Legendary Ruler

 

About 2200 years ago much of the world was in the grip of absolute rulers. Their armies rampaged across the planet bringing torchure, rape, murder, and mass enslavement wherever they went.

     King Chandragupta conquered all of northern India. His son Bindusara assumed the throne after his death. As Bindusara's own death approached he intended to bequeath his empire to a favored heir and legend has it that another someone who had been rejected by Bindusara was so ruthless in his quest for power that he murdered every one of his 99 half brothers. Dressed in the finery that only an emperor was entitled to wear the hated son stood before his dying father and declared contemptuously and said "I am your successor now !"

Emperor Ashoka

 This was Ashoka and he was getting started. In 2nd Century BCE the Indian Emperor Ashoka initiated a reign of terror known for its new heights of sadism and cruelty. When Ashoka's ministers balked at his command to cut down all the fruit tress surrounding his palace Ashoka said "Fine, we'all cut off your heads instead." His fiendishness knew no bounds. Ashoka built a magnificent palace for his crime commited victims. They did not know until it was too late that deep inside the palace were torchure rooms designed to inflict the five most painful ways to die. It came to be known as Ashoka's Hell. But that was not Ashoka's greatest atrocity. He now set out to complete the conquest of India that his grandfather has begun.

 The nation of Kalinga to the south knew no peace could be made with such a madman. They courageously stood their ground as Ashoka's army besieged the city. When they could bear no more Ashoka sent his troops in for the kill. As Ashoka surveyed his triumph in battlefield there was one who dared to approach him. A fearless beggar who dared to confront Ashoka with his crimes? By asking a life of his dead child during the war.  The exact identity of the beggar is lost to us but we know he is a disciple of Buddha. 

Buddha

Buddha preached non violence, awareness and compassion. His followers renounced wealth to wander the earth spreading Buddha's teachings by their example. With his courage and wisdom he found the heart in a heartless man. Ashoka was never the same. He erected a pillar one of many on the site of his greatest crime. Engraved on it was one of the first edicts of Ashoka.

Ashoka Pillar

 He confessed as "All are my children. I desire for my own children their welfare and happiness, and this I desire for all." It wasn't that Ashoka was violating the laws of kin selection. It was that his definition of who was kin to him had expanded to include everyone. He banned the rituals of animals sacrifice and hunting for sport. He established veterinary hospitals throughout India and he counselled his citizens to be kind to animals. Ashoka saw to it that wells were dug to bring water to the towns and villages. He planted trees and built shelters along the roads of India so that the traveler would always feel welcome and animals would have the mercy of shade. 

Ashoka signed peace treaties with the small neighbouring countries that had once trembled at the mention of his name. He would govern India for another 30 years and he used that time to build schools, universities, hospitals, even hospices. He introduced the education of women and saw no reason why they could not be ordained as monks. He instituted free health Care for all and made sure that the medicines of the time were available to everyone. He decreed that all religions be honored equally. He ordered judicial review of those wrongfully imprisoned or harshly treated.

Temple 

 The temples and palaces of Ashoka's reign and most of the pillars he erected throughout India were destroyed by generations of religious fanatics outraged by what they considered to be his godlessness. But despite their best efforts his legacy lives on. Buddhism became one of the world's most influential religious philosophies. Ashoka's edicts were carved in stone in Aramaic the language of jesus a couple of hundred years before his birth. Ashoka sent Buddhist emissaries to Middle East to teach, compassion, mercy, humility, and the love of peace. From a tyrant ruler to a merciful emperor.