The Kalinga war
Dhauli, Odisha
Ashoka conquers Kalinga; his Rock Edict XIII counts the dead and deported and records his remorse and turn to dhamma.
Eight years after his consecration, by the edict's own count, Ashoka annexed Kalinga: 150,000 people carried away, 100,000 killed and many times that number dead. Rock Edict XIII, cut at Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra, Kalsi and elsewhere, is the only first-person account of a Mauryan war, and it turns the conquest into a confession. The year depends on the date of his consecration, itself uncertain by a few years.
In Kalinga the emperor said nothing of it. At Dhauli, below a rock-cut elephant, and at Jaugada, Rock Edicts XI to XIII are left out and two separate edicts addressed to Kalinga's officials stand in their place, most likely because the account of the killing was not one to post in the conquered province. The pin marks the edict; the battlefield is not known.
- war
- political