Salve Marie O. Fernandez BS Biology IV Asoka Love that gave life to a man twisted and gave death to a thousand.

The movie depicted how events turned out and affected Asokas character after his beloved Kaurwaki died added with the death of his beloved mother. When he met Kaurwaki whom he had fallen in love turned him to a joyful and loving person at the beginning. Kaurwaki the princess of the Kalinga tribe but not of royal blood never knew the real identity of Asoka whom she called Pawan. They got married but after Asoka had to go back to his place, his kingdom, due to his mother call. At the time Asoka was in his place, the Kalinga tribe was attacked. But Kaurwaki and her brother had hidden and were saved. Asoka returned to Kalinga and found out what happened and was informed of a lie on the death of his beloved. This event broke him inside and turned him like a stone. He was like a left out gas waiting for another strike of the match stick for him to be ignited. Added with the death of his mother, he was ignited of grief, anger and unforgiveness. He killed his step brothers and became the King of Magadha in which he ruled ruthlessly. He put war to other places and finally fought the kingdom of Kalinga. In this war, Kaurwaki led her people in the battle but was then defeated both physically and emotionally as she saw Pawan was leading the fight towards her people. The battle lost thousands of people. Realizing the effects of his decision, Asoka abandoned the path of war and dedicated his life to spreading the light of Buddhism across the world. A good story it is. The movie also portrays the culture of India. Indian films always incorporate dances and singing in their movie which lengthened the movie but at the same time gives an additional fun while watching their dance moves. It has always been intriguing to us the fashion of Indians placing symbols and marks on their foreheads. The film portrays to us that a red marking on Indian women indicates being married. And different marking is based on the social status of the person in the society. Another was the fashion of placing black shade or what we call eyeliner on womens eye which further emphasizes their eyes. Elephants were used during battle. Also in the previous movie Ive seen titled Alexander, when he went to India and fought against them elephants were also used by the Indians. This tells us that elephants are significant animal in India. Arranged marriage was also observed in the film. A simple introduction from one another and the ladys consent would already lead to marriage. Issues in religion also were showed when the king was not in favor of Asoka marrying a Buddhist woman. Buddhism afterwards was spread and was the religion of India. Despite the tagged as a legend, legends always have their origin maybe an emperor once ruled with same characteristic as Asoka. The love story was good. There showed how a man must pursue a woman not aggressively but through sweetness and honesty. Aside from the Indian culture, I was struck with the line Asoka said that Love wounds that gives you neither life nor death. What happened to him may also have happened to anyone. But what I saw was that he wasnt able to forgive the people who caused the death but most of all he wasnt able to forgive himself for not being there to protect her which changed him and has not given him peace but turned him to stone. Love that once gave him happiness turned out to be the root of his change as his Love died.