Ashoka the Great - Rise of the Mauryan Empire Documentary

[Music] the third century BC was a notoriously violent time filled with Titanic clashes and amazing personalities Alexander's conquests gave way to a period of constant warfare between his Seleucid tal meg and Antigonus successes while the rising Roman juggernaut began a series of conquests to unite the Italian peninsula and fought its Carthaginian rival paving the way for future dominance India during this period was also experiencing revolutionary change which culminated in the rise of the mau

ryan empire and the reign of Ashoka the great this video is sponsored by Imperator Rome the newest historical grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive build a glorious Empire out of blood and marble take the reins of power over any of hundreds of ancient nations including Rome and Carthage as you slowly expand to dominate the classical Mediterranean Europe and India expand trade build roads and command armies on the most detailed map ever made for a paradox game but keep an eye on your gener

als and governors some of them will increase their own power and plunge your land into Civil War enjoy the panoply and majesty of the world of Caesar and Hannibal in Imperator Rome coming April 25th you can support our channel by buying the game via the link in the description in 326 BC Alexander the Great crushed the Hindu Kush mountains and entered India for the first time calling his veteran army to a halt at the Indus River and demanding that to rival kings in the region on face and poorest

come to him and submit on face of tekzilla' surrendered to Alexander but poorest of perova resisted and forced Alexander into a fight Mattek battle at the hyde aspies river which he won nonetheless wishing to conquer all india Alexander marched onward but his army mutiny dat's the high fascist River and he was forced to withdraw to Babylon their refusal to march on was in part due to rumors of a massive Indian kingdom possessing innumerable legions further to the east this was the Nanda Empire c

entered on the magadha region which supposedly fielded a colossal force of 250,000 infantry cavalry chariots and war elephants though he had retreated Alexander's conquests had destabilized northern India a fact which would play a key role in what was to come once the historical shroud falls away once again we see in 320 BC that it was a man named Chandragupta Maurya who stood victorious this Indian conquerors origins are not clear but less favorable Brahman sources state that he was a sudra a p

easant or serf whilst more favorable buddhist texts designate him as a member of the prestigious Kshatriya or warrior caste he likely knew about Alexander's stunning conquests and was given a crash course in ancient warfare tactics and geopolitics which he would use to conquer his own empire having gathered followers he initially attacked the nanda empires capital but failed a few times then he changed his tactics and conquered the northwestern lands which had been weakened by Alexander using hi

s subsequent control of these prosperous regions to cut off supplies to the capital resulting in the fall of the nanda dynasty after establishing his realm he fought decisively defeated and made an alliance with Seleucus famously gifting him 500 war elephants in exchange for peace and the hand of seleucus daughter in marriage Chandragupta successor bindusara continued his father's Weis domestic and foreign policies such as his friendship with Seleucus and his religious tolerance in addition he t

hrust south into the Deccan Plateau and expanded the Empire it is the second of Bindusara three sons who is the subject of this video Ashoka whose eldest brother was sue Zuma and whose youngest brother was tisha it seemed as though the future mauryan emperor at this point had no chance of ever inheriting the throne for one his mother supid Rangi was a commoner while the crown prince and favorite child Susan burrs mother was a royal princess nevertheless Indian princes were often sent to govern f

araway provinces and Ashoka was no different at the age of 18 the young Mauryan royal was sent to the cosmopolitan silk road hub of Taxila to quell a revolt a task he supposedly accomplished quickly the nature of taxila as a scholarly and cosmopolitan settlement where intellectual debates were often had among different faiths would have improved a shoka's knowledge of the world as well as making him more tolerant and sophisticated his next appointment was at the important city of Wu Jie capital

of Avanti province the high quality of the governorship that Ashoka provided is shown by the fact that he was entrusted with this station that of administering a crucial region connecting the capital city and the coast it was in this new station that Ashoka fell in love with Devi the daughter of a trader interestingly she was a member of the Secchia clan the clan of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha himself it is widely thought that she was a Buddhist upon bearing Ashoka his two children their son M

