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Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition

Asoka

by Cynthia Keppley Mahmood

Identification: Early Indian emperor

Born: c. 302 bce, India

Died: c. 230 bce, India

Type of ethics: Religious ethics

Significance: Asoka unified India and promoted the spread of Buddhism. He redefined Buddhist ethics as they relate to statecraft.

The emperor of India from approximately 270 to 230 bce, Asoka is known to posterity through the rock and pillar inscriptions that he left across the Indian subcontinent and through various Buddhist chronicles. Asoka, who was the grandson of Chandragupta, was the third monarch of the Maurya Dynasty. From his capital at Pataliputra (modern Patna), he governed the largest Indian empire that had existed up to that time.

Asoka converted to Buddhism after a particularly bloody campaign to win the territory of Kalinga (modern Orissa). He is said to have been so distraught over the sufferings caused by war that he renounced violence as a tool of statecraft. The central concept in his political philosophy was dhamma (Pali; Sanskrit, dharma), a Buddhist and Hindu concept that, in one of its meanings, referred to a kind of civic morality.

Asokan reforms, which have been valorized by Buddhists throughout history, included social services such as free medical aid and the development of rest houses for travelers. He also promoted vegetarianism, enacting laws that restricted animal sacrifices and limited butchering and hunting.

Although Asoka was said to have given up military imperialism, the expansion of his influence continued, this time through dhamma-vijaya, or “moral conquest.” This idea of winning over one’s enemies by dint of sheer moral superiority is echoed in Mohandas K. Gandhi’s twentieth century notion of satyagraha, or the “victory of truth.”

Although much about Asoka is wrapped up in legend, it is clear that he attempted to rule in a way that no other Indian ruler had attempted. He developed a concept of citizenship that was broader than those of the caste and local loyalties to which people had adhered before his rule. The modern symbol of India, four lions facing the four directions, is derived from the capital of one of Asoka’s famous pillars.

See also: Akbar the Great; Buddhist ethics; Citizenship; Hindu ethics.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Mahmood, Cynthia Keppley. "Asoka." Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition, edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Ethics_0758.
APA 7th
Mahmood, C. K. (2019). Asoka. In G. Lucas & J. K. Roth (Eds.), Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Mahmood, Cynthia Keppley. "Asoka." Edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth. Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.