Can Ashoka conquer his enemies or will his own demons get the better of him?
Known in far reaches of the world as a great conqueror, King Bindusara rules over much of India with an iron fist. When a Brahmin prophesies that his beautiful wife Subhadragi will birth a legendary ruler, a king above all kings, Bindusara is ecstatic. But when the child is born a frail, ordinary-looking boy, the king, filled with disappointment and disgust, leaves him to his mother and turns all attention to grooming Susima, his eldest son, as heir to the Mauryan throne.
Such painful rejection is but a first step in the struggle Ashoka – as Subhadragi names her son – will go through to fulfil his destiny. Shunned by his father, and bullied and humiliated by his siblings, Ashoka learns from a very early age to be the master of his own fate. As he begins to challenge the volatile Susima at every step, his father decides to send him away to Takshashila to quell a rebellion. But Ashoka’s rise has been noted by many, who want to end the threat to Susima’s succession once and for all.
Marvelously portraying a vulnerable boy’s journey to becoming the greatest emperor the world has seen, The Mauryan depicts the way of life in medieval India and raises questions of morality, power and destiny.
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