Reviewed by Meera Vishvanathan  <br/><br/>
Interpreting Ashoka   

 - Biblio: A Review of Books  
 - 30(1-3), Jan-Mar, 2025: p.6-6 
<br/><br/> Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher king by Patrick Olivelle Harper Collins publishers INDIA. 2023, 356pp. Rs.799 (HB) ISBAN 978-93-5699-322-8. <br/><br/>                                           ABSTRACT<br/> In connecting the Ashokan experiment to the idea of INDIA. Olivelle continues the nationalist trajectory of decrying Ashoka as ‘The apace loving emperor who unified IDNAIN over two millennia age’. But the story of Ashoka can be Ashoka. Akbar and Nehru as a secular triumvirate cast3e a long shadow upon our understanding of the past. As Olivelle himself recongse. In later Sanskritusage. Ashoka formal title ‘Devanampriya’ is used in mockery, to address someone who is adjusted a fool. So, rather than viewing Ashoka in terms of his legend or legacy it is enough to understand the life of this ruler though his gift of words. –Reproduced