| Kalinga War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Conquests of Mauryan Empire | |||||||||
 Kalinga (adjacent to the Bay of Bengal) and the Maurya Empire (blue) before the attack of Ashoka The Great | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mauryan Empire | Kalinga | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Ashoka[3] | Unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown |
100,000 killed, 150,000 deported (figures by Ashoka)[4][5] | ||||||||
The Kalinga war (ended c. 261 BCE)[1] was fought in ancient India between the Maurya Empire under Ashoka the Great and Kalinga, an independent feudal kingdom located on the east coast, in the present-day state of Odisha and northern parts of Andhra Pradesh.[6] It is presumed that the battle was fought on Dhauli hills in Dhauli which is situated on the banks of Daya River. The Kalinga War was one of the largest and deadliest battles in Indian history.[7]
This is the only major war Ashoka fought after his accession to the throne, and marked the close of the empire-building and military conquests of ancient India that began with the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya.[8] The war cost nearly 250,000 lives.[8]
- ^ a b Le Huu Phuoc, Buddhist Architecture, Grafikol 2009, p.30
- ^ Atlas Of Ancient Worlds. DK Publishing, 375 Hudson Street, New York. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7566-4512-0.
The third Mauyran king was Ashoka the Great (ruled 268-232 BCE). In about 265 BCE, Ashoka conquered the kingdom of Kalinga.
- ^ Stephen, Becky (2010). India. Internet Archive. North Babylon Public Library. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-85733-525-5.
Ashoka the Great, born in 304 BCE, was emperor of all of the Indian subcontinent or nearly all. His decision to extend his rule to the unconquered kingdom of Kalinga on the Bay of Bengal brought about a conversion of the man and his empire.
- ^ Ashoka (r. 268–231 BCE), Edicts of Ashoka, Major Rock Edict 13.
- ^ Radhakumud Mookerji (1988). Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 81-208-0405-8.
- ^ Ringmar, Erik (2019). History of International Relations - A Non-European Perspective. p. 53.
Above all, the spectacular bloodshed which took place at the battle of Kalinga in 260 BCE, in which, reputedly, no fewer than a quarter of a million soldiers died, made him change his ways. Remorseful and disgusted with his previous way of life,..Ashoka the Great, 268-232 BCE, renounced violence, converted to Buddhism, and started a number of projects to improve the lot of the poor, the aged and the widowed.
- ^ "Greatest Battles In The History Of India". WorldAtlas. 19 September 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- ^ a b Raychaudhuri, H. (2006). Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty. Cosmo Publications. p. 268,305. ISBN 978-81-307-0291-9. Retrieved 27 June 2019.