How did Asoka convert to Buddhism? What role did his conversion play in the way he ruled his empire?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Asoka's conversion to Buddhism
1. personal story of spiritual development
2. conquest of Kalinga where there were many deaths
a. felt regret at outcome
b. repudiation of conquest became a major theme of his inscriptions
c. believed teaching of the Buddha to be the foremost victory
d. put the policy of conquest-by-conversion into practice
3. absence of existing bureaucracies
a. one disciplined, literate group available was the Buddhist clergy
b. he assured them of his fidelity to the Buddha
c. desire that monks, nuns, and his lay subjects should hear the scriptures frequently and meditate upon them
d. made a much-publicized pilgrimage to the scene of the Buddha's enlightenment
B. Effect on Asoka's rule
1. his enlightenment was beginning to damage the empire
2. tightened laws on the treatment of animals
a. decrees must have caused outrage and threatened livelihoods
3. he granted 25 amnesties to imprisoned criminals
4. condemned all rituals as trivial and useless compared with a life in accordance with Buddhist doctrine
a. alienated ordinary people
5. his policy against conquests meant the empire could not expand
a. turned the violence of the military classes inward