01249nam a22001457a 4500 533313 533313 260512b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Reviewed by Meera Vishvanathan 60467 Interpreting Ashoka Biblio: A Review of Books 30(1-3), Jan-Mar, 2025: p.6-6 Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher king by Patrick Olivelle Harper Collins publishers INDIA. 2023, 356pp. Rs.799 (HB) ISBAN 978-93-5699-322-8. ABSTRACT 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 Biblio: A Review of Books BOOK REVIEW AR 0 0 ddc 0 0 408483 IIPA IIPA 2026-05-12 30(1-3), Jan-Mar, 2025: p.6-6 AR138825 2026-05-12 AR