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Ashoka in Ancient India
In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that extends beyond the bounds of Ashoka’s lifetime and dominion.
At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor―a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects.
Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph―a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.”
At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor―a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects.
Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph―a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.”
408 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2015
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About the author
Nayanjot Lahiri
20 books37 followersNayanjot Lahiri is a historian and archaeologist of ancient India and a professor of history at Ashoka University. She was previously on the faculty of the department of history at the University of Delhi
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 18, 2017
If we are asked to name three great Indian emperors of all time, few people would settle at any other combination than Ashoka, Chandragupta II and Akbar. Ashoka is chronologically the first among them. Indian rulers of all times aspired to reflect some aspect of his legacy in their own reign, as he was the founder of a ‘unique political model of humane governance’. Ashoka made discourses with his people in the form of rock edicts scattered all over the country, like some kind of early ‘mann ki bath’. ‘The afterlife of Ashoka, like his real life, is poised between legend and truth’. Nayanjot Lahiri is an eminent historian who has many excellent books to her credit. Lahiri has made a commendable survey of Ashoka as the emperor of India in this book. Devoid of any agenda or political leaning, Lahiri’s works are honest tributes to historical scholarship, as compared to the political manifestos churned out by other reputed authors like Romila Thapar or Irfan Habib.
Lahiri begins with the rationale for yet another book on Ashoka. He had fascinated generations of writers and scholars. The emperor talks to the people through the many rock and pillar edicts distributed across the length and breadth of the land. ‘He did not want to appear to posterity as either recondite or imperious, but instead as a flesh-and-blood ruler guided less by power than compassion’. His renunciation of war at the height of military glory sets him apart from other monarchs. Perhaps this air of edified spirituality endeared him to the later rulers of India. Nehru is said to have identified himself with Ashoka. The national emblem adopted by the newly independent India was the famous Ashokan lion capital at Sarnath. India also adopted the Ashoka Chakra in its flag. The most astonishing fact is that the name of Ashoka had slipped out of the public mind in the subcontinent, as all memory of Ashoka and his edicts was lost in India for some twelve centuries after the visit of Xiunsang, the Chinese pilgrim in the seventh century. People saw these curious inscriptions on rocks in a strange tongue, but remained clueless as to its author. It was the painstaking work of British orientalists in deciphering the stone inscriptions that brought to light the saga of the ancient monarch. This story is told in detail in Charles Allen’s Ashoka – The Search for India’s Lost Emperor. The first modern biography of Ashoka was Vincent Smith’s ‘Asoka – the Buddhist Emperor of India’.
The author narrates the life and times of Ashoka from religious texts like the Ashokavadana, Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa and also from Megasthenes’ Indica, written by a Greek ambassador to Chandragupta’s court (Ashoka’s grandfather). The evidence is patchy and the author has liberally employed her rich imagination to fill up the blanks. The result is a work very much heartening to read. Ashoka’s tenure at Taxila in quelling an insurrection and his stay at Ujjain as the governor of the province are described. Ashoka met a merchant leader’s daughter at Vidisha and two children were born of that dalliance. Even though we would like to think that Ashoka’s polity didn’t discriminate between people of the four varnas, both Mahinda and Sanghamitra didn’t inherit the throne. They were the spiritual heirs of their father and were dispatched to Sri Lanka for missionary work. Ashoka assumed the reins of power after killing his numerous half-brothers. Lahiri wryly remarks that he did much to gain power for which a life of contrition and reflection was necessitated later. He was a Buddhist right from inception on the throne, but his fervor rose as time went on. The battle of Kalinga brought about a transition experience. It was at this time that he employed rocks and pillars to record his proclamations to the people. Ashoka becomes historical and real with these conquests of the mind. Lahiri somewhat justifies the emperor’s military adventures by describing similar expeditions of other world rulers. This is very interesting and informative, but redundant. Kings’ lust for power and aggrandizement can be taken for granted without going to the bother of comparing with others.
