Up until the war with Kalinga, Ashoka was quite a bloodthirsty king, with a fierce urge to conquer the world. The battle- fields of Kalinga changed Ashoka’s life; a power-hungry king who believed in the mantra of ‘conquer and rule’ became a follower of Buddha, who firmly believed in the ultimate victory of Dharma.
Kalinga was an independent kingdom in present-day Orissa and lay in the path of many important trade routes. It was not difficult for a ruler like Ashoka to conquer Kalinga. Once the war ended, Ashoka ventured out to roam around the countryside. Though he expected to see glory around, all he could find were burnt houses and scattered corpses. The inscription on his thirteenth rock edict says, ‘One hundred and fifty thousand people were captured, one hundred thousand were killed and many times that number perished’.
The war of Kalinga transformed him. The vengeful king became a stable and peaceful emperor. Realizing that the real conquest was the conquest of the heart, he became a patron of Buddhism.
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