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Emperor Ashoka is often revered in Indian and global history as a leader who changed course during his reign and supported humanity.

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Emperor Ashoka inherited power from his father and grandfather, becoming the third Mauryan emperor of Maghada. His early career followed the path of his ancestors and was marked by violent conquest, namely of the region of Kalinga. He felt intense guilt and remorse after his conquest and turned to Buddhism to right his past.

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Emperor Ashoka created 33 edicts that showed humanity and great Buddhist influence. His edicts cared for the commoner, showing compassion and peace.

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One of Ashoka's legacies is the spread of Buddhism across India, as well as the acceptance of practicing different religions in the region.

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Emperor Ashoka's grandfather, conqueror Chandragupta Maurya, expanded the land of the Maghada Empire through conquest and consolidated power.

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Bindusara was Emperor Ashoka's father. He was the second Mauryan emperor of Maghada, an empire of ancient India. He unified the lands conquered under his father, Chandragupta Maurya.

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Ashoka, (died 238? bce, India), last major emperor of the Mauryan dynasty of India. His vigorous patronage of Buddhism during his reign (c. 265-238 ; also given as c. 273-232 bce) furthered the expansion of that religion throughout India. Following his successful but bloody conquest of the Kalinga country on the east coast, Ashoka renounced armed conquest and adopted a policy that he called "conquest by dharma " (i.e., by principles of right life).

In order to gain wide publicity for his teachings and his work, Ashoka made them known by means of oral announcements and by engravings on rocks and pillars at suitable sites. These inscriptions-the rock edicts and pillar edicts (e.g., the lion capital of the pillar found at Sarnath, which has become India's national emblem), mostly dated in various years of his reign-contain statements regarding his thoughts and actions and provide information on his life and acts. His utterances rang of frankness and sincerity.

According to his own accounts, Ashoka conquered the Kalinga country (modern Orissa state) in the eighth year of his reign. The sufferings that the war inflicted on the defeated people moved him to such remorse that he renounced armed conquests. It was at this time that he came in touch with Buddhism and adopted it. Under its influence and prompted by his own dynamic temperament, he resolved to live according to, and preach, the dharma and to serve his subjects and all humanity.

Ashoka repeatedly declared that he understood dharma to be the energetic practice of the sociomoral virtues of honesty, truthfulness, compassion, mercifulness, benevolence, nonviolence, considerate behaviour toward all, "little sin and many good deeds," nonextravagance, nonacquisitiveness, and noninjury to animals. He spoke of no particular mode of religious creed or worship, nor of any philosophical doctrines. He spoke of Buddhism only to his coreligionists and not to others.

Toward all religious sects he adopted a policy of respect and guaranteed them full freedom to live according to their own principles, but he also urged them to exert themselves for the "increase of their inner worthiness." Moreover, he exhorted them to respect the creeds of others, praise the good points of others, and refrain from vehement adverse criticism of the viewpoints of others.

To practice the dharma actively, Ashoka went out on periodic tours preaching the dharma to the rural people and relieving their sufferings. He ordered his high officials to do the same, in addition to attending to their normal duties; he exhorted administrative officers to be constantly aware of the joys and sorrows of the common folk and to be prompt and impartial in dispensing justice. A special class of high officers, designated "dharma ministers," was appointed to foster dharma work by the public, relieve suffering wherever found, and look to the special needs of women, of people inhabiting outlying regions, of neighbouring peoples, and of various religious communities. It was ordered that matters concerning public welfare were to be reported to him at all times. The only glory he sought, he said, was for having led his people along the path of dharma. No doubts are left in the minds of readers of his inscriptions regarding his earnest zeal for serving his subjects. More success was attained in his work, he said, by reasoning with people than by issuing commands.

Among his works of public utility were the founding of hospitals for people and animals, the planting of roadside trees and groves, the digging of wells, and the construction of watering sheds and rest houses. Orders were also issued for curbing public laxities and preventing cruelty to animals. With the death of Ashoka, the Mauryan empire disintegrated and his work was discontinued. His memory survives for what he attempted to achieve and the high ideals he held before himself.

Most enduring were Ashoka's services to Buddhism. He built a number of stupas (commemorative burial mounds) and monasteries and erected pillars on which he ordered inscribed his understanding of religious doctrines. He took strong measures to suppress schisms within the sangha (the Buddhist religious community) and prescribed a course of scriptural studies for adherents. The Sinhalese chronicle Mahavamsa says that when the order decided to send preaching missions abroad, Ashoka helped them enthusiastically and sent his own son and daughter as missionaries to Sri Lanka. It is as a result of Ashoka's patronage that Buddhism, which until then was a small sect confined to particular localities, spread throughout India and subsequently beyond the frontiers of the country.

