Ashoka

The book is a remarkable story of the discovery of Emperor Ashoka and his legacy.It speaks of how the greatest Emperor of India & a ruler the world has ever seen was mysteriously erased and his glory made oblivious from the history of India for almost 2,000 years.The book reprimands that it is very unfortunate that India lost him due to its religious prejudice & arrogance.Ashoka was eventually recovered from the dust of history by the arduous efforts, inquisitiveness & love for past of few good British men during their rule in India. It was their sheer brilliance that brought back to India its extra-ordinary and glorious past. The book is an exhaustively well-researched & well-written account on Indian history.Charles Allen, the author, has intelligently put together the pieces of archaeological findings,discovered antiquity and various literature on Ashoka and has placed in front of his readers a gripping tale about Ashoka, Buddhism & the Mauryan dynasty.
Honestly, a must read for the lovers of history!

Got it at a great price - pre-booked. Delivered unbelievably fast too. A very well written account of the Mauryan era. The clue by clue piecing together of the lost legacy of Ashoka makes it as un-putdownable as a racy detective story. The author laments the reluctance of India, even now, in giving its greatest ever monarch the respect he deserves. Perhaps a greater loss to India is its selective amnesia of the Buddhist legacy. The rise and fall of this great religion in India is also woven beautifully into the tale. The book also celebrates the tenacity, resourcefulness, intelligenge and fralities of the men, both Indian and British, who unravelled the whole Ashoka story over almost 150 years. Overall a great book for anyone interested in history, culture, travel or religion. Indeed maybe a good book to start if you havent yet tried this genre.

Completely smitten with this "stumpy, pot-bellied, pumpkin-faced, fragile King who had the tendency to faint under stress".

The book itself is written like a detective story, narrating how Ashoka's life was painstakingly pieced together clue by tiny clue by the "Orientalists", beginning in the 18th Century.

At the same time, there's a faint hint of the author's tenderness towards this King throughout the book. In the way he regrets the way Ashoka and his efforts in making Buddhism the way it is now have been unrecognised even now, in the way he recognizes the tender feelings in Ashoka's one of the more emotional edicts near the Ajanta caves when he was young, and the way he talks about his appearance.

Loved the book. And now I want to know more details about King Ashoka Maurya.

A very simple to read and elaborate in details book about the glorious past of our country INDIA. I gives a remarkable footage about how our history [pre muslim invasion] is constructed and how the forgotten glory is restored. A must read for all Indians as well as those who care the great culture called India. Presentation is lucid and details are just perfect. Thanks a ton for the author for enlightening us.

This is a gripping tale about the greatest ruler that India has seen in the known history : Emperor Ashoka Maurya. More than just Ashoka's life it deals with the fact that how we due to our religious biases (including pre Muslim rule) had consciously erased Ashoka from our memories or writings, how just due to love or obsession of few British officers his existence was found, piece by piece put together and brought out. Many people lost their lives as well in process of this discovery

This was something for which we need to be truly greatful to the Raj !

And what came out of this discovery was something which is so much part of India. A must read for anybody interested in Indian Hostory.