The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.15

c21.15

In the thirteenth year of his reign, or in the ninth, as reckoned from the coronation, Asoka embarked upon the one aggressive war of his life of which a record exists, and rounded off his dominions by the conquest of the kingdom of Kaliṅga, the strip of territory extending along the coast of the Bay of Bengal from the Mahānadī to the Godāvarī. The campaign was wholly successful, and Kaliṅga became an integral part of the Maurya dominions. Two special edicts published a few years later show that the administration of the newly acquired territory caused much anxiety to the emperor, who, like all sovereigns, sometimes was not well served by his officers. The royal instructions, which enjoined just and paternal government, and specially insisted on sympathetic tactful treatment of the wilder tribes, were disregarded at times by officials, who had to be warned that disobedience of orders was not the way to win the favour of either heaven or their master.