000			01500 a2200205 4500
008			240328b 2022|||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9788178246543 (HB)
041			_aeng
080			_a82-24(593) _bLAH
100			_aLahiri, Nayanjot
245			_aSearching For Ashoka _b: Questing for a Buddhist King from India to Thailand
260			_c2022 _aRanikhet _bPermanent Black
300			_axiii, 244p.
520			_a Blending travelogue, history, and archaeology, Searching for Ashoka unravels the various avatars of India's most famous emperor, revealing how he came to be remembered—and forgotten—in distinctive ways at particular points in time and in specific locations. Through personal journeys that take her across India and to various sites and cities in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand, archaeologist Nayanjot Lahiri explores how Ashoka's visibility from antiquity to the modern era has been accompanied by a reinvention of his persona. Although the historical Ashoka spoke expansively of his ideas of governance and a new kind of morality, his afterlife is a jumble of stories and representations within various Buddhist imaginings. By remembering Ashoka selectively, Lahiri argues, ancient kings and chroniclers created an artifice, constantly appropriating and then remolding history to suit their own social visions, political agendas, and moral purposes.
650			_aAsian studies
650			_aBuddhism
650			_aArchaeology
690			_aGeneral
942			_cBK _01
999			_c60101 _d60101