Change And Emperor Ashoka

History is always a study of change. Not everything changes. Some remains same and others change. Things that remains same for many years are something like that we always need food, we always need shelter, fern plant still exists, sun still exists, the Earth didn't break as yet in to several pieces, the Moon did not break and split. 

There are other things that change like the clothes we wear, the vehicles we travel, extinct dinosaurs, the ice age that is not existing anymore, the world that has split into several countries, the oceans that keep growing and changing etc.

I would like to share my opinion about the change Kalinga war brought.  King Ashoka was the son of Bindusara and grand son of Chandragupta Maurya.

The following picture shows the Mauryan Empire of 260 BC.

Emperor Ashoka was very ambitious and power hungry. He wanted to expand his kingdom. Kalinga increased in its military and hence Ashoka thought the security of the Mauryan empire is threatened. So, some Historians thought that Ashoka waged a war on Kalinga because of the security threat, but other thinks that the war happened purely due to Ashoka's craze for power. Few other historians think that Kalinga war happened because Kalinga allied with Chola and Pandya Kingdom from the South against Magadha.

Kalinga war happened in Modern Orissa and Ganjam. The effects of Kalinga war was very severe. It caused lots of death, loss, bloodshed and sadness. It also caused loss of property. Many Kalingans were deported from Kalinga. 

After the Kalinga war, Ashoka was very sad by seeing the bloodshed and the loss that was created by the war. Religion played an important role in bringing change for Ashoka. Ashoka started following Buddhism and started preaching peace. Some believe that the Kalinga war was a disaster where a lot of bloodshed happened. In my opinion, though Kalinga war had very sad effects, it at least brought a change in Ashoka's heart and mind. War still remains whereas Ashoka's values changed that contributed for the growth of Buddhism. 

We still remember King Ashoka by using his Lion Capital as the Indian National Emblem.