ashoka had seen the bloodshed and felt that he was the cause of the destruction. the whole area of kalinga was plundered and destroyed. some of ashoka's later edicts state that about 100,000 people died on the kalinga side and an almost equal number of ashoka's army, though legends among the odia people – descendants of kalinga's natives – claim that these figures were highly exaggerated by ashoka. as per the legends, kalinga armies caused twice the amount of destruction they suffered. thousands of men and women were deported from kalinga and forced to work on clearing wastelands for future settlement.