I barely knew anything save for the more philosophical/religious aspects of Indian culture. The new information that stood out was the history of Chandragupta, his son and his grandson. For starters, we in the West are at least acquainted with Alexander the Great, so it comes as a surprise to learn that Chandragupta not only met him, but would go on to defeat the empire left in his wake that was controlled by General Seleucus. And so he began his conquest of the Indian subcontinent establishing the Mauryan Empire, for years waging war. Yet when he grew older, instead of becoming a crazy old man desperate to hold onto power, he retired and relinquished his power to his son. Of all the things a man who devoted his life to conquest could do, joining the religion of Jainism, who’s central principle is non-violence to an extreme degree, seems ironic but I can’t fault the guy for wanting peace in his life.

Bindusara was the son of Chandragupta and father to Ashoka, and so has an unfortunate shadow cast over his legacy by the two giants towering over him. In short he expanded and preserved the Mauryan Empire, which leads us to his son.

Ashoka Maurya, also known as Ashoka the Great, was much like his grandfather, and although never fully conquering all of India, he brought the empire’s borders to their height. The way he achieved this was through the classic conqueror method of violence, so it seems bizarre that he embraced Buddhism which was also a non-violent religion. He set up Buddhist temples around the empire and was the only time in India’s history that the state religion was Buddhist. It seems rather poetic that both grandfather and grandson turned to non-violent faiths in their later years.