subscribe
Apple | Spotify | Amazon |iHeart Radio | cast box | Podcast Republic | RSS | Patreon | fluoride | Facebook | IMDB
podcast transcript
Ashoka the Great was remembered for ruling one of the largest empires in ancient history, conquering it through war, and then abandoning conquest itself.
He began as the Mauryan emperor whose armies overthrew the kingdom of Kalinga, but the horror of that victory changed the course of his reign, his empire, and his spread of Buddhism throughout Asia.
His words carved in stone are still spoken of 2,000 years later, and his legacy has influenced modern India.
Learn more about King Ashoka and his legacy in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great planned to conquer India. He sought to overwhelm the Persian Empire and believed that to achieve a state of that size he would have to move further east.
When Alexander advanced into India and ultimately won the Battle of the Hydaspes, the region fell into political turmoil.
Before the invasion, dozens of small kingdoms partitioned northwestern India, and the powerful Nanda Empire ruled the Ganges Valley. After the Macedonian army retreated, political turmoil deepened and northwestern India remained in turmoil.
During these uneasy times, a young warrior named Chandragupta Maurya stepped forward to fill the void. Chandragupta used a combination of political cunning and aggressive military action to defeat the powerful Nanda Empire and unite the divided kingdoms of northwestern India. These achievements culminated in the founding of the Mauryan Empire in 322 BC.
Chandragupta and his successors accepted the Arthashastras. The Arthashastras are a manual of Indian state affairs written by the legendary advisor to Chandragupta of Kautilya. Kautilya’s writings advocated a fierce and uncompromising form of statehood that the Mauryan ruling class adopted as its standard operating procedure.
As the Maurya rulers built empires from the Himalayas to southern India and from the Bay of Bengal to Afghanistan, they needed a clear vision to organize institutions, raise revenue, and establish political legitimacy.
To finance this vast state, the Mauryan rulers created a complex network of roads linking the four provinces of the empire for a unified currency and trade. The Indian Ocean trade network was already thriving, transporting Indian cotton and Southeast Asian spices to the Near East and the Mediterranean.
The internal royal road network facilitated inland trade, but Indian Ocean trade generated the most wealth. Strengthening control over the coastal region therefore became of utmost importance to Asoka, Chandragupta’s grandson and the star of this episode.
Ashoka was the son of Bindusara, the second Mauryan ruler. Ahsoka endured a difficult childhood, but ironically, his name means no sorrow. Ashoka had difficulties with his father because Bindusara preferred his older brother as his successor.
According to legend, Ashoka had a skin condition so severe that others disliked it. Medical historians suggest that he may have suffered from severe plaque psoriasis.
Ashoka used this perceived slight as fuel.
After Bindusara’s death, Ashoka and his older brother Sushma fought a fierce civil war, which ended with Ashoka killing Sushma and ascending the throne.
Ashoka, who came to power probably in his early thirties, followed Maurya’s statecraft, embracing political violence and expecting complete obedience from his subjects.
Initially, Ashoka was a tyrant who used torture excessively. Indian storytellers often relate that Ashoka deliberately built Ashoka’s Hell, a massive torture palace disguised as a beautiful garden.
His stories of fascination with fear and violence earned him the nickname Chandashoka or Ashoka the Fierce.
Ashoka’s main focus was expanding the size and wealth of his empire. These designs led him to the Republic of Kalinga, a seafaring region on the eastern coast of India in the Bengal region. By controlling Kalinga, Ashoka gained control of a major terminus on the Indian Ocean trade route.
Given Kalinga’s proximity to the Spice Islands, control over Kalinga would give Ashoka significant influence and control over the coveted trade route.
In 261 BC, Ashoka launched his invasion of Kalinga. Despite the often inflated battle statistics of the ancient world, Kalinga was a bloodbath.
Estimates of casualties remain remarkably consistent. The Mauryan army killed and wounded more than 100,000 people and exiled 150,000.
Historians believe several factors triggered the high death toll. Kalinga had no separate army or standing army. They had a martial culture similar to Sparta, where everyone in Kalinga belonged to the military.
This brought the largest army in South Asia into conflict with the entire population of Kalinga, pitting professional armies against farmers, merchants and even children.
The Mauryans adopted the all-out war mentality of the Arthashastra. They abandoned traditional norms of war and accepted war as a means of absolute subjugation.
Kalinga’s army was known throughout India for its powerful war elephants, a weapon of great skill against Ashoka. Ashoka’s forces counterattacked with tricks of their own. The Mauryans, famous for their fiery arrows, scared the elephants with fierce fire, causing the elephants to run away and trample the Kalingas.
Local tradition holds that the final and decisive battle took place on the coastal plains near the modern city of Bhubaneswar. The carnage was so great that the blood of the fallen Kalingan defenders literally flowed in red rivers.
In the ancient world, people expected a victorious king to march triumphantly through conquered territories, execute enemy leaders, plunder temples, and celebrate his victory.
But Asoka walked through the battlefield and saw the complete destruction he had caused. He saw thousands of corpses, heard the moans of the dying and the cries of women and children. Ashoka realized that he had caused all this disaster.
