Patrick Olivelle’s new book, Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King, on the Mauryan emperor views him purely as a historical figure, without the myths – using only the ancient emperor’s own ...

The average Indian probably encounters, in an indirect way, one of ancient India’s greatest rulers several times a day in the chakra that adorns the Tricolour as well as the four-lion National Emblem ...

Ashoka Vardhana, the third Mauryan emperor (the first great unified empire of India), has gone down in history for converting to Buddhism after witnessing the massacres resulting from the campaign he ...

Regarding Maxwell Carter’s review of “Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King” by Patrick Olivelle (Books, Jan. 27): One can be benign only if one has the choice to be ruthless. One can be credited for ...

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Rachael Kohn: His symbol is featured on the Indian flag, but King Asoka was a Hindu who converted to ...

Among the historical figures of ancient India, King Ashoka towers above all the others, both for his might in his own time and the extent of his stamp on history. Not only did Ashoka establish the ...