Known forMauryan emperor
Lifec. 3rd century BCE
RegionPataliputra and the Mauryan Empire
Ashoka inherited and transformed Mauryan power from a political centre at Pataliputra. His inscriptions across the subcontinent offer an unusual record of imperial communication, moral language and governance.
His relationship with Buddhism matters, but it should not flatten the reign into a simple conversion story. War, administration, patronage and the afterlives of his image all belong in the portrait.
Connected subjects