The author’s greatest achievement in this text is the illuminating analysis of Ashoka’s edicts that lie scattered over the subcontinent, from Dhauli in Odisha to as far west as Kandahar in Afghanistan. She has travelled to most of the places where the edicts are located and has accorded a vivid description of the lay of the land, the interesting features of the rock and pillars and the meaning of the inscriptions. The narrative assumes the charm of a neatly penned travelogue to those ancient relics. Ashoka had been mindful to inscribe his message to people in hard stone. The maturing of royal philosophy of life is visible from the steady progression of ideas on vegetarianism to morality and support to the Buddhist faith. The first edicts ran from six to twenty-two lines. Later edicts became larger, and a series of messages containing more than a hundred lines are seen. The elaborate carvings extended to multiple rock surfaces as well. The growing confidence of the emperor can be discerned from the standardization of content. One point is to be noted here. The terms ‘major’ and ‘minor’ used to denote the edicts do not imply the size of the rock on which they are inscribed. ‘Major’ denotes the length and content of the message, of which, there are fourteen in number. Meticulous care has been gone into the selection of language and script so as to be intelligible to the people inhabiting the surrounding areas. The language used is Prakrit and script Brahmi for all edicts in the heartland of the empire in present-day India. At the same time, Ashoka was mindful of the influence of foreign languages in his border provinces. This concern is given material form as a bilingual edict near Kandahar. The languages used are Greek and Aramaic and the script Kharoshti. Lahiri notes with approval that the translation was done by capable hands. The interpreter has done a free translation of the message, and the word eusebia is used in place of dharma, which is a tricky word even for modern translators.
Ashoka conceptualizes a rudimentary welfare state, with benevolent concerns for the wellbeing of men as well as animals. This change in administrative policy is suggested to have links with the precepts of Arthashastra, whose composer was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka’s grandfather. His rock edicts range from the ninth regnal year. The first edict was discovered in 1822 at Girnar, followed by a string of new finds. As of now, 50 such edicts have been catalogued, the latest being at Ratanpurwa, Bihar found in 2009. We agree with the author that Ashoka was ahead of his times, but assigning environmental concerns ascribed to the prohibition of killing fish in the period of chaturmasya (July to September) as a kind of wise effort to protect them during their breeding season is a little farfetched.
This book is a fascinating attempt to recreate the life and times of Ashoka, through his epigraphs, archeology and the traditions in and around the places where these were put up and through an imaginative construction of how people in ancient India were likely to have understood these messages. Lahiri’s mastery of literature as well as history is evident in the scholarly quotes from reputed books of history as well as from Shakespeare. A good number of photographs of the edicts and places where they are located are also provided. The book is also graced with a nice index, an impressive bibliography and large number of notes for clarifying the finer nuances in the text.
The book is highly recommended.
Lahiri begins with the rationale for yet another book on Ashoka. He had fascinated generations of writers and scholars. The emperor talks to the people through the many rock and pillar edicts distributed across the length and breadth of the land. ‘He did not want to appear to posterity as either recondite or imperious, but instead as a flesh-and-blood ruler guided less by power than compassion’. His renunciation of war at the height of military glory sets him apart from other monarchs. Perhaps this air of edified spirituality endeared him to the later rulers of India. Nehru is said to have identified himself with Ashoka. The national emblem adopted by the newly independent India was the famous Ashokan lion capital at Sarnath. India also adopted the Ashoka Chakra in its flag. The most astonishing fact is that the name of Ashoka had slipped out of the public mind in the subcontinent, as all memory of Ashoka and his edicts was lost in India for some twelve centuries after the visit of Xiunsang, the Chinese pilgrim in the seventh century. People saw these curious inscriptions on rocks in a strange tongue, but remained clueless as to its author. It was the painstaking work of British orientalists in deciphering the stone inscriptions that brought to light the saga of the ancient monarch. This story is told in detail in Charles Allen’s Ashoka – The Search for India’s Lost Emperor. The first modern biography of Ashoka was Vincent Smith’s ‘Asoka – the Buddhist Emperor of India’.
The author narrates the life and times of Ashoka from religious texts like the Ashokavadana, Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa and also from Megasthenes’ Indica, written by a Greek ambassador to Chandragupta’s court (Ashoka’s grandfather). The evidence is patchy and the author has liberally employed her rich imagination to fill up the blanks. The result is a work very much heartening to read. Ashoka’s tenure at Taxila in quelling an insurrection and his stay at Ujjain as the governor of the province are described. Ashoka met a merchant leader’s daughter at Vidisha and two children were born of that dalliance. Even though we would like to think that Ashoka’s polity didn’t discriminate between people of the four varnas, both Mahinda and Sanghamitra didn’t inherit the throne. They were the spiritual heirs of their father and were dispatched to Sri Lanka for missionary work. Ashoka assumed the reins of power after killing his numerous half-brothers. Lahiri wryly remarks that he did much to gain power for which a life of contrition and reflection was necessitated later. He was a Buddhist right from inception on the throne, but his fervor rose as time went on. The battle of Kalinga brought about a transition experience. It was at this time that he employed rocks and pillars to record his proclamations to the people. Ashoka becomes historical and real with these conquests of the mind. Lahiri somewhat justifies the emperor’s military adventures by describing similar expeditions of other world rulers. This is very interesting and informative, but redundant. Kings’ lust for power and aggrandizement can be taken for granted without going to the bother of comparing with others.
