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Ashoka
(redirected from Ashoka the Great)

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Ashoka

 or Asoka

(born c. 304—died c. 232 BC) Last major emperor (c. 269–232 BC) of the Mauryan empire in India and a patron of Buddhism. After his bloody conquest of Kalinga in the eighth year of his reign, Ashoka renounced military aggression and resolved to live according to the dharma. He spoke of Buddhism only to fellow Buddhists and adopted a policy of toleration for other religions. He spread Buddhist teachings through inscriptions known as the Rock Edicts and Pillar Edicts. He enjoined officials to be aware of the needs of common people and to dispense justice impartially; dharma ministers were appointed to relieve suffering and look to the special needs of other religions, women, outlying regions, and neighbouring peoples. He erected stupas and monasteries, developed a course of study for adherents, and sent missionaries to Sri Lanka. He is remembered as the ideal Buddhist ruler.



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The festival which spins around the theme of "War to Peace," has an apt venue as it was at the Dhauli hills that the legendary Indian Emperor Ashoka the Great fought his last and most gruesome war before forsaking the battleground forever, converting to Buddhism and turning into an apostle of peace.
Just as Ashoka the Great was not driven by any religious zeal when he painted Kalinga red with the blood of its people, Muslim conquerors were not on a proselytizing mission.
The four-storey pagoda, which is almost four feet high and one-and-a-half feet wide, is thought by archaeologists to be one of the 84,000 pagodas commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha.
 
 
 
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