The conquest of Kalinga, which extended Mauryan rule to its farthest boundaries, seems to have been a tremendous shock to Asoka. War and conquest are always bloody and cruel, and the experience of massive homicide is often an experience that shakes people to their very souls. Asoka was so troubled by the conquest that he underwent a religious conversion. In the latter years of the Brahmanic period, several religious movements arose in reaction to the power and abuse of power by the Brahmans.
The most significant of these religious reactions was Buddhism, which is discussed in more detail in the chapters on the religious history of ancient India. Buddhism was really much less of a religion and more of a philosophy--or, better yet, a philosophical therapy. Its founder, Siddhartha Guatama, the "Buddha," or "Awakened One," was the son of a noble who, when he first encountered death and sickness, resolved to find a way to end human suffering.
After years of struggle and meditation, he "awakened" to the truth of things: that all human suffering is caused by human desire and that human desire can be quenched when one understands the impermanence of all things, including the self. Unlike Brahmanism, Buddhism eschews elaborate rituals and magic; unlike the Rig Veda, Buddhism advocates a non-striving, non-coercive and meditative life.
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