Synopsis This bumper edition includes stories of three great emperors of ancient India - Ashoka, Samudra Gupta and Harsha. History chronicles innumerable kings who were brave conquerors and valiant soldiers. But Ashoka stands above them all because he is the only one who at the zenith of his conqu4ests saw the futility of violence and had the courage to renounce it. That is why, H G Wells in his Short History of the World says that Ashoka's reign for eight and twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind. When one recalls the Glory that was India, one first thinks of the golden age of the Guptas. Emperors and empires, India had seen earlier, but the power and the splendor of the Guptas were unique and n gives a detailed account of Harsha's life till he rescues Rajyashri. We know more about the political and economic conditions of his times from the account 9f Hiuen Tsang, who visited India during his reign.