Ashoka (in Sansikrat meaning the one without sorrow) was the grandson of Chandra Gupta Maurya. He is one of the greatest kings of ancient India and Mauryan dynasty. As a Buddhist convert, he ruled India from 273 BC to 232 BC. Through conquest and annexations he reigned over most of South Asia and beyond, from present-day Afghanistan to Bengal and as far south as Mysore. Most of the information about Ashoka is derived from Buddhist sources where he is mentioned as Divyavadana (The beloved of the gods). Ashoka was the son of the Mauryan emperor Bindusara by a relatively lower ranked queen known as Dharma. Ashoka had several elder half-brothers and just one younger sibling, Vitthashoka, another son of Dharma. The Buddhist sources also indicate that he was very ugly.
Ashoka was an impeccable warrior general and a shrewd statesman. During his princely period, he successfully commanded many military expeditions and became the favorite son of his father Bindusara. It threatened the traditional heir to the throne Prince Susima, who was, however, sent to difficult military campaigns of Taxila, Kalinga and Ujin. Meanwhile he married three women Asandhimitra, Devi and Kaurwaki respectively. After few years, Emperor Bindusara fell ill and was on his deathbed. A clique of ministers lead by Radhagupta, who hated Susima, summoned Ashoka to claim the crown, though Bindusara himself preferred Susima. According to the Buddhist sources, in a fit of rage, Prince Ashoka attacked Pataliputra (modern day Patna), and killed all his brothers, including Susima, and threw their bodies in a well in Pataliputra. On this he got the title of Chanda Ashoka or merciless Ashoka. Ascending the throne, Ashoka expanded his empire over the next eight years, expanding it from the boundaries of present-day Bangladesh and the state of Assam in India in the east to the territory of present-day Iran and Afghanistan in the west; from the Pamir Knots in the north to the almost peninsular part of southern India. At that stage of his life, he was called Chakravartin which literally translates to “he for whom the wheel of law turns”
