Rise of the power of King Ashoka in Maurya Empire

# Ashoka was not the eldest son of Bindusara and so was not the heir presumptive.
# Bindusara wanted his elder son Susima to be crowned the next king.
# But Ashoka was trained in military and weapons and showed great skills as an administrator when he was made the governor of Ujjain.
# In the war of succession that followed Bindusara’s death in 272 BC, Ashoka emerged victorious aided by his father’s ministers.
# When he became the king, he was said to be bad-tempered, ruthless and very cruel.
# He even built a torture chamber to torture his prisoners to death. This earned him the moniker Chandashoka (cruel Ashoka).
# Once he became the king, he started expanding his empire by conquest. In the ninth year of his reign, he waged war with Kalinga (in present-day Odisha).