Ashoka the Great

(noun)

Lived 304-232 BCE. As the king of the Maurya Empire, he conquered the Indian subcontinent.

Related Terms

Examples of Ashoka the Great in the following topics:

  • Expansion of the Maurya Empire

    • After winning the Seleucid-Mauryan war, the Maurya Empire expanded into the southern Indian subcontinent under the rule of Ashoka the Great.
    • In 305 BCE, Emperor Chandragupta Maurya led a series of campaigns to retake the satrapies left behind by Alexander the Great when he returned westward.
    • Bindusara died in 272 BCE, and was succeeded by his son, Ashoka the Great (304-232 BCE).
    • One notable stupas created during the reign of Ashoka was The Great Stupa, which stands in Sanchi, India.
    • Ashoka the Great extended into Kalinga during the Kalinga War c. 265 BCE, and established superiority over the southern kingdoms.

  • Ashoka's Conversion

    • Edict 13 on the Edicts of Ashoka Rock Inscriptions reflect the great remorse the king felt after observing the destruction of Kalinga:
    • The use of Buddhist sources in reconstructing the life of Ashoka has had a strong influence on perceptions of Ashoka, as well as the interpretations of his Edicts.
    • It thereby illuminates Ashoka as more humanly ambitious and passionate, with both greatness and flaws.
    • Great Stupa (3rd century BC), Sanchi, India.
    • Ashoka ordered the construction of 84,000 stupas to house the Buddhas relics.

  • Decline of the Maurya Empire

    • The Sunga Dynasty usurped the Maurya Dynasty, and parts of the empire were incorporated into the Indo-Greek Kingdom.
    • A 50-year succession of weak kings followed the reign of Ashoka the Great, the Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who died in 232 BCE.
    • As Ashoka's highly centralized government lost power, the Maurya Empire lost control over its territories.
    • Buddhist sources, such as the Ashokavadana, an Indian Sanskrit text describing the birth and reign of Ashoka the Great, mention that Pusyamitra was hostile towards Buddhists and allegedly persecuted members of the Buddhist faith.
    • Throughout the first century BCE, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground to the Indians in the East, and the Scythians, the Yuezhi, and the Parthians in the West.

  • Centralization in the Maurya Empire

    • This led to a war of succession in which Bindusara’s son, Ashoka, defeated his brother, Susima, and rose to the throne in 268 BCE, eventually becoming the greatest ruler of the Maurya Dynasty.
    • Although Emperor Ashoka renounced offensive warfare and expansionism, he maintained this standing army to protect the empire from external threats and maintain stability and peace across Western and Southern Asia.
    • The Edicts of Ashoka, a collection of inscriptions made during Ashoka’s reign from 268-232 BCE, give the names of the Maurya Empire’s four provincial capitals: Tosali in the east, Ujjain in the west, Suvarnagiri in the south, and Taxila in the north.
    • Like his father and grandfather, Ashoka sponsored the construction of thousands of roads, waterways, canals, rest houses, hospitals, and other types of infrastructure.
    • Under the Indo-Greek friendship treaty during Ashoka's reign, the Mauryan international network of trade saw great expansion.

  • Buddhism

    • He taught what he called the Middle Way or Middle Path, the character of the Noble Eightfold Path.
    • It marks the release from the cycle of rebirths, known in the Sramana tradition as samsara.
    • Another important Buddhist concept is Bodhisattva, a Sanskrit word for anyone who has been motivated by great compassion and a wish to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings—those who have a conscious awareness of the self but are in contrast with buddhahood.
    • Buddhism was overshadowed by the more dominant Hindu religion, but this began to change in the 3rd century BCE; this was when one of the Indian subcontinent’s great rulers, Ashoka I of the Maurya Empire, renounced wars, despite having waged war to build his own kingdom.
    • Ashoka promoted the religion’s expansion by deploying monks to spread Buddha’s teaching.

  • Rise of the Maurya Empire

    • The empire was the largest to have ever existed in the Indian subcontinent, spanning over 5 million square kilometres at its zenith under Ashoka.
    • His expansion took advantage of the disruptions of local powers in the wake of the withdrawal westward by Alexander the Great's armies.
    • It declined for about 50 years after Ashoka's rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga Dynasty in Magadha.
    • The rulers of this dynasty were famed for the great wealth that they accumulated.
    • He rapidly expanded his power westward across central and western India, taking advantage of the disruptions of local powers in the wake of the withdrawal westward by Alexander the Great's Greek armies.

  • The Great Uprising of 1857

  • Great Zimbabwe

    • Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the southeastern hills of today's Zimbabwe.
    • The exact identity of the Great Zimbabwe builders is at present unknown.
    • The Great Zimbabwe people mined minerals like gold, copper, and iron.
    • They are known as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure.
    • Explain the social structure, unique aspects, and decline of Great Zimbabwe

  • The Achaemenid Empire

    • Under Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, the Achaemenid Empire became the first global empire.
    • The Achaemenid Empire, c. 550-330 BCE, or First Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great, in Western and Central Asia.
    • Around 550 BCE, Cyrus II of Persia, who became known as Cyrus the Great, rose in rebellion against the Median Empire, eventually conquering the Medes to create the first Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire.
    • Between c. 500-400 BCE, Darius the Great and his son, Xerxe I, ruled the Persian Plateau and all of the territories formerly held by the Assyrian Empire, including Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Cyprus.
    • Cyrus II of Persia, better known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.

  • Defeat of Persia by Alexander the Great

    • Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BCE to form the largest empire in the ancient world.
    • The Persians and the Greeks had been warring for hundreds of years before Alexander the Great moved to conquer Persia.
    • Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) was a king of the Greek kingdom of Macedon.
    • Mosaic representing the battle of Alexander the Great against Darius (III) the Great, possibly at Battle of Issus or Battle of Gaugamela, perhaps after an earlier Greek painting of Philoxenus of Eretria.
    • Explain Alexander the Great's defeat of the Persiand and the dissolution of the Achaemenid Empire thereafter