129. Ashoka: The Great Buddhist Emperor of India

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ruling in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka was one of India’s greatest ever rulers. Under his rule, the Mauryan Empire grew into the largest empire India had ever seen. Its capital, Pataliputra was a dazzling, glorious, cosmopolitan city that was eleven times larger than Athens. After a brutal conquest of the Kalinga kingdom, Ashoka suffered from intense guilt and turned to Buddhism as he now coveted peace. From then on, he was committed to spreading Buddhism not just throughout his kingdom, but across the world. Listen as William and Anita discuss Buddhism’s transformation from a regional religion to one that spans nations. For bonus episodes, ad-free listening, reading lists, book discounts, a weekly newsletter, and a chat community. Sign up at https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/ Pre-order William's book below: UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Road-Ancient-India-Transformed/dp/140886441X India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/140886441X/ Australia: Available 17th September 2024 US: Available Spring 2025 Waterstones edition: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-golden-road/william-dalrymple/9781526681256 Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of empire, a chat community,
0:06.7	discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly
0:11.5	newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at
0:14.4	W.
0:15.1	W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me William welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnan and me William Dremple
0:35.0	and this is a very exciting thing if you missed the last episode we have begged
0:40.0	cajoled frankly blackmailed and I have a lot of material.
0:43.5	William Dalrymple to just give us a sneak peak.
0:46.6	I really do.
0:49.1	William Dalrymple is giving us a sneak peek of his fabulous new book which is out in September called
0:54.8	the Golden Road and for you empire listeners you lucky lucky people you get a
1:00.8	little sneak peak of I think it's it's fair to say a third you know a
1:04.4	third of the but we don't want to give everything away but a third of the
1:07.2	book of how goodness gracious me had it right and everything comes from India
1:12.2	Indian the Sanjeev Basker memorial and everything comes from India. Indian.
1:14.0	Sanjeev Basker memorial issue.
1:16.0	He's not dead.
1:18.0	Poor Sanchi. He's very much alive.
1:20.0	Goodest gracious me memorial issue.
1:21.0	And the last episode, just to recap, we were talking about the Buddha, the origin story, the superhero story, if you like, of the Buddha and then the spread of Buddhism.
1:30.5	And we're going to continue in that vein.
1:33.2	You sort of gave us a little tease about one of the greatest
	...

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