The author’s greatest achievement in this text is the illuminating analysis of Ashoka’s edicts that lie scattered over the subcontinent, from Dhauli in Odisha to as far west as Kandahar in Afghanistan. She has travelled to most of the places where the edicts are located and has accorded a vivid description of the lay of the land, the interesting features of the rock and pillars and the meaning of the inscriptions. The narrative assumes the charm of a neatly penned travelogue to those ancient relics. Ashoka had been mindful to inscribe his message to people in hard stone. The maturing of royal philosophy of life is visible from the steady progression of ideas on vegetarianism to morality and support to the Buddhist faith. The first edicts ran from six to twenty-two lines. Later edicts became larger, and a series of messages containing more than a hundred lines are seen. The elaborate carvings extended to multiple rock surfaces as well. The growing confidence of the emperor can be discerned from the standardization of content. One point is to be noted here. The terms ‘major’ and ‘minor’ used to denote the edicts do not imply the size of the rock on which they are inscribed. ‘Major’ denotes the length and content of the message, of which, there are fourteen in number. Meticulous care has been gone into the selection of language and script so as to be intelligible to the people inhabiting the surrounding areas. The language used is Prakrit and script Brahmi for all edicts in the heartland of the empire in present-day India. At the same time, Ashoka was mindful of the influence of foreign languages in his border provinces. This concern is given material form as a bilingual edict near Kandahar. The languages used are Greek and Aramaic and the script Kharoshti. Lahiri notes with approval that the translation was done by capable hands. The interpreter has done a free translation of the message, and the word eusebia is used in place of dharma, which is a tricky word even for modern translators.
Ashoka conceptualizes a rudimentary welfare state, with benevolent concerns for the wellbeing of men as well as animals. This change in administrative policy is suggested to have links with the precepts of Arthashastra, whose composer was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka’s grandfather. His rock edicts range from the ninth regnal year. The first edict was discovered in 1822 at Girnar, followed by a string of new finds. As of now, 50 such edicts have been catalogued, the latest being at Ratanpurwa, Bihar found in 2009. We agree with the author that Ashoka was ahead of his times, but assigning environmental concerns ascribed to the prohibition of killing fish in the period of chaturmasya (July to September) as a kind of wise effort to protect them during their breeding season is a little farfetched.
This book is a fascinating attempt to recreate the life and times of Ashoka, through his epigraphs, archeology and the traditions in and around the places where these were put up and through an imaginative construction of how people in ancient India were likely to have understood these messages. Lahiri’s mastery of literature as well as history is evident in the scholarly quotes from reputed books of history as well as from Shakespeare. A good number of photographs of the edicts and places where they are located are also provided. The book is also graced with a nice index, an impressive bibliography and large number of notes for clarifying the finer nuances in the text.
The book is highly recommended.
November 8, 2021
Some 2200 years ago this political figure made himself observable through the words that he caused to be inscribed at Erragudi over and above at scores of other places across India and beyond.
His inscriptions symbolize a class of historical daylight, ending a long phase of anonymous rulers.
In approximately 600 BCE, kings emerged out of the dominions of practice to set up and rule over quite a lot of kingdoms stretching from the highlands of the north-west frontier to the lowlands of the Ganges, and southwards across the Vindhya mountains till the Godavari river on the Deccan plateau.
There were influential and not-so- influential sovereigns, aggrandizing monarchs who were aspirants to the designation ‘chief king of all kings’, and prevailing confederate clans.
Over a relatively short period of time—approximately coinciding with the command of Athens in the classical period—a great part of this abundance of political entities was absorbed into a solitary imperial realm.
Centred in Magadha, which was based in the middle Gangetic plains of Bihar, a sequence of kings ruled over this empire with a leg on each side of huge parts of India.
The first of these regal houses was that of the Nandas. They were followed by the Mauryas.