A sample quotation that illustrates the spirit that guided Ashoka is:

All men are my children. As for my own children I desire that they may be provided with all the welfare and happiness of this world and of the next, so do I desire for all men as well.

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Ashoka | Biography, History, Religion, India, & Buddhism

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Ashoka, last major emperor in the Mauryan dynasty of India. His vigorous patronage of Buddhism during his reign furthered the expansion of that religion throughout India. Following his conquest of the Kalinga country, he renounced armed conquest and adopted a policy that he called 'conquest by dharma.'

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Another legacy left by Ashoka is the idea that good leaders reflect, change their minds, make amends, and care for their people.

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Ashoka the Great - Kings of India | History for Kids | Educational Videos by Mocomi

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Even today, leaders have turned to Ashoka as a role model in how to lead. Prime Minister Nehru praised Asoka and in the 21st century, politicians look to leaders who put their people first and other pride aside.

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WASHINGTON: Just as a mug of strong coffee is leavened with milk, so must strong governance be moderated by a sound system of ethics. Heard that before? Well, it goes a long way back, in fact to Emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BCE.
No, Ashoka did not wake up to the smell of coffee in those days. But he deserves the title 'great' more than the conqueror who came up to the River Jhelum just before Ashoka's grandfather, Chandragupta, established the Maurya dynasty in Pataliputra.

In any review in line with today's values, Alexander and his father Philip of Macedon were brigands; Ashoka was one of the world's earliest known enlightened rulers.
It's a pity that Ashoka's historical profile is globally far less prominent than that of Alexander. We in India grew up learning about his magnanimity and that of other enlightened rulers such as Harsha Vardhana and Emperor Akbar. In the West, the wisdom of these rare men is unknown to most schoolchildren. Lately, however, a few intellectuals have begun to draw attention to them, particularly to Ashoka.
Apart from Amartya Sen's many writings on the subject, references to the governance style of Ashoka appear in a number of recent books and essays. For instance, in his book The Rational Optimist (Harper Collins, 2010) Matt Ridley, a writer on evolutionary thought and an open market enthusiast, applauds Ashoka's opening up the Mauryan economy, efficient tax administration and building of solid infrastructure to facilitate trade. Bruce Rich, environmentalist and left-leaning critic of globalisation, has republished his 2008 book To Uphold The World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India (Beacon, 2010), which is all about Ashoka.

Third in the line of Mauryan emperors, Ashoka inherited a system of governance fashioned by Chandragupta acting on the advice of Kautilya, the brilliant writer of Arthasastra, the world's first treatise on political economy and statecraft. Kautilya emphasised the building and smooth functioning of institutions based on his clear conviction that people would behave well only through a combination of restraint, punishment as well as well-devised incentives. Ashoka added an ethical dimension.

Rich says that the emperor relied substantially on the Kautilyan system but went beyond by infusing it with a different ethic. Ashoka's core doctrine was a reverence for life, which went beyond the role of just treatment by human beings of one another because "reverence for life means upholding the world".
Writes Sen, in a foreword to Rich's volume, that an "underlying concept of fairness is based on Ashoka's basic belief, influenced by his conversion to Buddhism, in the fundamental value of all life. It is a shared reverence for life that can, according to this approach, make everyone behave spontaneously in a responsible and considerate way, without the compulsion of forced good behaviour."
In other words, Ashoka's idea of good governance rested on a strong institutional framework of Kautilyan political economy but was well-tempered by a sense of fair play, justice and human rights. Which is what liberal democracy today is all about.
Twenty-two and a half centuries down the road, we are still working on how to strike a right balance between enabling justice and rights on one hand and strong institutional functioning of the state on the other to ensure good governance. India's modern administrators seem to be supervising a degenerating quasi-imperial model of governance which was well suited to optimise revenue extraction and keep unruly subjects on leash, while opposition to such haughty rule is stuck in a stale mode of hartals and burning of public property, idiotic fasts and effete walkouts.
Perhaps a process of rediscovery is due. Maybe a young set of leaders will rise who will read the humanitarian edicts of Ashoka and study the astute advice of Kautilya on the ins and outs of good governance while preparing to accept positions of public responsibility. They could do well to remember that one old leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, revered Ashoka and thought Kautilya was much cleverer than Machiavelli.
Maybe they will, like Ashoka, realise with humility that governance today is not rule by the mighty in democratic garb. It is learning how to be servants of the people.

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Rediscovering Emperor Ashoka - Times of India

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Home News: Just as a mug of strong coffee is leavened with milk, so must strong governance be moderated by a sound system of ethics.