Home / Personalities / Ashoka
A Maurya emperor who ruled nearly all of India, Ashoka conquered Kalinga in 261 BCE and, shaken by the massacre, embraced Buddhism and the dhamma, a policy of nonviolence, tolerance and welfare proclaimed in stone edicts, without abolishing the army or the death penalty.
Political topics
Ashoka leans further toward autocracy than 82% of the 569 personalities in the catalog.
Of all the topics, Representation is where Ashoka stands furthest from the rest.
On Nationalism, Ashoka sits practically at the catalog median.
Here they share common ground with most personalities.
Ideological proximity
The closest among the 263 ideologies
Greco-Roman philosophy that teaches living according to reason and nature, accepting with serenity what lies beyond one's control, cultivating duty, self-mastery and virtue above pleasure, and recognizing a natural law common to all rational humanity.
Latin American project that combines popular nationalism, anti-imperialism, social redistribution, and strong presidential leadership, using the state and strategic resources to promote sovereignty and popular inclusion.
Administrative doctrine of enlightened absolutism that organized the state through a disciplined bureaucracy and centralized finances, promoting industry, population, and revenue as sources of the monarch's power.
The most distant ideology
Crypto-AnarchismLibertarian29%
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius ruled through continuous frontier wars and a devastating plague, wrote the Meditations on duty and self-mastery, and persecuted Christians who refused the official cult.
Also close, by dimension
Other similar profiles
Furthest from Ashoka
A South American presidential republic, Venezuela lives under an authoritarian regime of socialist and nationalist orientation, marked by concentration of power, a prolonged economic crisis, and heavy emigration of its population.
Also close, by dimension
Furthest from Ashoka
India's first great empire, the Maurya unified almost the whole subcontinent under Chandragupta, Bindusara and Ashoka, with centralized bureaucracy, espionage, a standing army and the Arthashastra, until Ashoka embraced Buddhism and nonviolence after Kalinga.
Also close, by dimension
Furthest from Ashoka