I guess the song is pretty self-explanatory. It's about Ashoka the Great, who ruled India around 270 BC. He was a pretty bad dude, and during the Kalinga War his armies killed about 100,000 Kalingans at a cost of 10,000 of his own. He personally viewed the battlegrounds, and apparently he saw the carnage and cried, "What have I done?" He vowed never to do that again, and converted to Buddhism. As the song says, his power grew through his good will and kindness. Ashoka's symbol is the blue wheel thing in the middle of India's flag.
Awesome song. I was at the show where they recorded the only non-bootleg version of this. Jack Johnson and his band were opening for Mason, and Adam Topol (Jack's drummer) was playing congas along with Mason's Band. It was pretty awesome.
I guess the song is pretty self-explanatory. It's about Ashoka the Great, who ruled India around 270 BC. He was a pretty bad dude, and during the Kalinga War his armies killed about 100,000 Kalingans at a cost of 10,000 of his own. He personally viewed the battlegrounds, and apparently he saw the carnage and cried, "What have I done?" He vowed never to do that again, and converted to Buddhism. As the song says, his power grew through his good will and kindness. Ashoka's symbol is the blue wheel thing in the middle of India's flag.
Awesome song. I was at the show where they recorded the only non-bootleg version of this. Jack Johnson and his band were opening for Mason, and Adam Topol (Jack's drummer) was playing congas along with Mason's Band. It was pretty awesome.