The distinguished scholar Patrick Olivelle’s new book, based primarily on the inscriptions (which is where Ashoka ‘speaks for himself’), constructs a fascinating portrait of India’s first great ruler, where the figure of Ashoka comes vividly alive notwithstanding the elusiveness and fragmentary nature of the sources.In conversation with HarperBroadcast, he talks about writing the biography—the first in the Indian Lives series, curated and edited by Ramachandra Guha—and the enduring legacy of one of the most iconic emperors of ancient India.