All these are lies, whatever we are taught in school and colleges about benevolence of Ashoka are lies, except the part about the mindless violence and genocide in Kalinga. I have shared some stories and lesser known facts about Ashoka in this essay. It uses the same texts and inscriptions that traditional historians use to fabricate the myth of Ashoka the Great.
Below I present some shocking and unknown facts about Ashoka Maurya.
1.Ashoka's father Bindusara did not like him, because he was ugly.
2.Indian history before British does not know of any Ashoka - he was largely ignored and forgotten by Indians.
3.Historians of early British India revived the study of Ashoka.
4.Information about Ashoka primarily comes from three literary Buddhist sources - Ashokavadana, Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa.
5.In 274 BC, Bindusara died after an illness Sushima the prince was away in a battle in north-west India and rushed back to Pataliputra, the royal capital and found that Ashoka had taken over the city with the help of Greek mercenaries.
6.Ashoka killed his step-brother and the legitimate heir by tricking him into entering a pit with live coals, and
became the king.
7.Ashoka killed all male rivals in his family.
8.Ashoka killed ninety-nine half-brothers and only spared his full brother Tissa.
9.Ashoka was notorious for his bad temper and sadist streak and was known as "Chanda Ashoka" or "Fierce
Ashoka"
10.Ashoka had 500 of his ministers killed because he believed that they were not loyal enough.
11.Ashoka has 100's of women in his harem burnt to death when some of them insulted him.
12.Ashoka was a murderous sadist who had an elaborate torture chamber, termed as the "hell on earth" or
Ashoka's Hell.
13.Ashoka once made his ministers obtain and sell the head of different animals including humans. [Note 3]
14.Girika was the official executioner of Ashoka and his close friend. Girikia was so vicious that he killed his own
parents because they did not want him to become Ashoka's executioner.
15.A typical torture in Ashoka's Hell was to pry open victoms mouths with an iron and pouring boiling copper down their throats.
16.Ashoka made a pact with Girika that he would never allow anyone who entered the palace to exit alive, including Ashoka himself. Hence by
disguising the torture chamber as a beautiful and "enticing" palace they would trap innocent onlooker and bystanders, and Ashoka was get great sadistic pleasure in seeing his victoms tortured and killed by his executioner friend Girika.
17.Another torture in Ashoka's Hell was the torture of the five-fold tether - driving two iron stakes through their hands, driving two iron stakes through their feet and driving one iron stake through their heart.
18.Ashoka later order his executioner friend Girika to be burn't alive.
19.Ashoka’s conversion has nothing to do with the Kalinga war and he had become a Buddhist 2 years before the Kalinga War.
20.Ashoka converted to Budhism when he was declared an outcaste by the Supreme Council of Kashi for fratricide and violating the treaty of Bharata.
21.He set about eradicating Sanskrit and Brahmanism in revenge bringing the Vedic period to an end.
22.Ashoka destroyed and plundered all the Brahmin temples and guru kulas.
23.In 262 BC, a large Mauryan army marched into Kalinga - 100,000 died in the war and an even larger number
died from wounds and hunger. A further 150,000 were taken away as captives.
24.The battle of Kalinga was so fierce that in aftermath of the battle, Daya River flowing next to the battlefield turned completely red because of the bloodshed.
25.A Nirgrantha follower in Pataliputra drew a picture showing the Buddha bowing at the feet of Nirgrantha Jnatiputra (identified with Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara of Jainism). Ashoka burnt him and his entire family alive in their house.
26.Ashoka announced an award of one dinara (silver coin) to anyone who brought him the head of a Nirgrantha heretic. Violent executions started in Ahsoka's extent and went on to such an extent that his own brother was mistaken for a heretic and killed by a cowherd.
27.Ashoka issued an order to kill all the Ajivikas in Pundravardhana (north of secular West Bengal and Islamic Bangladesh). Around 18,000 followers of the Ajivika sect were executed as a result of this order.
28.Ashoka's empire collapsed much before his death.