"All men are my children. I am like a father to them. As every father desires the good and the happiness of his children, I wish that all men should be happy always."

These are the words of an emperor who lived two thousand and three hundred years ago.

We see in history how even mere chieftains grew arrogant and used their powers selfishly and unjustly. But the emperor who said the above words ruled over the greater part of India. He had the power of life and death over millions of his subjects.

This emperor was Ashoka (also called ‘Devanampriya Priyadarshi’). The wheel in the abacus of the pillar which he erected as a memorial at Saranath now adorns the national flag of free India.

The Pillar at Sarnath

In the twentieth year of his reign, Ashoka undertook his second pilgrimage with his daughter and Upagupta.  Wherever he went he caused pillars and stoopas to be erected in memory of his visit. There is one such memorial pillar at Sarnath. On the top of a stone pillar about fifty feet high there are beautifully carved figures of four standing lions. The figures of four standing lions. The figures of four standing lions. The figures of the lions are now to be seen in the official emblem of the government of free India, and the Ashoka Chakra adorns the national flag of India. In this way the government of India has paid a deserving tribute to the ideal king, Ashoka. But unfortunately the pillar at Sarnath is broken and mutilated. So we can see only fragments of the pillar. Of the eighty-four thousand stoopas said to have been built by Ashoka, the stoopa at Sanchi is both famous and splendid. To this day this fifty-four feet stoopa stands on a high pedestal and forms a semicircle. Besides these stoopas and pillars, Ashoka built cave dwellings, rest houses and Buddha Viharas in large numbers. They not only proclaim Ashoka's teachings but also are examples of the splendid architecture of those days.

The Kalinga War a Change of Heart

During Ashoka's grandfather's time the Kalinga army had only 60,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 700 elephants. During Bindusara's reign and at the beginning of Ashoka's reign Kalinga must have improved its armed forces considerably.

The mighty Magadha army marched towards Kalinga. Ashoka himself went at the head of his vast army.

The Kalinga army resisted the Magadha army and fought bravely. They were not afraid even of death. But their valor and sacrifices were in vain. Every thinner and finally it accepted defeat.

Ashoka won a glorious victory.

'What Have I done!

True, Ashoka was victorious and Kalinga was his.

What was the price of this victory?

One of Ashoka's own inscriptions describes it:

One and a half people were taken prisoners. A lake was killed during the battle. Many more died as a result of the war.'

Ashoka who led the army saw the battlefield with his own eyes.

As far as his eye could see he saw only the corpses of elephants and horses, and the limbs of soldiers killed in the battle. There were streams of blood. Soldiers were rolling on the ground in unbearable pain. There were orphaned children. And eagles flew about to feast on the dead bodies.

Not one or two but hundreds of terrible sights greeted Ashoka's eyes. His heart was broken with grief and shame.

He felt unhappy over the victory, which he had won at the cost of so much suffering. 'What a dreadful deed have I done! I was the head of a vast empire, but I longed to subjugate a small kingdom and caused the death of thousands of soldiers; I widowed thousands of women and orphaned thousands of children. With these oppressive thoughts in his minds he could not stay there any longer. He led his army back towards Pataliputra with a heavy heart.

Matchless in History

Ashoka became the lord of Kalinga as he had wished. But the victory brought him not joy but grief. The sights of grim slaughter he had seen dimmed the pride of victory. Whether Ashoka was resting, sleeping or awake, the scenes of agony and death he had seen on the battlefield haunted him at all times; he could not have peace of mind even for a moment.

Ashoka understood that the flames of war not only burn and destroy on the battlefield but spread to other fields and destroy many innocent lives. 

The suffering caused by war does not end on the battlefield; it continues to poison the minds and lives of the survivors for a long time. At this time Ashoka was at the height of his power; he was the head of a vast empire; he had no equal in wealth or armed strength. And yet the Kalinga war, which was his first war, also became his last war! The power of arms bowed before the power of Dharma (righteousness).

Ashoka swore that he would never again take to arms and that he would never again commit such a crime against humanity. And it proved to be the oath of a man of iron would.

In the history of the world, many kings have sworn not to fight again, after they had been defeated. 

But how many kings have been moved by pity in the hour of victory and laid down arms?

Perhaps there has been only one such king in the history of the whole world-Ashoka.