Ashoka University

Ashoka University is a fully residential university with a focus on the liberal arts in Haryana, India.

The University is a collective philanthropic effort of several leaders from Indian industry, including Pramath Raj Sinha, Founding Dean, Indian School of Business, Ashish Dhawan, CEO, Central Square Foundation, and Vineet Gupta, MD, Jamboree Education; internet entrepreneurs such as Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Executive Vice-Chairman and MD, Info Edge (India), and Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, Makemytrip; and other names such as Dilip Shangvi, Founder and MD, Sun Pharmaceutical, Amit Chandra, MDBain Capital, and Jerry Rao of Mphasis and Value and Budget Housing Corporation fame. Ashish Gupta, COO of Evalueserve is also among the founders.

Two scholars are at at the helm of the University’s academic leadership. Historian and author Rudrangshu Mukherjee, who was most recently Editor, The Editorial Pages, of The Telegraph, is the Vice-Chancellor. Andre Beteille, renowned sociologist and Padma Bhushan awardee, is the Chancellor. The academic council, which guides academic matters, consists of Ramachandra Guha, Kaushik Basu, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Supriya Chaudhuri, Sunil Khilnani and A.K. Shiva Kumar, among others.

Ashoka

Ashoka Maurya (IAST: Aśoka; /əˈʃoʊkə/; 304–232 BCE), commonly known as Ashoka and Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan to the modern state of Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The empire's capital was Pataliputra (in Magadha, present-day Bihar), with provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain.

In about 260 BCE, Ashoka waged a bitterly destructive war against the state of Kalinga (modern Odisha). He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had done. He embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. "Ashoka reflected on the war in Kalinga, which reportedly had resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, ending at around 200,000 deaths." Ashoka converted gradually to Buddhism beginning about 263 BCE. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia, and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha. "Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity." Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator. In the Kalinga edicts, he addresses his people as his "children", and mentions that as a father he desires their good.

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.