Commission Saturday! And here’s a nice Ashoka chibi that I made for an anonymous commissioner. Hope you like her as much as they did! And remember, you can always ask me for your own chibi, either here on DMs or at my website, calicochimera.com !
The story of Ashoka is pretty unique among ancient rulers. He was born to one of the less notable wives of the Mauryan emperor Bindusara, making his initial prospects for succession to the throne pretty grim. But when his dad died and the inevitable power struggle ensued, Ashoka was able to trick the legitimate heir into inadvertently walking into a pit of live coals. Afterwards he supposedly executed 99 of his brothers who also held claims to the throne.*
After securing power, Ashoka continued to hold a general disregard for human life. According to Buddhist legends (of questionable veracity) he burnt 500 of his concubines to death after a few of them insulted him for his rough skin. He also constructed an infamous torture chamber known as “Ashoka’s Hell.”
Deciding to subjugate the eastern Kalinga Republic, his army fought a massive battle at the Kalingan capital. Inspecting the results of his victory afterwards, Ashoka was horrified by the slaughter of civilians. He then decided to renounce his bloodthirsty ways and convert to Buddhism.
As the first Buddhist head of a major empire, he was instrumental in Buddhism’s spread as a world religion. He initiated a series of massive public works projects, constructing hospitals, universities, roads, and temples throughout India.
* The reports on this incident are dubious, but like most ancient figures you can divide the number by 10 and get a more likely estimate. So, if Ashoka did indeed slaughter his brothers en masse, it was probably just like 9 of them. Actually, all of these horror stories about Ashoka’s wickedness before his Buddhist conversion, despite being interesting, probably aren’t true, which is why I didn’t include them in the comic.
“The pillars of Ashoka are a series of columns dispersed throughout the northern Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan king Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BC. Originally, there must have been many pillars but only nineteen survive with inscriptions, and only six with animal capitals, which were a target for Muslim iconoclasm. Many are preserved in a fragmentary state.” (Source)
The Lion Capital of Ashoka . ⚫It is a sculpture of four Asiatic lions standing back to back, on an elaborate base that includes other animals. A graphic representation of it was adopted as the official Emblem of India in 1950. It was originally placed on the top of the Ashoka pillar at the important Buddhist site of Sarnath by the Emperor Ashoka, in about 250 BCE during his rule over the Maurya Empire. ⚫The pillar, sometimes called the Aśoka Column, is still in its original location, but the Lion Capital is now in the Sarnath Museum, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Standing 2.15 metres (7 feet) high including the base, it is more elaborate than the other very similar surviving capitals of the pillars of Ashoka bearing the Edicts of Ashoka that were placed throughout India several of which feature single animals at the top; one other damaged group of four lions survives, at Sanchi. ⚫The capital is carved out of a single block of polished sandstone, and was always a separate piece from the column itself. It features four Asiatic Lions standing back to back. They are mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull, and a lion, separated by intervening spoked chariot-wheels. The whole sits upon a bell-shaped lotus. ⚫The capital was originally crowned by a ‘Wheel of Dharma’ (Dharmachakra popularly known in India as the “Ashoka Chakra”), with 24 spokes, of which a few fragments were found on the site. A 13th-century replica of the Sarnath pillar and capital in Wat Umong near Chiang Mai, Thailand built by King Mangrai, preserves its crowning Ashoka Chakra or Dharmachakra. The wheel on the capital, below the lions, is the model for the one in the flag of India. . FOLLOW me @Historical_grams to enjoy more and more posts about our world’s marvelous History.❤ . #ancientindia #historical_grams #explorepage #featured #sarnath #ashoka #indianculture #indianarchitecture #indianart #independenceday #15august #bindusaar #ashokathegreat #incredibleindia #jaihind (at India : इंडिया) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSg4sxcKmrK/?utm_medium=tumblr
