![]() Violent battles raged between Asoka and the robots. #AN ANCIENT AUTOMATON ROAMS THE LAND ANDROID#According to the legend, Asoka had heard the legend of the hidden relics and searched until he discovered the underground chamber guarded by the fierce android warriors. Asoka constructed many stupas to enshrine Buddha’s relics across his vast kingdom. Two centuries after Ajatasatru, Asoka ruled the powerful Mauryan Empire in Pataliputta, 273-232 BC. But the most striking version came by a tangled route to the “ Lokapannatti” of Burma-Pali translations of older, lost Sanskrit texts, only known from Chinese translations, each drawing on earlier oral traditions. In some versions the robots are driven by a water wheel or made by Visvakarman, the Hindu engineer god. Hindu and Buddhist texts describe the automaton warriors whirling like the wind, slashing intruders with swords, recalling Ajatasatru’s war chariots with spinning blades. According to the story, it was foretold that Ajatasatru’s robots would remain on duty until a future king would distribute Buddha’s relics throughout the realm. ![]() In India, automatons or mechanical beings that could move on their own were called “ bhuta vahana yanta,” or “spirit movement machines” in Pali and Sanskrit. But in the legend, Ajatasatru’s guards were extraordinary: they were robots. Traditionally, statues of giant warriors stood on guard near treasures. The king hid them in an underground chamber near his capital, Pataliputta (now Patna). When Buddha died, Ajatasatru was entrusted with defending his precious remains. ![]() Ajatasatru, who reigned from 492 to 460 BC, was recognised for commissioning new military inventions, such as powerful catapults and a mechanised war chariot with whirling blades. The story is set in the time of kings Ajatasatru and Asoka. ![]()
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