Ashoka

The Story

Ashoka ascended the Maurya throne around 268 BCE and, eight years later, launched the war against Kalinga that would change him forever. The campaign was a conquest — but the suffering it caused, with a hundred thousand slain, filled him with anguish, and he vowed that never again would he conquer by the sword.

He embraced Buddhism and the principle of dharma-vijaya — conquest by righteousness. He planted edicts in stone across the empire, in Greek, Aramaic, and Prakrit, urging his people to practise kindness to all beings, respect for parents and teachers, religious tolerance, and the care of animals. He built hospitals, wells, and rest-houses, and sent missions of peace to the Hellenistic kings and to Sri Lanka.

He ruled for nearly four decades, and his empire — stretching from Afghanistan to Bengal — was the largest Bhārat would know until the Mughals. After his death the empire declined, but his message endured: the wheel of his dharma-chakra now adorns the flag of the Republic of India, and his lions crown its emblem.