ahendra and their daughter sang this relatively peaceful life would come to an end when in 274 BC emperor Bindusara passed away what happened next is the subject of much debate but it is thought that a brief four-year civil war occurred between Ashoka and his brothers by acting decisively and swiftly occupying the capital city and because he was supported by his father's ministers Ashoka reigned victorious over his brother and was crowned as emperor in 270 BC the same year Hannibal Barca was bor

n in Carthage after he had ascended to the throne Ashoka continued a policy of expansion and conquest one of the reasons for this persistent policy of warfare was that in this period all Indian rulers wished to be regarded as the chakra Vartan the king of kings by their royal rifles practical and economic reasons were also important as taxes were the Maurine empires main source of revenue the more land a king conquered the more taxes he gained however the more administrative and military expense

s would also pile up leading to an endless cycle of violence so it was that in the year 262 BC the massive Mauryan army marched into the kingdom of Kalinga their past successes would likely have made them confident of an easy victory but the king and his army faced a tough grinding conflict against a doggedly courageous enemy it is said that Ashoka eventually won the war not because Kalinga surrendered but because the carnage was so terrible after the final battle the victorious monarch stood am

ongst his dead and dying foes on the battlefield most monarchs would have simply rejoiced in the grim victory but Ashoka in this moment felt horror and remorse it ended up being the key moment of his life supposedly 150,000 were there from captured 100,000 were slain and many times that died from famine and disease more than just being horrified by the direct results of the devastation he had Ashoka also was acutely aware of the tragedy that struck those left behind the young sons left without f

athers and poor mothers who had been robbed of their sons their families and loved ones the educated and sensitive Ashoka appears to have been made truly aware of the real cost of war even admitting publicly what no victorious ruler ever had before that he felt remorse on having conquered Kalinga declaring that even one hundredth or one thousandth part of those who were slain died or captured in Kalinga is considered regrettable by the beloved-of-the-gods this was clearly not the same man speaki

ng who had annihilated his brother and had seized the throne by blood rather it was a changed man finally admitting to his mistakes and thinking on the futility and tragedy of war henceforth said the king he was not going to be provoked into bearing arms again and also dedicated his life and huge wealth towards building a society where people lived by the rules of virtue and good moral behavior this abrupt change of heart gradually led Ashoka to the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha who

had preached the same values of peace non-violence and benevolence two centuries earlier Ashoka had likely known of Buddhism from an early age as his wife was an adherent of the Buddhist teachings and the faith was popular within certain segments of the population however he was the first King in history to convert to this apparently revolutionary religion contrary to watch popular legends depict Ashoka did not instantly convert to Buddhism after his change of heart on the field of war but thou

ghtfully and practically chose a slow path which would benefit both him and the welfare of his subjects particular care was taken to remain tolerant of the two other dominant Indian religions the Hindu Brahmanic faith and Jainism in one of his major edicts carved on a rock he stated that should one blame other religions or over glorify one's own religion they are instead doing harm to it an act which should not be done he began to study under Buddhist monks and two years later was accepted into

the Sangha the Buddhist Order his tutor was a monk named PQ loopty of Mathura who took the King on a pilgrimage of all the important sites in their shared faith such as lumbini where siddhartha gautama had been born board gaya where he had achieved enlightenment sarnath where he had delivered his first lecture and Kushinagar where he had died and gained nirvana at all of these places and more Ashoka erected pillars and carved rocks with his edicts and royal orders these proclamations were routin

ely read out to the illiterate population by the Empire's officials and appeared to be personal messages from Ashoka himself clearly in his own words it is also as though the King's voice speaks to us 2500 years later when we read them today his change in faith also changed his role as the king rather than desiring material gain which so many kings had in the past he now sought that his children obtain every kind of welfare both in this and the next world and dictated that reporters could come t

