Linked from
The 54 pages that link to Ashoka, each with the reason it gives.
BuddhismRelated: His patronage helped Buddhism spread beyond its early communities.
Buddhist councilsRelated: Theravada tradition places the third council under his patronage.
Gautama BuddhaNarrower topic: His later patronage helped spread the tradition built around the Buddha's teachings.
South AsiaBroader topic: His reign linked imperial rule, inscriptions, and Buddhism across a wide territory.
Maurya EmpireBroader topic: His reign marked the empire’s greatest territorial extent and its most visible moral program.
SanghaRelated: Ashoka’s patronage helped Buddhism and its monastic communities expand across regions.
Buddhist pilgrimageRelated: Tradition credits Ashoka with visiting Buddhist sites and building stupas that fostered pilgrimage.
GandharaRelated: His reign linked Gandhara’s history to Mauryan governance and Buddhist patronage.
Brahmi scriptRelated: His reign produced the earliest large, securely dated corpus of Brahmi inscriptions.
Greco-Buddhist artRelated: His patronage helped establish Buddhism across regions later connected to Hellenistic kingdoms.
The BuddhaRelated: His inscriptions provide early evidence for Buddhism’s spread and memory of the Buddha.
Buddhist relicRelated: Tradition credits Ashoka with redistributing relics and building stupas across his realm.
Chandragupta MauryaBroader topic: Chandragupta’s grandson transformed the empire founded by the first Mauryan ruler.
Edicts of AshokaRelated: He commissioned the inscriptions to communicate policies and ethical teachings across his empire.
PataliputraRelated: His reign made Pataliputra a center of imperial government and Buddhist patronage.
SanchiRelated: Tradition and archaeological evidence associate his reign with Sanchi’s earliest monumental patronage.
Bodh GayaRelated: Buddhist tradition credits him with patronage of the original shrine at Bodh Gaya.
StupaRelated: Tradition associates Ashoka with spreading relics and building stupas across his empire.
Bodhi treeRelated: Traditions connect Ashoka’s Buddhist devotion with care for the Bodhi tree and its site.
Buddhist architectureRelated: His patronage is associated with the spread of stupas and Buddhist pilgrimage sites.
Early BuddhismRelated: His inscriptions provide early evidence for Buddhist institutions and royal patronage.
KalingaRelated: His invasion brought Kalinga into the Mauryan Empire.
Tamil-BrahmiRelated: His Brahmi inscriptions provide a major comparison for dating and explaining Tamil-Brahmi.
TaxilaRelated: Tradition links Ashoka’s rule and patronage to Buddhist monuments in the Taxila region.
PagodaRelated: Buddhist tradition associates Ashoka with the distribution of relics and the building of stupas.
Buddhism in IndiaBroader topic: His inscriptions and patronage mark an early turning point in Buddhism’s public reach.
James PrinsepBroader topic: Prinsep’s reading of the title Devanampiya Piyadasi helped identify the edicts’ ruler with Ashoka.
Kalinga WarNarrower topic: His response to the conquest made the war a defining episode of his reign.
KharosthiRelated: His northwestern inscriptions include some of the earliest securely dated Kharosthi evidence.
MegasthenesRelated: His inscriptions provide contemporary evidence from a later phase of the empire Megasthenes described.
Silk Road transmission of BuddhismRelated: His patronage and missions strengthened Buddhism’s reach beyond the Indian subcontinent.
BindusaraRelated: Ashoka succeeded Bindusara, though the circumstances of succession remain uncertain.
Chandragupta IICompared with: Unlike Ashoka's well-documented edicts, Chandragupta II is known mainly through inscriptions, coins, and later tradition.
DipavamsaRelated: The chronicle links Sri Lanka’s Buddhist beginnings to Ashoka’s missions and imperial network.
Devanampiya TissaRelated: Tradition connects Ashoka’s Buddhist mission to Sri Lanka with Tissa’s conversion.
Mahabodhi TempleRelated: Tradition associates Ashoka with an early shrine and pilgrimage at the enlightenment site.
ChanakyaBroader topic: His reign shows the later reach of the imperial state associated with Chanakya’s founding story.
Sanchi StupaRelated: Tradition and inscriptions associate the earliest Sanchi monument with his reign.
DharmaguptakaRelated: Later traditions associate the school’s early spread with Buddhist missions during Ashoka’s reign.
History of IndiaBroader topic: His inscriptions show how imperial rule communicated ethical and political ideals.
Kingdom of KhotanRelated: Khotanese origin traditions linked the kingdom’s Buddhist past to Aśoka’s missionary legacy.
MahāsāṃghikaRelated: Later Buddhist accounts associate his reign with councils and disputes, though their details are contested.
Menander ICompared with: Ashoka offers an earlier royal association with Buddhism than the traditions about Menander.
Shunga EmpireCompared with: His imperial patronage provides a contrast to disputed claims about Shunga religious policy.
ŚramaṇaRelated: His patronage helped Buddhist institutions grow across the subcontinent.
Flag of IndiaRelated: The Chakra’s name and design evoke the legacy of Ashoka’s rule.
History of BiharRelated: His reign connected Bihar’s imperial center with the expansion of Buddhism.
Pillars of AshokaRelated: His authority and policies shaped the pillars’ placement, inscriptions, and message.
Pushyamitra ShungaCompared with: Later accounts cast Pushyamitra as a sharp religious contrast to Ashoka.
Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinentRelated: His model of imperial support contrasts with the later erosion of Buddhist royal backing.