Ashoka the great

Everyone knows Alexander the great for his wars and the extent of land he had conquered. Ashoka on the other hand was a very different person. Ashoka was the third Mauryan emperor. His reign was from 268 to 238 B.C.  His capital was so beautiful that Megasthenes, the greek ambassador to the Mauryan court said that, no such place can be compared to its beauty and the great greek cities humbled before its magnificence.  He ruled the whole of India and also the parts of present day Pakistan. He defeated some of the Alexander’s successors and killed them. He was a cruel man. He constantly tested the loyalty of his ministers and killed anyone, he doubted. He fought many fierce battles and was ruthless. He even built a torture chamber called “Paradise of Hell” to torture anyone and everyone, he disliked or who opposed him.

There was a small kingdom called “Kalinga” to the east of his empire. He wanted to annex that small kingdom to his empire. He waged a war against them. The people of Kalinga were very proud people. They did not want to lose their independence. Everyone in the empire fought, men and women alike. Young kids were sent to the battlefield and even they died. At the end of the war, Ashoka won the battle. But, all he was left to rule were dead bodies. There was no living soul in Kalinga after the battle.

This was when Ashoka realized that all these deaths were for no good reason. He cried in the battlefield. As he moved into the city he saw how barren it looked without anyone living there. There he met a Buddhist monk, who advised him to give up his pleasure of killing people and adopt non-violence. Ashoka converted to Buddhism, he built Buddhist stupa’s all over the country. He built roads, planted trees, helped the poor, etc. He sent his son and daughter to spread Buddhism to the world. He sent his daughter to Sri Lanka, while his son to China, Japan,etc. After the battle of Kalinga, he did not fight a single battle. He closed down his “Paradise of Hell” and died a peaceful man. This transformation in him resulted in everyone calling him Ashoka the great.