Ashoka was also known as Ashoka the great. his full name according to the historical text is Ashoka Maurya. he was born around 304 – 232 BCE. was born in pataliputra which is modern day Patna. Patna comes in Bihar. pataliputra was a city in Magadha empire. he was the third ruler of the Maurya dynasty. his empire covered from present day Afghanistan in the west to the present day Bangladesh in the east. he was the son of the Bindusara. his land had a total range of 5 million square kilometers
the kulinga war was the major factor in his life which turned him away from violence to accepting Buddhism. the Kalinga took place in 262 BCE and ended in 261 BCE. this war was fought with kalinga king. it was a independent kingdom in eastern region, which is located in the present day Odisha. it is taken into account that the battle happened in dhauli. The kalinga was is considered as one of the deadliest battles in the Indian history. its is estimated that nearly 250000 people died in the Kalinga war.
many traditions say that Samrat Ashok was a cruel king before Buddhism. especially said by shri-Lankan and north Indian traditions. he was called by various names as the time went by.At first he was called as kamashoka, as first he spend years in pleasurable pursuits, and as time went on, he was called as Chand Ashoka as he did very evil acts, and as the time went on he was called as dhammahoka, after his conversion to Buddhism. when Kalinga war ended in 261 BCE, he saw that after the war many people lost their loved ones and suffering of people after the war, there he saw a monk who was unaffected by all the destruction of the war. this helped him to become curious about Buddhism and compassion.
it is also mentioned in some texts that he was already a buddhist follower before the kalinga war, it has shown that he had a gradual changes along the years, the main point was after the kalinga war.
The Story of Rebellion at Taxila
The city of Taxila was a famous city, in the maurya empire. it is located in present day Pakistan. Taxila in its time was known as major learn center in india, also known for its culture and trade.
this story of rebellion goes this way – that peoples of Taxila were not happy with the officials of their city, for which they revolted heavily against their officials. When king Bindusara got to know about this problem, and to solve this he sent his son to solve the problem.
his Ashoka, the legend of ashokavadana, also goes this way that the king gave Ashoka the army to go solve problem, but he didn’t gave any weapons. the Ashoka said that if he was a truly worthy of being king the weapons would follow up to their hands, and then gods came from heaven and gave guns to the Ashoka.
when Ashoka reached there, the people of Taxila said to the Ashoka that they were not against the king Bindusara but
they were only against the local officials.
As the story of gods is mythcal in this case, but it also shows that his father might be against him so that he could fail.
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