Abstract
TheMahābhāratapresents its hearers with the key figure of Yudhisthira, a king who repeatedly refuses to accept that violent opposition is the correct way to respond to the assaults of his aggressive political enemies. Historical evidence reveals that in the third century BCE India was ruled by a renowned emperor who was similarly opposed to the use of violent means to achieve political goals. By highlighting parallels between the text of the epic and the Aśokan edicts, this paper suggests that the character of Yudhisthira may have been modeled on the historical Aśoka and that the extended debates about the nature of royal dharma contained in the text may reflect ideological controversies arising from Aśoka's ideas on kingship.
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