The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.17

c21.17

The sight of all this misery and the knowledge that he alone had caused it smote the conscience of Asoka, and awakened in his breast feelings of 'remorse, profound sorrow, and regret'. These feelings crystallized into a steadfast resolve that never again should ambition lead him to inflict such grievous wrongs upon his fellow creatures; and four years after the conquest he was able to declare that 'the loss of even the hundredth or the thousandth part of the persons who were then slain, carried away captive, or done to death in Kalinga would now be a matter of deep regret to his Majesty'.