the Emperor Ashoka

Who was Ashoka?

Upset with his violent conquests that killed hundreds of thousands, the Indian king Ashoka embraced Buddhism and treated his subjects humanely.

Emperor Ashoka is credited with remaking the Mauyran Dynasty from a war machine into a society of tolerance and nonviolence, based on Buddhism.
Illustration courtesy Private Collection/Dinodia/Bridgeman Images

Chandragupta Maurya’s grandson Ashoka (Aśoka) (ca 304–233 B.C.) took the Mauryan Empire to its greatest geographical extent and its full height of power. Yet his remarkable transformation of the kingdom came not through the intense violence that marked his early reign. Instead, it resulted from his embrace of Buddhism and the messages of tolerance and nonviolence that he spread throughout the sprawling empire.

Eight years after seizing power around 270 B.C., Ashoka led a military campaign to conquer Kalinga, a coastal kingdom in east-central India. The victory left him with a larger domain than that of any of his predecessors. Accounts claim between 100,000 and 300,000 lives were lost during the conquest.

That human toll took a tremendous emotional toll on Ashoka.

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