Ashoka the Great

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2015

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Indian Emperor Ashoka. Active in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka conquered almost all of the landmass covered by modern-day India, creating the largest empire South Asia had ever known. After his campaign of conquest he converted to Buddhism, and spread the religion throughout his domain. His edicts were inscribed on the sides of an extraordinary collection of stone pillars spread far and wide across his empire, many of which survive today. Our knowledge of ancient India and its chronology, and how this aligns with the history of Europe, is largely dependent on this important set of inscriptions, which were deciphered only in the nineteenth century.

With:

Jessica Frazier Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Naomi Appleton Chancellor's Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh

Richard Gombrich Founder and Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:45.9	the program.
0:46.9	Hello in 1837 a young British administrator in Calcutta, James Princep, succeeded in deciphering a series of
0:55.8	mysterious and ancient descriptions.
0:58.3	These had been discovered on rocks and stone pillars all over India.
1:01.6	Princep proved that they were relics of the reign of an ancient
1:04.5	king called a Shoka who had lived in the third century BC. Shoka ruled most of
1:10.0	the Indian subcontinent for almost 40 years creating one of the largest empires the region
1:14.9	has ever seen through ruthless military endeavors.
1:17.9	But as he later renounced violence, he converted to Buddhism.
1:21.6	In a series of edicts carved into monuments all over his
1:24.4	territories he depicted himself as a benevolent and kindly leader, intent on the
1:29.0	welfare of his subjects. Today it's believed that his influence was of
1:32.3	critical importance in the development and spread of Buddhism.
1:36.0	We'd me to discuss Ashoka The Great R, Jessica Frazier, lecturer in religious studies at the University of Kent, and a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
	...

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