268 BC

Ashoka

Ashoka begins his reign as Mauryan emperor

His own inscriptions count every event from the year he was anointed — and never say which calendar year that was.

Two dates that mark different things

The listing runs 273 to 232 BCE, but those endpoints come from different reconstructions. An older chronology separates an accession around 273 BCE from a formal consecration around 269 BCE; many modern works date the anointment to roughly 268 BCE; 232 BCE conventionally marks Ashoka's death.

The Metropolitan Museum uses about 273–232 BCE; other scholarship uses about 268–232. The spread is the state of the evidence, not a disagreement that has been settled.

Ashoka's inscriptions date his actions by years since consecration but never translate that ceremony into an absolute calendar year.

An accession with no surviving account

The succession made Ashoka the third Mauryan emperor after Bindusara, his father, and Chandragupta Maurya, the dynasty's founder.

No contemporary narrative preserves the ceremony, the participants, a speech or any immediate political act. Claims of a four-year succession struggle and a delayed coronation come from later traditions and chronological reconstruction, not a court record.

Nothing that can be securely documented — no policy, conquest, conversion or proclamation — attaches to the accession day itself.

What belongs to the reign, not the day

The Kalinga conquest fell in Ashoka's eighth year after consecration, not at his accession. His proclamations went out in three languages — Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic — and four scripts, not Brahmi alone.

The Third Buddhist Council, Mahinda's mission and the mass stupa-building programme are known mainly from later Buddhist traditions rather than from the inscriptions.

He was not forgotten until the nineteenth century either: his inscriptions became readable then, but Ashoka had remained known in Buddhist and other literary traditions throughout.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~-0268.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed material conflates a reign span, a possible accession in 273 BCE, a possible consecration in 269/268 BCE, and Ashoka's death around 232 BCE.
Modern works commonly date his anointment or reign from about 268 BCE, while older chronologies distinguish a 273 BCE accession from a later consecration.
Ashoka's inscriptions date actions by years since consecration but do not supply an absolute calendar year for the ceremony.
There is no exact month or day; the chosen date is approximate.