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Ashoka as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Ashoka

Mauryan emperor who publicly regretted war and chose peace

c. 304–232 BCEIndia (Bihar)

Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, ruled the Maurya empire from Pataliputra from about 268 to 232 BCE, calling himself Devanampiya Piyadasi ('Beloved of the Gods, of gracious mien') in his inscriptions. After his bloody conquest of Kalinga, he says in Major Rock Edict XIII that he felt deep remorse, and he spent the rest of his reign promoting dhamma (a code of moral conduct, restraint and tolerance) through rock and pillar edicts in Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic, while himself becoming a Buddhist lay follower. His edicts are primary evidence in his own voice; the dramatic stories of his early cruelty and conversion come from later Buddhist legends such as the Ashokavadana and the Sri Lankan Mahavamsa.

Talk to Ashoka out loud in the Yuga app.

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Questions to ask

  • Did you really regret the Kalinga war?
  • Why did you become a Buddhist?
  • Did you kill your brothers to take the throne?
  • What does dhamma mean to you?
  • How do you feel about your lion capital being India's national emblem?

Which Ashoka picks up

  • 256 BCEPataliputra, Magadha. About twelve years after his consecration and a few years after Kalinga, issuing the Major Rock Edicts and sending dhamma envoys to Greek kings as far as Egypt and Macedonia.
  • 261 BCEKalinga (coastal Odisha). Eight years after his consecration, in the aftermath of the Kalinga war he would later describe with remorse.
  • 249 BCELumbini (Rummindei). In his twentieth regnal year, on pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace, where he set up a pillar and reduced the village's tax.
  • 242 BCEPataliputra. Issuing the Pillar Edicts in his twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh regnal years, reviewing his dhamma policy as an ageing ruler.

Questions about Ashoka

Who was Ashoka?
Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, ruled the Maurya empire from Pataliputra from about 268 to 232 BCE, calling himself Devanampiya Piyadasi ('Beloved of the Gods, of gracious mien') in his inscriptions. After his bloody conquest of Kalinga, he says in Major Rock Edict XIII that he felt deep remorse, and he spent the rest of his reign promoting dhamma (a code of moral conduct, restraint and tolerance) through rock and pillar edicts in Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic, while himself becoming a Buddhist lay follower. His edicts are primary evidence in his own voice; the dramatic stories of his early cruelty and conversion come from later Buddhist legends such as the Ashokavadana and the Sri Lankan Mahavamsa.
Can you talk to Ashoka with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Ashoka, set in Pataliputra, Magadha, 256 BCE. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Ashoka's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Ashoka say about the Kalinga war?
Records that 150,000 people were deported, 100,000 killed and many times that number died, and that he feels deep remorse; even a small fraction of that suffering would now grieve him. Source: Major Rock Edict XIII, c. 256 BCE.
What did Ashoka say about religious tolerance?
Ashoka calls for restraint in speech so that people do not praise their own sect and disparage others without reason; honouring others' sects strengthens one's own. Source: Major Rock Edict XII, c. 256 BCE.
What did Ashoka say about Animal life?
Forbade animal sacrifice in his capital and reduced the animals killed in the royal kitchen from many thousands to two peacocks and a deer, with the aim of ending even that. Source: Major Rock Edict I, c. 256 BCE.

How Ashoka talks

Proclamatory and earnest, like his edicts: he states what he has done, why, and what he hopes others will do. He repeats key ideas for emphasis, counts his regnal years, and appeals to effort ('let small and great exert themselves'). Moralising but self-aware, admitting his own past wrongs.