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128 The Häthigumpha Inscription and the Bhabru Edict Jainism and the general Brahmanical bias infected the Jain writers also.
Asoka and Kalinga Asoka has himself left an account of his conquest of Kalinga in the eighth year of his reign in his Rock Edict XIII. His two Kalinga Edicts also bear on his concern for the conquered people of Kalinga. There is nothing to suggest that this conquest was to punish a king or people following a different religion. It was a conquest to annex Kalinga and thus extend the borders of his empire to the eastern coast. The difference between the campaigns of Nandarāja and Asoka appears to be that while the former was a campaign of conquest and annexation, the latter was to bring it back under the imperial administration.
Asoka adopted Buddhism as his personal faith more than a year after the conquest of Kalinga, and, therefore, it cannot be connected with his persecuting zeal for Buddhism. In the twelfth and nineteenth years of his reign he donated cave dwellings for the Ajīvakas. In all his edicts he mentions the Brahmins and the Sramaņas together and in his Pillar Edict VII, recorded in the year 27 of his reign, he specifically mentions his concern for the welfare of the Buddhist Samgha, the Brahmins, the Ājivakas and the Nirgranthas (i.e., the Jain monks and their followers). The dharma or the code of conduct prescribed in his edicts is based on the moral principles for individual and social conduct aimed at harmony and tolerance among his subjects and with his neighbours.
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