Acquired From Google.com

1. Diodotus I may have been Ashoka.
Buddhists claim that King Ashoka (273-
232 BCE)….., citing his pillars and rock
edicts as evidence of this activity. In fact
nowhere in these pillars and edicts is
Buddhism ever mentioned, though he
does mention dharma pretty often.
[As a skeptic, I believe Ashoka may
never have existed. Certainly not under
that name. But for the sake of argument
let us suppose the person we now know
as Ashoka had existed].. For details,

2. But as John S. Strong says in The Legend
of King Asoka, “Precisely what Ashoka
meant by Dharma has been the subject of
much debate. In Buddhist circles, the word
means the Buddha’s Teachings—his
doctrine—...
More generally, however,Dharma can be
translated as law, duty, or righteousness,
and as such it has many overtones in Indian
religion.
However he intended it, in his edicts,
Ashoka seems to have been obsessed
with Dharma. The Ashokan state was to be
governed according to Dharma. The people
were to followDharma. Wars of aggression
were to be replaced by peaceful conquests
of Dharma. Special royal ministers were
charged with the propagation of Dharma.
True delight in this world came only with
delight in Dharma, and the old royal
pleasure-tours and hunts were replaced
by Dharma-pilgrimages.

3. "From these and other indications, we
may say that Dharma seems to have
meant for Ashoka a moral polity of active
social concern, religious tolerance,
ecological awareness, the observance of
common ethical precepts,..."