The Mighty Emperor

"A true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart." - Hercules

Pataliputra, 260 BCE

Emperor Ashoka in pacing restlessly inside his royal chamber in Magadha. It's past midnight. All the inhabitants of the royal palace are sleeping in their respective rooms. Only some palace guards are awake at this hour. But the Emperor is unable to sleep. He is having sleepless nights for the past couple of months. Instead what he is having is fitful slumber, interrupted by lurid nightmares. Nightmares filled with wails of people, blood and skeletons of the dead. In the recent war with Kalinga, a hundred and fifty thousand had been killed, though the Emperor had emerged victorious.

Slowly, a pale streak of orange colour lights the eastern horizon. The chirping of birds in the royal garden heralds the advent of another new day. The Emperor comes out of his chamber to take a stroll in the royal garden, unaccompanied by any royal guards, in a bid to calm down the raging thoughts in his restless mind. At this early hour, the fragrance of flowers waft in the cool morning breeze. But the Emperor suddenly smells the putrid smell of rotten corpses instead of the fragrance of the flowers. And he starts to retch. His tongue feels parched and he starts to run away towards the palace in search of drinking water when he accidentally hears the conversation between a palace guard and a young maid, who assists the royal cook in the kitchen. The maid, who happens to be a widow, has lost her husband recently. Her husband was a lower ranking soldier in the Magadha army, who lost his life fighting in the Kalinga war. She was distraught since her husband's death. Now she is telling the palace-guard how she has found peace after her meeting with some Buddhist monk named Upagupta. The Emperor was intrigued.

Monsoon has arrived in Magadha. During the rainy season, the monks are required to take up a fixed abode and depend for their subsistence on the neighbouring households. Upagupta is staying in the outskirts of Pataliputra during this rainy season.

The Emperor has heard a lot about Upagupta. So today he has come to pay a visit to him. Upagupta in his shaven head and yellow robe looks divine. The Emperor bows his head in obeisance.

Under the influence of Upagupta, the Emperor accepts the Buddhist creed, the faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha.

Later, Ashoka went on to become one of the greatest Emperors of India. He is remembered till date not for his conquest, but for his efforts for the well-being of his subjects. H.G.Wells wrote of Ashoka in his book 'The Outline of History' : "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousness and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star." Truly, a true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.

Write Tribe Festival Of Words June 2018

#writebravely

#Day7

For day seven, I chose the following quote prompt:
Day 7 – Jun 30
“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” – Hercules