The Lion Capital of Ashoka: A Statue’s Roaring Symbolism

My unpublished letter to the WSJ Editor

Dear Editor:

In The Lion Capital of Ashoka: A Statue’s Roaring Symbolism, by Willard Spiegelman, published on March 21, 2025, the author makes a major claim about Ashoka wrong. One reason for such errors is that modern scholars and academics have not studied Indian history from the native (Indian and Hindu) perspective. In addition, in the review of Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King(Patrick Olivelle), Maxwell Carter writes that “[a]bout Ashoka, we can be sure of virtually nothing.”

We must evaluate Mr. Spiegelman’s claim about Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism “in remorse for prior bloodthirsty, tyrannical deeds” against this backdrop. Indeed, Ashoks was also known as Chandashoka, Ashoka the cruel. However, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism was a result of remorse at the loss of lives--100,000 dead--during the Kalinga war. Nor did Ashoka cease violence, bloodshed, and genocide after his so-called conversion. According to minor rock edicts, Ashoka converted to Buddhism in 264 BCE, two years before the Kalinga war in 262 BCE. Independent research Sanjeev Sanyal claims that Ashoka’s bloodthirsty genocidal campaigns continued unabated much after his supposed conversion.