Ashoka the Great

Podcast Transcript

Ashoka the Great ruled one of the largest empires in ancient history, conquered through war, and then became remembered for renouncing conquest itself.

He began as a Mauryan emperor whose armies crushed the kingdom of Kalinga, but the horror of that victory changed the course of his reign, his empire, and the spread of Buddhism across Asia.

His words, carved into stone, still speak more than two thousand years later, and his legacy has influenced modern-day India.

Learn more about Ashoka the Great and his legacy on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great had designs on conquering India. He sought to eclipse the Persian Empire, and he believed he had to press farther east to achieve a state of that size.

When Alexander advanced into India and was ultimately victorious at the Battle of the Hydaspes River, the region was thrown into political chaos.

Before the invasion, dozens of small kingdoms divided the Northwest of India, while the powerful Nanda Empire dominated the Ganges Valley. After Macedonian forces retreated, the political disruption intensified, and Northwest India remained in turmoil.

During this period of unrest, a young warrior named Chandragupta Maurya stepped forward to fill the void. By combining political guile with aggressive military action, Chandragupta overcame the mighty Nanda Empire and unified the fractured kingdoms of northwestern India. These achievements culminated in the establishment of the Mauryan Empire in 322 BC.

Chandragupta and his successors embraced the Arthashastras. The Arthashastras were manuals of Indian statecraft written by the legendary advisor of Chandragupta, Kautilya. Kautilya’s writings endorsed a fierce, uncompromising form of statehood that the Mauryan ruling class adopted as standard operating procedure.

The Mauryan rulers established an empire from the Himalayas to Southern India, and from the Bay of Bengal to Afghanistan, so they needed a clear vision to organize institutions, collect revenue, and establish political legitimacy.

To fund this vast state, the Mauryan rulers created a unified currency and a complex network of roads linking the empire’s four provinces for trade. The Indian Ocean trade networks were already flourishing, transporting Indian cotton and Southeast Asian spices to the Near East and the Mediterranean.

The internal royal road network facilitated inland trade, but the Indian Ocean trade generated the most wealth. As such, strengthening control over the coastal region became of primary importance for Chandragupta’s grandson, and the star of this episode, Ashoka.

Ashoka was the son of the second Mauryan ruler, Bindusara. Ashoka endured a challenging childhood, but ironically, his name means one without sorrow. Ashoka struggled with his father because Bindusara preferred his older brothers to succeed him.

Legend also held that Ashoka had a skin condition so severe that it repelled others. Medical historians suggest that he likely had a serious case of plaque psoriasis.

Ashoka used these perceived slights as fuel.

After Bindusara’s death, Ashoka and his older brother Susima fought a fierce civil war, which ended when Ashoka killed Susima and ascended the throne.

After assuming power, likely in his early 30s, Ashoka followed the Mauryan statecraft playbook, embracing political violence and expecting complete obedience from his subjects.

At first, Ashoka was a tyrant who excessively used torture. Indian storytellers often tell of Ashoka’s construction of Ashoka’s Hell, a massive torture palace that he intentionally disguised as a beautiful garden.

Stories of his fascination with horror and violence earned him the nickname Chandashoka, or Ashoka the Fierce.

Ashoka’s primary focus was on expanding the size and wealth of his Empire. These designs led him to the Republic of Kalinga, a seafaring province on India’s Eastern coast in the Bengal Region. Controlling Kalinga gave Ashoka control over a key terminus on the Indian Ocean Trade routes.

Given Kalinga’s proximity to the Spice Islands, control over Kalinga would give Ashoka significant leverage and control over coveted trade routes.

In 261 BC, Ashoka launched his invasion of Kalinga. Even by the often-inflated battle statistics of the Ancient World, Kalinga was a bloodbath.

Estimates of the casualties remain surprisingly consistent. The Mauryan army killed and wounded more than 100,000 and drove 150,000 into exile.

Historians believe that several factors prompted the high death toll. Kalinga did not have a separate military class or a standing army. They possessed a martial culture similar to that of Sparta, in which all the people of Kalinga were part of the military.

This forced the largest army in South Asia to collide with the entire population of Kalinga, pitting professional forces against farmers, merchants, and even children.

The Mauryans employed the total-war mindset of the Arthashastra. They cast aside traditional norms of warfare and embraced war as a means of absolute subjugation.

The forces of Kalinga were known across India for their powerful battle elephants, a weapon they employed with great skill against Ashoka. Ashoka’s forces countered with tricks of their own. Famous for their fire arrows, the Mauryans frightened the elephants with a torrent of fire, leading them to flee and trample the Kalingans.

Local traditions tell us that the final, decisive battle took place on the coastal plains near the modern city of Bhubaneswar. The slaughter was so great that the blood of the fallen Kalingan defenders literally ran the waters of the Daya red.

In the ancient world, people expected a victorious king to march through the conquered territory in triumph, executing enemy leaders, looting temples, and celebrating his victory.

