Asoka (207-230 B.C.E)
India's foremost royal patron of Buddhism and the first monarch to rule over a united India. Emperor of India, founder of the Maurya Dynasty. A great Buddhist ruler who was converted to Buddhism after a long period of wars of conquest. He abolished wars in his Empire, restricted hunting or killing for food, built hospital for man and beast, and engraved on rocks and pillars throughout the Empire his famous Edicts, setting forth the moral precepts of Buddhism. He sent his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta to Sri Lanka where they converted the ruler and people to Buddhism. The Third Buddhist Council was held at his capitial Pajaliputra, India, in the seventeenth year of his reign.
