Course description

Ashoka, the Kind King

Although Ashoka the Great died about 2,200 years ago, we can still see his importance everywhere in India. For example, he used a design that is now the national symbol of the country and is on its flag.

Ashoka was probably born around 304 B.C. His father, King Bindusara, did not like him very much because he had a skin problem and was ugly. He often sent him far away from his capital on different jobs but we do not know if that was because he was useful or because the king did not want his ugly son near him. But maybe there was another reason: Ashoka was a cruel and violent man. Everybody was afraid of him. No-one liked the prince.

When Ashoka became king, he made his empire bigger by fighting wars until he ruled over all Northern India from Afghanistan in the West to Bangladesh in the East. He wanted to control all the country, even in the South. For this reason, he decided to fight the Kalinga in Eastern India (now called Orissa). The war was terrible. There were 100,000 dead and 150,000 people were sold as slaves, men, women and children. Even Ashoka was shocked by the blood, the deaths and the deep, deep sadness he caused.

Because of his unhappiness about the war against the Kalinga, Ashoka stopped fighting. He did not attack the kingdoms in the South of the sub-continent, now called Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He also became a Buddhist and made great changes in his land. He did not kill criminals; he built hospitals both for animals and people and gave out free medicine; he stopped the killing of animals and became a vegetarian; and he gave jobs to officers to help needy people, like the elderly, children without parents and the sick. Finally, he planted trees along all the big roads so that travelers could rest under them and eat their fruit when they were tired. Ashoka travelled all over his country – it took him a year – to see his people and understand their lives for himself as well.

The famous writer, H. G. Wells, in his ‘Short History of the World’, wrote about Ashoka: of all the thousands and thousands of kings and queens in world history, “the name of Ashoka shines, and shines almost alone, like a star.”

Many students of history have said that we cannot trust the documents about Ashoka because he wrote many himself, but his name lives even today as an example of kindness and light.

If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.

If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?

Videos:

1. Ashoka the Great – Rise of the Mauryan Empire Documentary (17:51)

2. The Great Ashok – Rise to the Throne (03:54)

3. Kalinga War – Interesting Facts (02:34)

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