From the 4th century BCE till his advent, there were said to have been 11 such regal monarchs, 9 in the Nanda dynasty, followed by the 2 Maurya kings who preceded him: Chandragupta, founder of the dynasty (his grandfather, who overthrew the Nandas), followed by Bindusara, his father.
He was Ashoka – one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen…..
Recovering Ashoka’s life and times from what has morphed into myth is an exercise in providing him with contextual flesh, and teasing out his individual psychology and personality to the extent possible from what was composed on his orders plus from what is archaeologically foreseeable about the lifeways of the more common people of his time.
The author writes: ‘By peering over the palisades of a Mauryan city, by journeying along the roads that were used by travellers in those times, by studying the art and artefacts made and used by his people, we can imagine the world of Ashoka and understand the character and the challenges of the times in which the life of this emperor unfolded.’
This book is more in the nature of a chronicle around a royal life. It deals with how Ashoka lived and how he ruled, and, above all, what he thought and how he disseminated his ideas.
The author says: “I salvage his persona as much as credibility permits. And my salvage operation is based as much on what he himself articulated as on what came to be preserved in the form of archaeological relics that remain of the environment which shaped his life and times. …”
400 odd pages of bliss, such is the writer's command of language and subject ...
A highly recommended book!!
His inscriptions symbolize a class of historical daylight, ending a long phase of anonymous rulers.
In approximately 600 BCE, kings emerged out of the dominions of practice to set up and rule over quite a lot of kingdoms stretching from the highlands of the north-west frontier to the lowlands of the Ganges, and southwards across the Vindhya mountains till the Godavari river on the Deccan plateau.
There were influential and not-so- influential sovereigns, aggrandizing monarchs who were aspirants to the designation ‘chief king of all kings’, and prevailing confederate clans.
Over a relatively short period of time—approximately coinciding with the command of Athens in the classical period—a great part of this abundance of political entities was absorbed into a solitary imperial realm.
Centred in Magadha, which was based in the middle Gangetic plains of Bihar, a sequence of kings ruled over this empire with a leg on each side of huge parts of India.
The first of these regal houses was that of the Nandas. They were followed by the Mauryas.
From the 4th century BCE till his advent, there were said to have been 11 such regal monarchs, 9 in the Nanda dynasty, followed by the 2 Maurya kings who preceded him: Chandragupta, founder of the dynasty (his grandfather, who overthrew the Nandas), followed by Bindusara, his father.
He was Ashoka – one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen…..
Recovering Ashoka’s life and times from what has morphed into myth is an exercise in providing him with contextual flesh, and teasing out his individual psychology and personality to the extent possible from what was composed on his orders plus from what is archaeologically foreseeable about the lifeways of the more common people of his time.
The author writes: ‘By peering over the palisades of a Mauryan city, by journeying along the roads that were used by travellers in those times, by studying the art and artefacts made and used by his people, we can imagine the world of Ashoka and understand the character and the challenges of the times in which the life of this emperor unfolded.’
This book is more in the nature of a chronicle around a royal life. It deals with how Ashoka lived and how he ruled, and, above all, what he thought and how he disseminated his ideas.
The author says: “I salvage his persona as much as credibility permits. And my salvage operation is based as much on what he himself articulated as on what came to be preserved in the form of archaeological relics that remain of the environment which shaped his life and times. …”
400 odd pages of bliss, such is the writer's command of language and subject ...
A highly recommended book!!
April 18, 2018
There is a voluminous body of scholarship that readers and students can turn to, to learn more about India’s experience under colonialism or its more recent history since the achievement of Independence. Unfortunately, if you have any interest in pre-modern or ancient Indian history, the primary source of such information are highly technical and specialist journals that are not aimed at wider, non-specialist audiences. While things are changing, it remains the fact that there are very few readable and accessible histories of ancient India that readers can turn to today. Seen in this light, N. Lahiri’s ‘Ashoka in Ancient India’ is a highly welcome addition to the scholarship on Ashoka and the Mauryan empire more generally. Lahiri’s study is highly readable and her scholarship is original and persuasive. Lahiri’s excellent account of Ashoka’s edicts and her attempt to understand the man ‘underneath the edicts’ distinguishes her biography from the few existing accounts of Ashoka that are available. There is a particularly insightful section of the book where Lahiri brings attention to what appears to be an increasingly authoritarian streak that emerges in Ashoka’s inscriptional presence. Her finely textured and intricate study of the edicts and the literary accounts of his life helps to bring Ashoka to life and gives readers a tangible sense of what king and kingdom must have been like.
