India's greatest ancient emperor was nearly forgotten until his inscriptions were read.
Ashoka ruled most of the Indian subcontinent in the third century BC. After a brutal war he carved messages of remorse and moral conduct into rocks and pillars across his empire. Then his memory faded, until 19th-century scholars deciphered the ancient Brahmi script. His lion capital is now India's national emblem.
Ashoka was the third ruler of the Maurya dynasty, reigning from about 268 BC until his death around 232 BC. His empire stretched from present-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh, with its capital at Pataliputra. His own inscriptions, the Edicts of Ashoka, are the earliest surviving statements of imperial power in the subcontinent, and he used them to promote dhamma, righteous conduct.
The turning point, according to the edicts, came in his eighth regnal year, around 260 BC, when he conquered Kalinga on India's east coast. In one edict he says the slaughter, death and deportation of the people caused him profound sorrow and regret. In the following years he was drawn toward Buddhism, made a pilgrimage to the Bodhi Tree, and his inscriptions record welfare works: medical care for people and animals, medicinal herbs, wells dug and trees planted along roads.
Much of his popular story needs caution. Buddhist legends written centuries later describe him as 'Ashoka the fierce' before his conversion, a cruel prince who, in one account, killed ninety-nine of his half-brothers. Historians suspect these tales were exaggerated to make his transformation seem miraculous. Even his own edicts, the scholar John S. Strong suggests, are best read partly as a politician's image-making. The Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition, meanwhile, has him converting before the Kalinga war and doesn't mention the campaign at all.
After his death, Ashoka's historical reality almost slipped from memory. Only after scholars deciphered the Brahmi script in the 19th century could his inscriptions be read, restoring him as one of India's most important rulers. Today the State Emblem of India is adapted from his Lion Capital, and the Ashoka Chakra, a wheel, sits at the centre of India's national flag. Buddhist traditions also credit him with building many stupas and sending missionaries abroad, helping Buddhism spread across Asia.
Source: Wikipedia — Ashoka · Text summarised from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
