"The Kalinga country was conquered by the King, Beloved of the Gods, in the eighth year of his reign.
天佑王在位第8年时征服了羯陵伽,
150,000 persons were carried away captive, 100,000 were slain, and many times that number died.
俘虏15万,杀戮10万,另有数倍于此的人死于战火。
Immediately after the Kalingas had been conquered, the King became intensely devoted to the study of Dharma...
战争一结束,王便潜心学习佛法。
"The Beloved of the Gods, conqueror of the Kalingas, is moved to remorse now.
征服了羯陵伽的天佑王如今陷入懊悔之中。
For he has felt profound sorrow and regret because of the conquest of a people previously unconquered involves slaughter, death and deportation."
因战争让无数人失去生命,流离失所。
From now on, Ashoka sets out to redeem himself-to reach out to his people.
自此阿育王开始弥补过失,亲近子民。
And to do so, he writes his edicts not in Sanskrit, the official language of the state, but in local dialect-depending where they're placed-and in everyday speech as spoken by the people.
为此,他没有使用后来成为王朝官方语言的梵文来书写法敕,而是釆用了人民日常使用的当地方言。
With his conversion Ashoka renounced war as an instrument of state policy, and adopted human benevolence as the solution to the world's problems.
皈依佛教后,阿育王不再把战争当成国策,而是坚持施行仁政,解决世界上的问题。
But while he was inspired by the teachings of Buddha-and his son was in fact the first Buddhist missionary to Sri Lanka-he didn't impose Buddhism on his empire.
佛教的思想启发了他,他的儿子成为第一个前往斯里兰卡传教的僧人,但他并没有强行让全国信奉佛教,
Ashoka's state was in a very particular sense a secular one.
从某种特别的意义上说,他治下的帝国是一个世俗国家。
Here's Nobel prize-winning Indian economist, Amartya Sen.
诺贝尔奖得主,印度经济学家、 哲学家阿马蒂亚森这样评价。