As these emotions took hold of him, he felt a constant sadness and realized that the wisdom of Ashushastra could not overcome him. That teaching would have legitimized death and marginalized the costs of conquest.
At this point, he was still Ashoka the Fierce, not Ashoka the Maharaja.
In the aftermath of the battle, he sought salvation elsewhere, experiencing one of the most incredible transformations in world history. Ashoka found refuge in the teachings of Buddha. On the battlefield that day, the ferocious Ashoka died, and in his place a figure who emphasized Zen and Buddhist morality emerged.
Rarely in history has a political leader experienced such complete enlightenment. Perhaps the most popular parallel is the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
Grief and regret did not cause Constantine’s conversion. His supposed sighting of a divine sign in the sky occurred before the battle and served as a tactical rallying cry among his men, many of whom quietly embraced the Christian teachings that were already gaining momentum throughout Rome.
Unlike many rulers who came to such an epiphany and resigned from power in sorrow, Ashoka had only one way forward. In other words, he used the political lessons learned from Ashshastra as a guide to embody kindness and morality.
He officially replaced the ancient imperial doctrine of Digvijaya, or “conquest by military force,” with Dharmavijaya, or “conquest by righteousness.” In a remarkable transformation, Ashoka pledged to conquer through persuasion and example of righteousness.
To implement this new order, Ashoka created a new civil code called Dhamma, based on the Buddhist teachings of Dharma.
The Dhamma was a set of secular teachings applicable to the diverse early Hindu and Jain populations of India. Travelers and merchants from the Hellenistic kingdoms or Western Asia would have recognized these teachings as part of a universal moral code.
Similar approaches to adapting Ashoka’s traditions appeared later in Indian history during the times of Akbar the Great and, most famously, Gandhi.
Ashoka’s attitude towards the values of all religions is clearly evident in the writings of his time. The goal of all religions is enlightenment.
The core tenets of this code were simple. These are absolute non-violence towards all living things, deep tolerance towards all competing spiritual sects, respect for parents, teachers and elders, enormous generosity towards the poor, and humane and dignified treatment of all people regardless of status.
To make this vision a reality, Ashoka created the world’s first welfare system. India during Ashoka’s time was to provide free hospitals for the poor. This was an idea that was thousands of years ahead of its time.
As part of her love for animals and emphasis on kindness, Ashoka established a veterinary facility for all animals. Ashoka’s enlightenment also called for direct support for the poor and hungry.
Ahsoka spoke often about her travels and her desire to help her companions. All men are my children.
To ensure the longevity of his thoughts, Ashoka wanted a permanent reminder of his Dhamma message. Ashoka erected dozens of 50-ton, 50-foot pillars in various parts of India. About 25 of these pillars still remain today. In addition to pillars, scribes inscribed these edicts and regulations on natural features such as rocks and rock cliffs.
Ashoka was not content to confine his message to India. Archaeologists have discovered edicts written in local languages, including Greek and Aramaic, along trade routes leading to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Arthashastra originally called for the use of legal and often extra-legal violence to enforce its edicts. Ashoka followed that blueprint and created the Dhamma Mahamattas, or “executors of righteous law.” These officials served as human rights and ethical observers. Their mission was to ensure that the principles of Dhamma were observed.
Perhaps the most revolutionary component of Ashoka’s platform was the enforcement of these ideals and values regardless of caste, which was a remarkable innovation in India.
Ashoka was a key factor in the transformation of Buddhism from a regional belief system to a universal religion. Through the Mauryan trade routes, Ashoka expanded the influence of his philosophical beliefs.
One example was sending his own children on a historic maritime mission to the Kingdom of Sri Lanka. They traveled by ship from the eastern port of Kalinga carrying a sacred sapling of the original Bodhi Tree, the tree from which the Buddha attained enlightenment.
The law established Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and served as a springboard for its eventual expansion into Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Under Ashoka’s leadership, the Mauryan capital at Pataliputra became a center of Buddhist learning and monasticism.
Emperor Ashoka died around 232 BC after a monumental 40-year reign.
Without his unifying influence, the Mauryan Empire was reduced to a regional state within 50 years, just as it had been before King Ashoka’s accession to the throne.
In modern India, Ashoka has become a powerful national symbol.
After India gained independence in 1947, the new republic adopted the lion capital Ashoka as its national symbol. This sculpture originally stood on top of one of Ashoka’s pillars. It shows four lions standing back to back and symbolizes authority, confidence and moral rule.
The Ashoka Chakra, made up of 24 wheels associated with Dharma, appears at the center of the Indian flag. The wheel suggests law, movement, justice, and moral order.
The use of Ashoka as a national symbol was not accidental, as independent India wanted a symbol that was ancient but not narrowly sectarian. Ashoka presented the ideal model of an Indian emperor associated with unity, ethical government, religious tolerance and peace.
Ashoka’s empire eventually declined, but his legacy endured in a way few conquerors have achieved. He is remembered not only for the territories he ruled, but also for the moral change he advocated after the devastation of Kalinga and his role in spreading Buddhism throughout Asia.
His pillars, edicts and symbols still remind us that, 2,200 years later, power can still be measured not only by conquest but also by attempts to rule with restraint, compassion and conscience.
