Nine Unknown Men of Ashoka

We are aware of the 8 jewels in the court of Srikrishnadevaraya. Akbar and Vikramaditya had ‘Navaratna’ – nine gems in their courts. All of that is documented in history. But the secret organization of 9 men built by King Ashoka is not documented anywhere. We can’t say for sure if it was a plain myth or such an attempt was made by the king who was known for his reputation for nation building. Let us look at some information available.

Myth says, these 9 men had responsibilities for developing nine different fields of science and sociology, preserving them, and ensuring they don’t fall into wrong hands. These nine men before their retirement had to pass on their work and responsibilities to the newly recruited men who would remain anonymous and continue their work. It was designed to be secretive and never ending.

Look on the internet, you will find many novels written about these nine men and interestingly most of those authors are non-Indians. There are several videos and short movies made on these nine men asking us to believe that they exist and operate even today.

One of the videos describes the nine streams which the secret organizations worked on were:

1. Propaganda (Including Psychological Warfare)

2. Physiology (Skills like how to kill a person by touching nerve pulse)

3. Microbiology (Developing vaccines)

4. Alchemy (Transmutation of metals)

5. Communication (With other members of space, cosmos)

6. Gravity (Building anti-gravity flying machines)

7. Cosmogony (Secrets of Universe and time travel)

8. Light (Changing speed of light to use it as a weapon)

9. Sociology (Create, nurture, and destroy civilizations)

These nine fields would be of interest to any dictator in today’s world. Most of the scientific research in the modern world is going on in these streams only. We know King Ashoka was ambitious but was it possible for him and his 9 men to have the understanding that these streams would gain prominence with the advancement of civilization?

All of Ashoka’s edicts convey that he was a peace-lover, but they don’t give any clues about his nine men. I went through multiple biographies of Ashoka and the history of contemporary people lived in his time, there are no slightest evidences that he had either dreamed of this secret organization or worked towards it. Well, you can ask if it was meant to be secretive, why would they leave traces of it? Agree, but look at what happened after Ashoka. The Maurya kingdom itself fell soon after the demise of Ashoka. His grandson was the only successor to Ashoka who died in a battlefield and with that most of Ashoka’s work too fell on the wayside. Was it bad luck of these nine men who could not prevent downfall of their master's works? Do you think they tried but failed? Or is it safe to say, they chose to distance themselves but continued their work?

My opinion is, though King Ashoka’s work was admired by most, it is unlikely that he had built such an organization. My heart wishes he had the vision to build such a thing. That would have helped India and the global population advance at a rapid pace and peacefully as well. But the fact is, there are no gatekeepers to science or knowledge of any subject. Looking at how advancement of science has been used for war and destructions, the purpose of nine men and that of Ashoka has been defeated throughout the history which renders that these nine men were nothing but an impressive fiction. Even if they existed, they were not successful in their mission.