Impact Of Ashoka And His Unification Of The Mauryan Empire

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Religion in the world today serves as a unifying force to help people unite and come together. One such example of how religion unifies a society is through Ashoka and his unification of the Mauryan Empire through Buddhism. Although the Mauryan dynasty was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 320 BC, the most famous king of the Mauryan empire was Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya. After he fought a brutal war and conquered Kalinga, which left over 100,000 dead, he had a revelation and converted to Buddhism (Johnson).
Ashoka converted to Buddhism after he experienced a bloody war in Kalinga, and wanted to purify himself. He then became Buddhist and wanted his empire to follow his lead of living a life of purity, moral values, and nonviolence. Ashoka proceeded to send missionaries, people sent on a religion mission, around to spread Buddhism around India and to Sri Lanka. Missionaries that Ashoka sent to Sri Lanka included his son, Mahinda, and some of his close friends (Sen). This spreading of Buddhism by missionaries serves as a way to unify people; missionaries went around and taught those about this religion, and many more followed and converted, creating a unification of the people of India. Ashoka decided to share and promote his religion with the public after he went through a revolution; he saw Buddhism as the answer and encouraged others to follow it by sending missionaries to preach to people around India.
Unification by religion was also shown through Ashoka’s Edicts that he had built across India. These pillars promoted Buddhism principles created a strong empire whose citizens were united by Buddhist values. Edicts, which are official orders, were carved on walls, rocks, and pillars, and were placed strategic...

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...cond Crusade (Abels). Christians would also be angry over this as Edessa also holds religious importance in the Christian faith as well. Their anger would contribute partly to the Third Crusade (Abels). During the time period where the Crusades happened, there was very little peace among these two religions. Muslims were constantly fighting to defend their holy land, and Christian kings, leaders, and priests were constantly encouraging rebellion and invasion of Jerusalem. This shows how both sides wanted control, creating a deep divide in these religions.
The division that religion caused between Christians and Muslims was present during the Crusades, a series of wars over the control of Jerusalem. Both sides had religious roots which caused major conflicts over which religion should maintain power over Jerusalem, demonstrating that religion is a dividing factor.

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