Ashoka

Please see Ashoka (disambiguation) for other uses of the word Ashoka

Death and legacy

Emperor Ashoka ruled for an estimated forty years, and after his death, the Maurya dynasty lasted just fifty more years. Ashoka had many wives and children, but their names are lost to time. Mahinda and Sanghamitta were twins born by his first wife, Devi, in the city of Ujjain. He had entrusted to them the job of making his state religion, Buddhism, more popular across the known and the unknown world. Mahinda and Sanghamitta went into Sri Lanka and converted the King, the Queen and their people to Buddhism. So they were naturally not the ones handling state affairs after him. Some rare records speak of a successor of Ashoka named Kunal, who was his son from his last wife. But his rule did not last long after Ashoka's death.

Related Topics:
Mahinda - Sanghamitta - Devi - Ujjain - Sri Lanka - Kunal

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The reign of Emperor Ashoka Maurya could easily have disappeared into history as the ages passed by, and would have, if he had not left behind a record of his trials. The testimony of this wise king was discovered in the form of magnificently sculpted pillars and boulders with a variety of actions and teachings he wished to be published etched into the stone. What Ashoka left behind was the first written language in India since the ancient city of Harappa. Rather than Sanskrit, the language used for inscription was the current spoken form called Prakrit.

Related Topics:
Harappa - Prakrit

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In the year 185 BC, about fifty years after Ashoka's death, the last Mauryan ruler, Brhadrata, was brutally murdered by the then commander-in-chief of the Mauryan armed forces, Pusyamitra Sunga, while he was taking the Guard of Honour of his forces. Pusyamitra Sunga founded the Sunga dynasty (185 BC-78 BC) and ruled just a fragmented part of the Mauryan Empire.

Related Topics:
185 BC - Brhadrata - Pusyamitra Sunga - Sunga dynasty - 78 BC

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Not until some 2,000 years later under Akbar the Great and his great-grandson Aurangzeb would as large a portion of the subcontinent as that ruled by Ashoka again be united under a single ruler. When India gained independence from the British Empire it adopted Ashoka's emblem for its own, placing the dharma wheel that crowned his many columns on the flag of the newly independent state.

Related Topics:
Akbar the Great - Aurangzeb - Subcontinent - British Empire - Dharma wheel - Flag

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