Patrick Olivelle’s new book, Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King, on the Mauryan emperor views him purely as a historical figure, without the myths – using only the ancient emperor’s own ...

Why should an outstanding vocalist converse with a historian about a ruler from the third century BCE in 2022? The conversation took place in Nandiya Gardens at the ITC Maurya hotel on April 19 in the ...

Th show features Siddharth Nigam, the child actor of Dhoom 3 fame in the lead role. With Indian TV’s big-ticket item Big Boss 8 ending last week, this show is set for a new leader to catch users’ ...

Colombo, November 5: A perusal of the works of two outstanding Sri Lankan scholars on Emperor Ashoka, Prof Olivelle and Dr. Ananda Guruge, reveals that as an individual, Ashoka was a committed ...

Regarding Maxwell Carter’s review of “Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King” by Patrick Olivelle (Books, Jan. 27): One can be benign only if one has the choice to be ruthless. One can be credited for ...

Colombo, December 15: For almost 12 Centuries, Indian chroniclers had blacked out Buddhist Emperor Asoka the Great, though he had ruled much of India from 270 BC to 232 BC. It wasn't until 1813, that ...

Ashoka Vardhana, the third Mauryan emperor (the first great unified empire of India), has gone down in history for converting to Buddhism after witnessing the massacres resulting from the campaign he ...

This week’s pick of interesting reads includes the first attempt to chronicle the everyday realities of the Doms of Varanasi, a fascinating portrait of India’s first great ruler based primarily on his ...

Bhopal/Jabalpur: Punishment should be proportionate to the charge, Madhya Pradesh high court has said, while cancelling the termination of a Bhopal Development Authority (BDA) employee. Referring to a ...