November 14, 2018
We know about the emperor Ashoka only what he wanted us to know through the stone and pillar scribblings that he was so desperate to spread through his kingdom for his people and for people of the future. All these inscriptions on various pieces that have survived the turmoils of time and come down to us, join together and try to weave a story around the valiant emperor, so distinctive of people on his position, that he kept down the sword and picked up peace, trying to transform his people and make them walk on the path of 'Dhamma', a path which sought good of others. Centuries after his death, people sat down with all the stories they have heard about this peace-seeking Buddhist emperor and juxtaposed them into texts, all drawing through same threads yet distinctive of each other. These stories still revolve around and can be heard when a historian tries to look into the past and understand who Ashoka was? A question so full of answers yet empty.
Lahiri's book is a struggle between the contemporary sources and the one that came into being after the emperor. With all that she can put in her hands, she tries to weave a biography of an emperor, who lived 2000 years before her time. An emperor who wrote everything he wanted his people to do and how he was an example of it all, yet remains dumb on how he came into being and how he dies. Who was the real Ashoka? The truth about history is that you can never know it all.
A beautiful book about an audacious ruler, so unknown to us, yet an example of how true leaders should be. This biography is a complete knitten story about a person we can never really know. That is the good and bad thing of history.
Lahiri's book is a struggle between the contemporary sources and the one that came into being after the emperor. With all that she can put in her hands, she tries to weave a biography of an emperor, who lived 2000 years before her time. An emperor who wrote everything he wanted his people to do and how he was an example of it all, yet remains dumb on how he came into being and how he dies. Who was the real Ashoka? The truth about history is that you can never know it all.
A beautiful book about an audacious ruler, so unknown to us, yet an example of how true leaders should be. This biography is a complete knitten story about a person we can never really know. That is the good and bad thing of history.
June 13, 2025
An excellently written, eye-opening study of an incredible historical figure. I loved learning about Ashoka's edicts and patronage of Buddhism, following his conversion from Hinduism and ultra-violent statecraft. I was especially moved by his bans on animal sacrifice, hunting, and fishing!
December 15, 2020
This book somewhat differs from the various other books that have been published on Ashoka over the last few decades. Rather than being a biography of the great king, covering his life and deeds, the author, mainly relying on archaeological evidence, first tries to reconstruct the landscape in which Ashoka would have started his life, and then tries to reconstruct his personality through the plethora of epigraphical evidences he has left behind, namely the Major and Minor Rock Edicts and the pillars. The book ends with an epilogue tracing the legacy that Ashoka has left behind and hsi memory retained in sculpture and literature even many centuries after his death.
May 30, 2021
“Earnestness is the way to immortality, indifference is the way to death; the earnest do not die, the indifferent are like the dead.” Nigrodha (Buddhist) to Emperor Ashoka @ ASHOKA IN ANCIENT INDIA by Nayanjot Lahiri
A well searched and thoroughly crafted biography of the Ashoka ..extensive use of archeological evidences and other available resources to weave the story .. different perspective..a brilliant effort .. unbiased approach. A five star book.
A must read for History students and lovers. For common folks - Ashoka’s life is always fascinating in many ways.. interesting read.
* more of academic read
* please read the notes and references
A well searched and thoroughly crafted biography of the Ashoka ..extensive use of archeological evidences and other available resources to weave the story .. different perspective..a brilliant effort .. unbiased approach. A five star book.
A must read for History students and lovers. For common folks - Ashoka’s life is always fascinating in many ways.. interesting read.
* more of academic read
* please read the notes and references
February 5, 2022
Felt like was reading an investigative report. Historians and archeologists might find it interesting, not for a normal reader. I feel Ashok bankers books on ashoka will give a better glimpse of the man.
March 15, 2020
A must read for Indophiles. Great research. Well told. Riveting.
May 12, 2022
Brilliant.
January 8, 2017
A good insight into the life of Ashoka through his rock and pillar edicts, many of which have survived without much damage over the course of 2200 years. I skimmed parts of the book, as I was not interested in many details, an exciting read nevertheless.
March 2, 2024
Pretty interesting stuff about ancient Indian kingly traditions, helps flesh out the context of Ashoka's life. More than anything though this book demonstrated for me how little we really know about Ashoka beyond what he wrote down. It's all just myths and crumbling monuments
December 28, 2015
Too scholarly for my taste. I made it just over halfway through it in three months.
More on archaeology than on Ashoka.
More on archaeology than on Ashoka.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews