give the empire back to everyone you just killed.")

The answer comes! Buddha wants Ashoka to build a bunch of Buddhist temple, each with a holy relic!

But the bones and relics of Buddha are all in his tomb, guarded by killbots! What to do?

Ashoka orders the empire searched for a yantakara.

And he finds the weirdly long-lived son of Vishva* who tells King Ashoka the secret of turning off the robots. Or possibly of taking control of them.

*The tale does not say he uploaded his mind into a robot body but then again it doesn't say he didn't

Killbots for King Ashoka! Buddhist relics for all!

Here endeth the lesson.

I stumbled on this while researching HELLENISTIKA in the wonderful book GODS AND ROBOTS by the amazing @amayor and got a little more detail from Pannikar, "An Ancient Buddhist Legend: Romavisaya."

All this stuff, plus Ajatashatru's robot tank, goes into HELLENISTIKA of course.