The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler

volume three the classical world

episode 60 a profile of Emperor A Shoka The Great. The Who was a Shoker the Great? A great deal of mystery surrounds this

legendary Indian monarch whose historicity has been questioned and whose infamy has been re-evaluated.

The best thing that we can do is tell the various stories relating to this man and invite you to

decide what you think is the truth and what you think is not. In the last

episode of the podcast we introduced the Morian Empire, initiated by the

first emperor called Chandragupa Moria who overthrew the monarch of the Margada kingdom and used this kingdom as a power base for the

creation of his new empire.

It may have been the case that it was the highly respected philosopher called Chanakia who

coerce Chandragupta into traveling into the Margada kingdom with him.

In order to climb the political ladder there and overthrow the Nanda

dynasty rulers. Chandagrub to Moria is the grandfather of our protagonist, a shok of the Great and the literary work of

Chenakia would be important to future generations including Ashoka.

Chandra Gupta was the first emperor of the Morian Empire and he would

abdicate his throne to his son Bindusara. Not much information exists about the reign of Bindusara, although it is claimed that he was a

strong emperor, consolidating and expanding on the work of his father to spread the influence of the Morians across the subcontinent.

By the time Bindusara died, whoever would take over would be taking over the most dominant empire that had ruled over these lands.

Ashoka is listed as the third Morian Emperor, but his accession to rule is suspected to have been far from

straightforward. He would have been born into a predominantly Brahminist Empire

which is a religion that morphed into what we consider today as Hinduism.

Other religious sects are very likely to have existed within the empire though.

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