Asoka

c. 302 B.C.-c. 232 B.C.

Indian Emperor

Asoka ruled India's Mauryan Empire at its height, and brought most of the subcontinent under his control, but he was more than a mere conqueror. At the end of a bloodyconquest in the eighth year of his reign, he experienced a religious conversion that led him to dedicate the remainder of his life to doing good for his people. Thereafter he devoted himself to making life better for his subjects, establishing rest stations and other public works projects throughout his realm, and he commanded that his principles of morality be carved onto rocks where his words can still be viewed today.

In 326 B.C., armies under Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) invaded India. They soon left, but the impressive conquests of Alexander inspired a dream in a young Indian monarch named Chandragupta Maurya (r. 324-301 B.C.). Chandragupta ruled over the kingdom of Magadha in eastern India, a place where the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama; 563-483 B.C.) conducted much of his ministry. From his capital at Pataliputra, northwest of modern-day Calcutta, Chandragupta launched his armies, and soon they swept over most of India.

The Mauryan Empire was a splendid and well-organized realm, and Pataliputra was said to be the greatest city of that time. Like most ancient emperors, however, Chandragupta ruled with a fist of iron, maintaining a network of spies and punishing even a hint of rebellion. Yet in an eerie foreshadowing of his grandson's career, Chandragupta stepped down from the throne in 301 B.C. to become a member of the Jain sect, and later died of starvation.

Chandragupta was succeeded by his son Bindusara (d. 270 B.C.), whose wife Subhadrangi bore her husband a son she named Asoka, meaning "I am without sorrow" in Sanskrit. According to legend, Bindusara did not care for his son, yet he apparently trusted him enough to give him the job of suppressing a revolt in the city of Taxila; after that, Asoka became prince over the city of Ujjain, later a great center of scientific study, in west-central India.

It appears that Asoka did not assume the throne until some time after his father's death, and though there was a power struggle, the story that Asoka murdered 99 of his brothers is probably a legend. There are a number of such tales—a tradition known as "Black Asoka"—all intended to convey the fact that Asoka was a ruthless leader prior to his conversion. It appears that Asoka maintained a prison, with an extensive network of torture chambers, for dealing with his enemies. Certainly it is clear that he fought a number of wars, and spilled plenty of blood, in the course of securing his empire. Then, in 262 B.C., the bloodshed became too much for him.

The occasion for this abrupt about-face was his victory over the Kalinga people of southeastern India. In the course of the campaign, his troops captured more than 150,000 people, and killed many times more, either directly or as a result of the general havoc created by the war. "Just after the taking of Kalinga," according to one of the many inscriptions he left behind, "His Sacred Majesty began to follow Righteousness, to love Righteousness, to give instruction in Righteousness."

His statement regarding his conversion comes from one of the 35 inscriptions that Asoka put in various places around India beginning in 260 B.C. Some of these edicts, or statements, were carved into rocks in high places; others on man-made pillars. Hence they are referred to either as rock edicts or pillar edicts. Though he never identified the "righteousness" by name, it appears reasonably certain that Asoka adopted Buddhism. However, the inscriptions speak of morality in broad terms, and make no mention of certain key Buddhist concepts. It is possible, therefore, that what Asoka embraced was a mixture of Buddhism and a "universal religion," or a belief that all people who worship with sincerity worship the same god.

Whatever the faith, Asoka set out to conquer the world with it, as he had once conquered with the sword. He sent missionaries to bring his message to far-flung places, including Egypt and Greece. Though Buddhism never took hold in those countries, it did spread to the island of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), where it replaced Hinduism as the dominant religion.

In 257 B.C. Asoka appointed officials to a position whose name is translated as "inspectors of morality," charging them with distribution of gifts to the poor, and with ensuring that his people treated each other with kindness. He devoted much of his time to traveling around the country, and even oversaw the planting of trees to provide travelers with a shady place torest.

At some point in the 230s B.C., officials in his court—perhaps taking advantage of the fact that Asoka was consumed with humanitarian concerns—managed to gain influence over his grandson Samprati, who Asoka had picked as his successor. Apparently Samprati forced his grandfather into virtual exile within the palace, and in his latter days Asoka lived on a meager ration of food. It was an unfortunate end to a reign that had brought an unprecedented degree of justice and humanitarian concern to one of the ancient world's greatest empires.

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