Explain how the Kalinga War transformed Ashoka's rule of the Maurya Empire and analyze his edicts as primary-source evidence of that change.
Around 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire, the first to unify most of the Indian subcontinent, guided by his minister Chanakya (also called Kautilya), who wrote the Arthashastra, a detailed handbook on how to govern and hold power. His grandson Ashoka, who ruled from about 268 to 232 BCE, expanded the empire further through conquest -- until one war changed the direction of his entire reign.
Around 261 BCE, Ashoka conquered the region of Kalinga in a war so devastating that his own inscriptions describe deep regret, citing well over 100,000 people killed, wounded, or displaced. After Kalinga, Ashoka renounced further military conquest and turned to Buddhism, then used his enormous authority to promote it peacefully: he had edicts, public messages, carved onto rock faces and tall stone pillars across the empire, urging nonviolence, religious tolerance, and public welfare projects such as wells and rest houses for travelers, and he sent Buddhist missionaries as far as Sri Lanka. A carved lion sculpture from the top of one of his pillars is now India's national emblem, and the wheel symbol from another, the Ashoka Chakra, appears on India's flag today.
Mastery looks like: They can explain how the Kalinga War changed Ashoka's rule and use his edicts as primary-source evidence for that change.
Common stumbles: Treating Ashoka's edicts as neutral historical description rather than recognizing them as the ruler's own persuasive, first-person words.