However, as Ashoka strolled through the battlefield, he witnessed the complete devastation he had caused. He saw thousands of corpses, he heard the groans of the dying, and the cries of women and children. Ashoka realized he had caused this entire catastrophe.

As these feelings consumed him, he felt an unrelenting grief and realized that the wisdom of the Arthashastras could not guide him through this. Its teachings would have legitimized the death and marginalized the cost of the conquest.

At this point, he was still Ashoka the Fierce, not Ashoka the Great.

In the aftermath of the battle, he found salvation elsewhere, experiencing one of the most remarkable transformations in world history. Ashoka found refuge in the teachings of the Buddha. On the battlefield that day, the fierce Ashoka died and was replaced by someone who emphasized kindness and Buddhist morality.

History rarely sees a political leader experiencing a complete epiphany like this. The closest popular parallel might be the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Grief and remorse did not cause Constantine’s conversion. His supposed sighting of a sign from God in the sky occurred before the battle and served as a tactical rallying cry among his men, many of whom had already quietly embraced Christian teachings that were gaining momentum throughout Rome.

Unlike many rulers who would have such an epiphany and step down from power out of grief, Ashoka knew only one path forward: to use the political lessons he had learned from the Arthashastras as a guide to implementing kindness and morality.

He officially replaced the ancient imperial doctrine of Digvijaya, or conquest by military force, with Dharmavijaya, which translates to “conquest by righteousness”. In a remarkable transformation, Ashoka pledged to conquer through persuasion and by setting an example of righteousness.

To enforce this new order, Ashoka created a new civil code called Dhamma based on the Buddhist teaching of Dharma.

Dhamma was a secular set of teachings applicable to India’s diverse early Hindu and Jainist populations. Travelers and merchants from Hellenistic kingdoms or Western Asia would recognize these teachings as part of a universal moral code.

Similar approaches to applying Ashoka’s tradition appeared later in Indian history under Akbar the Great and, most famously, under Gandhi.

Ashoka’s attitude towards the value of all religions was clear in the writings of the time, which said that the goal of all religions is enlightenment.

The core tenets of this code were simple: absolute non-violence toward all living things, profound tolerance for all competing spiritual sects, respect for parents, teachers, and elders, immense generosity to the poor, and the humane, dignified treatment of all, regardless of status.

To make this vision a reality, Ashoka created the world’s first welfare system. Ashoka’s India would offer free hospitals for the poor, an idea thousands of years ahead of its time.

As a lover of animals and as part of his emphasis on kindness, Ashoka established veterinary facilities for all animals. Ashoka’s enlightenment also called for direct assistance to the impoverished and hungry.

Ashoka often said of his journey and desire to help his fellow men, All men are my children.

To ensure the endurance of his ideas, Ashoka wanted a permanent reminder of his message of Dhamma. Ashoka erected dozens of 50-ton, 50-foot pillars across various parts of India. Approximately 25 of these pillars still stand today. In addition to the pillars, scribes carved these edicts and codes into natural features such as boulders and rock cliffs.

Ashoka was not content to limit his message to India. Archaeologists have found edicts written in regional languages, including Greek and Aramaic, along trade routes leading towards modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Arthashastra originally called for the commitment of legal and often extralegal violence to enforce its edicts. Ashoka followed that blueprint and created Dhamma Mahamattas, or “officers of the righteous law”. These officials served as human rights and ethical observers; their job was to ensure that the principles of Dhamma were upheld.

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 transforming 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 under which the Buddha attained enlightenment.

That act established Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, which eventually served as a launching pad for the expansion of Buddhism into Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Under Ashoka’s leadership, the Mauryan capital at Pataliputra became a center of Buddhist scholarship and monasticism.

Emperor Ashoka died around 232 BC after a monumental forty-year reign.

Without his unifying influence, the Mauryan Empire was reduced to a regional state within fifty years, as it had been before Ashoka’s ascent.

In modern India, Ashoka became a powerful national symbol.

After India gained independence in 1947, the new republic adopted the Lion Capital of Ashoka as the national emblem. This sculpture originally stood atop one of Ashoka’s pillars. It shows four lions standing back-to-back, symbolizing authority, confidence, and moral rule.

The Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoked wheel associated with Dharma, appears at the center of India’s national flag. The wheel suggests law, motion, righteousness, and moral order.

The use of Ashoka as a national symbol was not accidental, as independent India wanted symbols that were ancient but not narrowly sectarian. Ashoka offered an ideal model: an Indian emperor associated with unity, ethical government, religious tolerance, and peace.

Ashoka’s empire eventually faded, but his legacy endured in ways few conquerors ever achieve. He is remembered not merely for the territory he ruled, but for the moral transformation he claimed after the devastation of Kalinga and his role in spreading Buddhism across Asia.

His pillars, edicts, and symbols still stand as reminders, over 2200 years later, that power can be measured not only by conquest, but also by restraint, compassion, and the attempt to govern with a conscience.