Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/165

 ACCESSION AND CORONATION 133 Inasmuch as the reign of Asoka lasted for fully forty years, he must have been a young man when, in the year 272 B. c., he undertook the government of the vast empire which had been won and kept by his grandfather and father. Nothing is recorded concerning the first eleven years of his rule, which were spent presumably in the current work of administration. His solemn cor- onation did not take place until the year 269 B. c., about three years after his accession, and this fact is the only circumstance which supports the notion that his succession was disputed. The anniversary of his coronation was always celebrated with ceremony and specially marked by the pardon and release of pris- oners. In the twelfth year of his reign, or the ninth, as reckoned from the coronation, Asoka embarked upon the one aggressive war of his life, and rounded off his do- minions by the conquest of the kingdom of Kalinga, the strip of territory extending along the coast of the Bay of Bengal from the Mahanadi to ^the Godavari. The campaign was wholly successful, and Kalinga became an integral part of the Maurya dominions. Two special edicts published a few years later show that the admin- istration of the newly acquired territory caused much anxiety to the emperor, who, like all sovereigns, some- times was not well served by his officers. The royal instructions, which enjoined just and paternal govern- ment, and specially insisted on sympathetic, tactful treatment of the wilder tribes, were disregarded at times by officials, who had to be warned that disobedience of