At the second event of the “Meet the Author” series held on May 16 at the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, High Commission of India, Colombo, award-winning bilingual Sri Lankan author, Daya Dissanayake, presented his book “Who is Asoka”.
A three-time state literary award winner, Dissanayake in his book examines the saga of the grandson of Chandragupta raja known as Devanampiya Piyadassi Asoka Raja and questions whether the king was in truth called Asoka. The book also questions about Chandragupta and the Mayura Dynasty.The discussion based on the book, focused on the controversies surrounding the historical details of one of the key players in the buried past of India and Sri Lanka.
Opinions were expressed on whether Asoka was a victim of politico-religious manipulations, not only during his lifetime but for many years after his death. Dissanayake emphasised that in his book he attempted to unravel the true story of Asoka, from all available data and the various imterprestions, while posing many more questions for the historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and philosophers.
