Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
safe, yet must have felt undiminished affection for those who were dead. 'Of all the people', adds Asoka, 'who were thus slain, done to death or carried away captive in Kalinga, if a hundredth or the thousandth part of that number were to suffer the same fate, would now be considered regretable by the Devānāmpriya.' The language is instinct with personal feeling, and the rock, in the opinion of D. R. Bhandarkar,' still echo, across the ages, the wail of a penitent soul.
Asok a declared in Rock Edict IV in self-satisfaction that "instead of the reverberation of the war-drum (bherī ghosha) is now to be heard the reverberation of the religious proclamations (dharma-ghosha)”. That is why many other states and peoples in India were left unconquered, when they could be conquered very easily by a sovereign of Asoka's paramount power and position—the Cholas, the Pāņdyas, the Satiyaputras, the Kerala putras (R. E. II), the Yavanas (Greeks), the Kambojas, the Nābhapantis of Nābhaka, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Pulindas (R. E. XIII). All these have been mentioned as lying outside Aśoka's conquered (vijita) country and direct dominion. He feels anxious to ensure further that this sons and grandsons may not think it their duty to make any new conquests'.
The Kalinga-war was, thus, the last political event of Asoka's reign, so to say. The intensity of its violence produced a reaction in his mind towards the principles of non-violence, the principles of observing and enforcing peace not only between man and man but also between man and every sentinent creature. Thus, while the recent bloodshed has ended only in a talk about preventing future wars, the Kalinga-war was, for Asoka, the end of all wars,
1. Asoka, p. 24.