The 23-year-old is a 400m and 4X400m relay runner specialist and was part of the team that won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games last month.
Ashwini, who started running 400m hurdle in May at the National Open Athletic meet in Kochi, is only the third Indian to win a gold medal in this category.
MD Valsamma was the first Indian woman to win the 400m hurdles in 1982 New Delhi Asiad, while the legendary PT Usha repeated the show in 1986 at Seoul.
While Ashwini raced away with her first international individual gold medal in 400m hurdle, her compatriot Jauna Murmu was not so lucky as she missed the bronze by a whisker after clocking a personal best of 56.88.
Jauna was 0.05 points behind third-placed Satomi Kubokura of Japan. Chinese Wang Xing won the silver.
Image: India's Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji celebrates with her gold medal after winning the women's 400m hurdles event at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou
The 29-year-old Indian's effort was, however, still short of the national record of 49.51sec he set during the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.
The silver went to Saudi Arabia's Bandar Yahya Sharahili, who clocked 50.29sec.
Japan's Naohiro Kawakita settled for the bronze medal with a timing of 50.37sec.
Image: India's Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham celebrates winning the men's 400m hurdles final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou
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