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Around 261 BC the Indian emperor Ashoka conquered Kalinga, on India's east coast. The suffering it caused changed him: in inscriptions carved on rocks and pillars across his empire, he expressed remorse and called for rule by dhamma, meaning moral conduct, non-violence and tolerance.

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Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire, which covered most of the Indian subcontinent, from about 268 to 232 BC. Kalinga lay in today's state of Odisha. In Major Rock Edict XIII he writes that 150,000 people were carried away, 100,000 killed and many more died, and that he now feels deep sorrow; the best conquest, he says, is conquest by dhamma. The word (dharma in Sanskrit) here means moral duty: respect for parents and teachers, kindness to servants and animals, generosity, and tolerance of every faith. More than thirty inscriptions survive in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, most of them in Prakrit, the everyday languages of the time, and some near Kandahar in Greek and Aramaic. Their main script, Brahmi, could not be read again until James Prinsep deciphered it in the 1830s. The four lions that topped one of his pillars, at Sarnath, are now India's national emblem.

Türkçe oku
Hint imparatoru Asoka, MÖ 261 dolaylarında Hindistan'ın doğu kıyısındaki Kalinga'yı fethetti. Savaşın yol açtığı acılar onu değiştirdi: İmparatorluğunun dört bir yanında kayalara ve sütunlara kazıttığı yazıtlarda pişmanlığını dile getirdi ve ülkenin “dhamma” ile, yani ahlak, şiddetsizlik ve hoşgörüyle yönetilmesini istedi.

Asoka, Hint alt kıtasının büyük bölümünü kaplayan Maurya İmparatorluğu'nu yaklaşık MÖ 268–232 arasında yönetti. Kalinga, bugünkü Odisha eyaletinin topraklarındaydı. Asoka 13. Büyük Kaya Fermanı'nda bu savaşta 150.000 kişinin sürüldüğünü, 100.000 kişinin öldürüldüğünü, çok daha fazlasının da hayatını kaybettiğini yazar ve derin bir üzüntü duyduğunu söyler. Ona göre en iyi fetih, dhamma ile yapılan fetihtir. Sanskritçede “dharma” diye geçen bu sözcük burada ahlaki ödev anlamındadır: anne babaya ve öğretmenlere saygı göstermek, hizmetkârlara ve hayvanlara iyi davranmak, cömert olmak ve bütün inançlara hoşgörüyle yaklaşmak. Asoka'nın otuzdan fazla yazıtı bugün Hindistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladeş ve Afganistan'da duruyor. Çoğu, dönemin konuşma dilleri olan Prakrit dillerinde yazılmıştır; Kandahar yakınındakilerin bazıları ise Yunanca ve Aramicedir. Yazıtların büyük bölümünde kullanılan Brahmi yazısını, James Prinsep 1830'larda çözene kadar kimse okuyamıyordu. Asoka'nın Sarnath'taki sütunlarından birinin tepesini süsleyen dört aslanlı başlık, bugün Hindistan'ın devlet armasıdır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Edicts of Ashoka
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