Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c20.s3.90

c20.s3.90

Samudra Gupta favoured poetry as well as the *Śāstra*, while Aśoka seems to have specialised in scriptural studies alone. The former undertook military campaigns with the object of *sarva-pṛithivī-jaya*, conquest of the whole earth, as known to his panegyrist, the latter eschewed military conquest after the Kaliṅga war and organised missions to effect *Dhamma-vijaya*, conquest of the hearts of men, in three continents. Yet inspite of these differences there was much that was common to these remarkable men. Both laid stress on *parākrama*, ceaseless exertion in the cause in which they believed. Both expressed solicitude for the people committed to their care, and were kind even to vanquished enemies. And both laid emphasis on *Dharma*. Samudra Gupta, no less than Dharmāśoka, made firm the rampart of the true law (*Dharma-prāchīra-bandhaḥ*).