Patrick Olivelle’s new book, Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King, on the Mauryan emperor views him purely as a historical figure, without the myths – using only the ancient emperor’s own ...

Why should an outstanding vocalist converse with a historian about a ruler from the third century BCE in 2022? The conversation took place in Nandiya Gardens at the ITC Maurya hotel on April 19 in the ...

Ashoka the Great began his reign as a ruthless conqueror, winning his throne through murder and expanding an empire by slaughter. But after the devastating conquest of Kalinga, the cost of violence ...

Colombo, November 5: A perusal of the works of two outstanding Sri Lankan scholars on Emperor Ashoka, Prof Olivelle and Dr. Ananda Guruge, reveals that as an individual, Ashoka was a committed ...

Regarding Maxwell Carter’s review of “Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King” by Patrick Olivelle (Books, Jan. 27): One can be benign only if one has the choice to be ruthless. One can be credited for ...

Colombo, December 15: For almost 12 Centuries, Indian chroniclers had blacked out Buddhist Emperor Asoka the Great, though he had ruled much of India from 270 BC to 232 BC. It wasn't until 1813, that ...

India’s famed Emperor Ashoka was an ancient convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. He demonstrated that a person is NOT forced by others to convert from one religion to another. Today, “religious ...

This week’s pick of interesting reads includes the first attempt to chronicle the everyday realities of the Doms of Varanasi, a fascinating portrait of India’s first great ruler based primarily on his ...