A shoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya and son of Bindusāra, ascended the Mauryan throne around 268 BCE, inheriting one of the largest empires in South Asian history. Stretching from the mountains of modern-day Afghanistan in the west to the fertile plains of Bengal in the east, and encompassing vast territories in the north and central India, the Mauryan Empire represented an extraordinary feat of political unification and administrative control.

Early sources describe Ashoka as a formidable and ruthless ruler; the Buddhist text Aśokāvadāna refers to him as Chandashoka, meaning “Ashoka the Fierce,” emphasizing the iron hand with which he secured power and subdued rivals. In these formative years, Ashoka’s reign was marked by military conquest, consolidation, and the exercise of a

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