Ashoka

Ashoka Maurya was an Indian ruler who reigned in the third century B.C.E. and is considered one of the greatest monarchs in Indian history. He was the grandson of Chandragupta, who had founded the Mauryan Empire, and he inherited a powerful and prosperous state that stretched from the Himalayas to the Deccan Plateau.

Ashoka was a ruler of great energy and ambition and was determined to expand his empire. He launched a series of military campaigns, both to the east and south, and was able to bring almost the entire Indian subcontinent under his rule. He was an able administrator, an efficient and competent ruler who encouraged and developed agriculture, trade and commerce in his kingdom.

Ashoka is best remembered, however, for his decisive moral and spiritual transformation after a particularly brutal military campaign. He was so appalled by the carnage he had caused that he renounced further military expansion and embraced the Buddhist philosophy  of nonviolence and compassion.