Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
India forgot its greatest emperor
Allen explains that by the nineteenth century, Ashoka had largely disappeared from Indian memory.
His name survived mainly in Buddhist texts from Sri Lanka and elsewhere, while his inscriptions stood unread across the land.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
Inscriptions were a puzzle
Mysterious inscriptions on rocks and pillars had been noticed for centuries, but no one could read their script.
Allen describes how scholars of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta set out to crack the code.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Prinsep cracked the Brahmi script
Allen tells how James Prinsep, working in the 1830s, deciphered the ancient Brahmi script, partly by comparing short donor inscriptions at Sanchi.
This breakthrough allowed the edicts to be read for the first time in many centuries.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
The king called himself Piyadasi
The edicts spoke of a king called Devanampiya Piyadasi, beloved of the gods.
Allen describes the debates over who this ruler was, and how scholars gradually linked him to the Ashoka of Buddhist legend.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
One edict named him clearly
Allen describes the discovery in the early twentieth century of an inscription at Maski that used Ashoka's own name.
This settled the question that Piyadasi and Ashoka were the same emperor.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Legends and evidence differ
Allen compares the Buddhist stories of Ashoka, which portray him as cruel before his conversion, with the edicts themselves.
He shows how historians separate legend from what the inscriptions actually say.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Kalinga led to dhamma
The edicts record Ashoka's regret over the suffering caused by his conquest of Kalinga.
Allen explains how the emperor then promoted dhamma, a moral code of kindness, tolerance and good conduct.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Ashoka became a national symbol
Allen notes how Ashoka's lion capital and wheel were adopted as symbols of independent India.
He reflects on how a rediscovered emperor became central to the new nation's identity. Ashoka's memory was restored at last.
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