Ashoka in Ancient India

This book is the result of intense study about the Indian emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty in the 3rd century BC. There are very interesting new details about his life and actions. Highly recommed!

The book isn't bad, but it has a lot of unnecessary information. I imagine that, like me, you are doing a project on Ashoka fro school or something. This book isn't really good for light reading, and you have to really hunt for anything useful. It has good information, it's just that the author gets very specific about unnecessary things quite a bit.

Too many assumptions which makes it boring to read. Too look at a historical context while keeping a present day perspective does not work well.

A biased writer.

As someone who has already read Romila Thapar's and Charles Allen's works on Ashok, I totally enjoyed reading this book.Ashok's life and message have to be understood in the larger picture of the society and the geography that he ruled.There's a lot of speculation; literally if, may, suppose abound this book. However, I totally understand the historian's predicament while writing about Ashoka due the very nature of the available sources.Having said that, some parts of the book, for eg. Taxila and its description just sound like an ASI excavation site report. I think a lay reader would find it difficult to maintain his pace while reading such parts.If you love reading Ancient India and have been fascinated by Ashok I wholly recommend this book to you. Just that this should be your 3rd or 4th book on the topic.If you're entirely new with ancient Indian history I would suggest to try other books first.

Superb. A must for anyone interested in Ancient Indian, Buddhism and its impact on India and the world.

very good but heavy going

It was an eye opener about the great emperor. Quite amazing to read about this man who was so much ahead of his times. And all rendered in a lucid, readable style.

A new approach.