Editing Ashoka (section)

== Reign before Buddhist influence ==
Both Sri Lankan and North Indian traditions assert that Ashoka was a violent person before Buddhism.{{sfn|Guruge|1995|p=46}} Taranatha also states that Ashoka was initially called "Kamashoka" because he spent many years in pleasurable pursuits (''[[kama]]''); he was then called "Chandashoka" ("Ashoka the fierce") because he spent some years performing evil deeds; and finally, he came to be known as Dhammashoka ("Ashoka the righteous") after his conversion to Buddhism.{{sfn|Thapar|1961|p=29}}

The ''Ashokavadana'' also calls him "Chandashoka", and describes several of his cruel acts:{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|p=105}}
* The ministers who had helped him ascend the throne started treating him with contempt after his ascension. To test their loyalty, Ashoka gave them the absurd order of cutting down every flower-and fruit-bearing tree. When they failed to carry out this order, Ashoka personally cut off the heads of 500 ministers.{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|p=105}}
* One day, during a stroll at a park, Ashoka and his concubines came across a beautiful [[Saraca asoca|Ashoka tree]]. The sight put him in an amorous mood, but the women did not enjoy caressing his rough skin. Sometime later, when Ashoka fell asleep, the resentful women chopped the flowers and the branches of his namesake tree. After Ashoka woke up, he burnt 500 of his concubines to death as punishment.{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|p=106}}
* Alarmed by the king's involvement in such massacres, prime minister Radha-Gupta proposed hiring an executioner to carry out future mass killings to leave the king unsullied. Girika, a Magadha village boy who boasted that he could execute the whole of [[Jambudvipa]], was hired for the purpose. He came to be known as Chandagirika ("Girika the fierce"), and on his request, Ashoka built a jail in Pataliputra.{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|p=106}} Called [[Ashoka's Hell]], the jail looked pleasant from the outside, but inside it, Girika brutally tortured the prisoners.{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|pp=106–107}}

The 5th-century Chinese traveller [[Faxian]] states that Ashoka personally visited the underworld to study torture methods there and then invented his methods. The 7th-century traveller [[Xuanzang]] claims to have seen a pillar marking the site of Ashoka's "Hell".{{sfn|Thapar|1961|p=29}}

The ''Mahavamsa'' also briefly alludes to Ashoka's cruelty, stating that Ashoka was earlier called Chandashoka because of his evil deeds but came to be called Dharmashoka because of his pious acts after his conversion to Buddhism.{{sfn|Lahiri|2015|p=107}} However, unlike the north Indian tradition, the Sri Lankan texts do not mention any specific evil deeds performed by Ashoka, except his killing of 99 of his brothers.{{sfn|Guruge|1995|p=46}}

Such descriptions of Ashoka as an evil person before his conversion to Buddhism appear to be a fabrication of the Buddhist authors,{{sfn|Thapar|1961|p=29}} who attempted to present the change that Buddhism brought to him as a miracle.{{sfn|Guruge|1995|p=46}} In an attempt to dramatise this change, such legends exaggerate Ashoka's past wickedness and his piousness after the conversion.<ref name="Charles1962">{{cite book | author=Charles Drekmeier | title=Kingship and Community in Early India | url=https://archive.org/details/kingshipcommunit0000drek | url-access=registration | access-date=30 October 2012 | year=1962 | publisher=Stanford University Press | isbn=978-0-8047-0114-3 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingshipcommunit0000drek/page/173 173] }}</ref>