The Kalinga War

01Ashoka’s own count

Rock Edict XIII gives the numbers in the king’s own voice. A hundred and fifty thousand people were carried away, a hundred thousand were slain, and many times that number died. Devanampiya, the edict goes on, felt deep sorrow and regret, because the conquest of an unconquered land means killing, death and deportation. He declared that the only conquest he now valued was conquest by Dhamma. The edict was cut across the empire, but not at Dhauli or Jaugada in Kalinga itself, where two separate edicts speak to the officers of the province instead.

02Dhauli today

At Dhauli, on a low hill above the Daya river south of Bhubaneswar, the edicts are cut into a rock face, and above them the forepart of an elephant emerges from the stone. It is the oldest rock-cut sculpture in Odisha. Local tradition holds that the Daya ran red after the battle. A century and more later Kalinga rose again under Kharavela, who struck back at Magadha.

Dynasty · c. 321–185 BCEMaurya empireChandragupta Maurya, guided by Chanakya, overthrew the Nandas, drove out the Greek garrisons and took the Indus lands from Seleucus. His grandson Ashoka ruled almost all of Bharat and carved his edicts on rocks and pillars from Kandahar to Karnataka.Read →