o him with the people's business wherever he might be at whatever time despite all of this piety and benevolence we must always keep in mind that Ashoka was an emperor above all else not a religious teacher or a philosopher he had the duty of running an empire and this was not always a job which led to peaceful outcomes there was a serious danger that once Ashoka supposed pacifism had been announced the provinces would rebel and neighboring Kings would invade sensing weakness in the Mauryan lead

ership however the emperor while he had given up on aggressive conquest would reluctantly but fiercely defend his empire and refused to disband his army every rebellion would still be put down brutally and any foreign invader would be met with devastating military force a fact which he made clear to his own subjects he also remained an almost stern father-like figure benevolent and caring but willing to inflict severe punishment if necessary though his engravings almost appear to plead with his

people not to force him to inflict these penalties for example the forest people or adivasi were told that despite Ashoka's remorse he still had the power and will to punish them for their injustice 'as if necessary they should he said be ashamed of their wrongs lest they be killed overall historian al bashyam stated that while Ashoka could seemingly be a bit naive he was still into fatigue herbal strong-willed and imperious Ashoka also worked hard to change the attitude of his subjects not to f

orce Buddhism onto them but to spread his universally right values the Emperor who had previously enjoyed pleasure trips of hunting and had wielded a mighty sword now went on Dhamma atras or pious pilgrimage tours during which he visited holy sites and met his subjects he frequently talks to local people to make sure they were happy and would hear their compliments or complaints about local officials in this way he was the first Indian King to think of the welfare of the poor rather than just us

ing them for tax revenue as he stated the finest conquest is the conquest of right and not might the values he sought to spread were known as Ashoka's Dharma a complex term which essentially were rules of good behavior in this particular context for example Ashoka wished that people would be obedient to parents and teachers should behave properly towards holy men relatives servants friends and the poor and should be kind and generous to the old and vulnerable non-violence towards all living crea

tures be they're humans birds or animals was practiced one edict in particular goes into detail about how the Imperial kitchens will no longer slaughter vast amounts of animals for food in addition to preaching these noble virtues to his people Ashoka also sought to try his best to live by the same tenets this was exemplified by his thoughtfulness in the construction and renovation of infrastructure he ordered that shade trees be planted along roads for shelter from the Sun and rains that mango

groves be planted in order to provide food and that watering places be dug to quench a travellers thirst in 253 BC a great gathering of Buddhist monks was held as Pataliputra hosted by the king himself at this the 3rd Buddhist Council a momentous decision was taken to send teams of big shoes Buddhist monks to other foreign kingdoms in order to spread the teachings of the Buddha these missionaries are said to have reached as far as Kashmir Cantara the Greek Hellenistic kingdoms North Africa Burma

and Sri Lanka one of the travelers was a man named Dharma Rex Sheeta and is designated as Jana or Ionian in the texts so it is possible he was a Greek convert the most famous missionary of the period however was Prince Mahendra Ashoka's firstborn son in 249 bc Mahendra journeys to Sri Lanka then called Tamra pani at the invitation of King Devan and Piatt Issa an admirer of Ashoka and a man who wished to learn more of Buddhist principles the subsequent mission to this realm was so successful tha

t it gradually became a Buddhist country and remained so even today such was the legacy of Ashoka the great when he died in 232 BC he was 72 years old and had reigned for 38 glorious years though his death would instigate the lung decay of his earthly Mauryan Empire which fell after another half-century Ashoka had ruled over the largest indigenous Empire in Indian history with wisdom efficiency and most importantly compassion Buddhism in the 21st century is a world religion because the first ste

ps to spread it to the world were made by Ashoka himself gradually as the centuries progressed after Ashoka's death the faith travelled along the Silk Roads as far as Tibet China and even Japan despite its decline in the predominantly Hindu land of its birth writer HG Wells stated that Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star among the thousands of other kings and Majesties even unto this day we have more stories to tell so make sure you are subscribed to our Channel and have pressed

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