Similarities Between the Edicts of Ashoka, the Bible, and...

Jared Sidney Messer Hi 101, Essay 2 Option 2, A few thousand years ago, three sets of laws were composed that show remarkable similarities in their instructions on how to live a moral and righteous life. Although they were written hundreds of miles apart from each other, and in totally different cultures and civilizations, the Edicts of Ashoka, the Bible, and Hammurabi’s Code all elucidate the moral principles of self-control, justice, and abstention from harming living beings. In the Thirteenth Rock Edict, Ashoka, the greatest Mauryan king of India, points out that he desired to have self-control. This is the act of self-denial and the ability to control your impulses. Ashoka obviously considered this to be a virtue and in†¦show more content†¦Justice was held up by these three sets of laws as a quality of utmost importance. One of Ashoka’s most convicting beliefs was the abstention of harming any living being. This is evident by his conversion to peace loving Buddhism after the gruesome Kalinga war. However, he did make it clear that if his subjects did not reform or submit to his rule, he would have to punish them