If you look at the flag of modern day India
or the money changing hands between modern day Indians you may be surprised to discover
that they have a link to an Emperor that reigned more than 2000 years ago. This wheel and these lions are symbols of
Ashoka the Great, a man that shares his title with Alexander, Charlemagne, and K’inich….K’inich
Janaab…...Pakal the Great. But he isn’t remember for his glorious conquests
but rather for turning to the path of peace when violence probably would have served him
better. He is one of if not the only powerful ruler
in world history that tried to conquer by way of morality, and his giant stone pillars,
once lost to the sands of time, but now raised again from the Earth tell the story of a complicated
man, once bloodthirsty and then tranquil. A man that transformed Buddhism from a small
philosophical sect into a global religion. But could his entire legacy be made up? Ancient propaganda still working today. We’ll look at all of this and more on this
double episode on the life and legacy of Ashoka the Great. Before Ashoka was his grandfather Chandragupta,
a man that rose up from humble origins as a shepherd and overthrew the Nanda Empire
with the help of his tutor and advisor Chanakya. He set up the Maurya Empire, which under his
rule expanded over most of modern day India. Chandragupta expanded in the territory that
was only just recently conquered by Alexander the Great and then solidified this conquest
by defeating one of Alexander’s successor, Seleucus, in war. Having established one of the greatest empires
in Asian and World history, Chandragupta decided to renounce it all and spend the end of his
life as a Jain monk, or so says the Jain legend. His son Bindusara inherited an empire that
stretched from Persia to Bengal and Bindusara probably has one of history’s oddest origin
stories. According to Buddhist legend, one of Chandragupta’s
wives was 7 days away from giving birth. Alongside this event Chanakya had kindly been
putting small amounts of poison in Chandragupta's food. So that he would develop a tolerance. Chandragupta, unaware of this, shares some
of his meal with his wife. Just as she puts the food in her mouth Chanakya
enters the room and sees the disaster taking place. Knowing that she would die Chanakya without
missing a beat, chops off her head and performs and emergency C-Section to save the heir. Proving to the world that Chanakya is clearly
the most metal advisor of all time. Child in hand Chanakya notices that it needs
a few more days of cooking and so he slaughters a goat every day and places the child inside
of it for 7 days. The child is then “born” and named Bindusara
the word for spotted because he was covered in spots of goat’s blood. Now that story is almost completely irrelevant
to the tale at hand. But I couldn’t let you continue to exist
not knowing it. Like many Indian Emperors and Goats, Bindusara,
had many different kids with many different women. Among them was Ashoka. We are told that his mother was not very high
on the imperial food chain and so Ashoka, one of the youngest of around 100 brothers,
wasn’t paid any special attention. The fact that he had a weird pumpkin head,
a fiery temper, and some strange skin disease didn’t warm his father much too him either. But as a son of the Emperor he received a
princely education and soon stood out amongst his brothers. Bindusara had no time for this exceptional
son of his. He had already decided that his son Sushima
was to be his to be his heir and competition was not welcome. Ashoka was sent away to put down rebellions
on the fringes of the Empire in order to keep him away from court so he couldn’t build
connections with an scheming ministers. After excelling at crushing revolts, Ashoka
was stationed as governor of Ujjain, far from the Imperial Capital at Paliputra. These efforts to stunt his son’s promise
proved fruitless, as on Bindusara’s death in 272 BC Ashoka rushed to the capital and
seized the throne for himself and won the support of his father’s ministers who found
Sushima to be too disrespectful. Sushima, deprived of his royal inheritance
and disliked by the men that once served his father soon faced the wrath of Ashoka. He was burned alive in a pit of coals. This may be myth, but what we know for certain
is that a bloody civil war kicked off as Ashoka slaughtered all remaining claimants to the
throne in a violent 4 years of chaos. His shrewdness and ruthlessness won him an
Empire and he crowned himself in 269 BC. All dissent was crushed, opposition swept
aside, and rebels imprisoned all of which earned him the name Ashoka the Fierce. Even though he ruled the largest Empire in
Indian history, Ashoka grew frustrated at the existence of an independent kingdom just
south of his capital, the Kingdom of Kalinga. God, that's a fun name to say. Kalinga was a prosperous state with far reaching
trade connections, rich ports, and a strong navy. This alongside the fact that even his brilliant
grandfather, Chandragupta, could not conquer it, made Kalinga an irresistible prize for
Ashoka the Fierce. Soldiers were readied, spears sharpened, elephants
captured and trained. In the 9th year of his reign, 261 BC, the
campaign commenced. The Kalingans had a impressive army and offered
stiff resistance, on the banks of the Daya river, tens of thousands of soldiers smashed
against one another, swords clashed against armour, thousands of horse hoofs beat the
Earth kicking up dust breaking spears and helmet underfoot, as elephants charging through
lines of panicked men caused chaos and madness, their roars drowned by the cacophony of battle
noises. Ashoka, in the thick of the mayhem, struck
down Kalingan after Kalingan with his signature brutality. As the hours dripped by the corpses of man
and beast began to pile upon each other. The Kalingans were crushed, 100,000 men dead. 150,000 taken as prisoners and there on the
battlefield the victorious Ashoka walked among the corpses, the death caused by his order. Entering the city he watched as orphans and
women wept, as families frantically tried to salvage what was left, and countless innocents
now destitute. Kalinga was crushed, and as his men praised
their great conquering emperor, Ashoka thought to himself “If this is victory, what then
is defeat” Join me on the next episode where we’ll
see Ashoka transform into the man that Orson Welles claimed shinned alone like a star in
history and examine whether any
of it is true.
