{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp117.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp117.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp117.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nFuture kings of Magadh\u00e1. Five princes of the line of Pradyota. Ten \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1gas. Nine Nandas. Ten Mauryas. Ten \u015aungas. Four Ka\u0144was. Thirty \u00c1ndhrabhrityas. Kings of various tribes and castes, and periods of their rule. Ascendancy of barbarians. Different races in different regions. Period of universal iniquity and decay. Coming of Vish\u0144u as Kalki. Destruction of the wicked, and restoration of the practices of the Vedas. End of the Kali, and return of the Krita, age. Duration of the Kali. Verses chanted by Earth, and communicated by Asita to Janaka. End of the fourth book.\nTHE last of the Vr\u00edhadratha dynasty, Ripunjaya, will have a minister named Sunika 1, who having killed his sovereign, will place his son Pradyota upon the throne 2: his son will be P\u00e1laka 3; his son will be Vi\u015b\u00e1khay\u00fapa 4; his son will be Janaka 5; and his son will be Nandivarddhana 6. These five kings of the house of Pradyota will reign over the earth for a hundred and thirty-eight years 7.\nThe next prince will be \u015ai\u015bunaga 8; his son will be K\u00e1kavar\u0144a 9; his son will be Kshemadharman 10; his son will be Kshatraujas 11; his son will be Vidmis\u00e1ra 12; his son will be \u00c1j\u00e1ta\u015batru 13; his son will be\n[paragraph continues] Dharbaka 14; his son will be Uday\u00e1\u015bwa 15; his son will also be Nandivarddhana; and his son will be Mah\u00e1nandi 16. These ten \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1gas will be kings of the earth for three hundred and sixty-two years 17.\nThe son of Mah\u00e1nanda will be born of a woman of the \u015a\u00fadra or servile class; his name will be Nanda, called Mah\u00e1padma, for he will be exceedingly avaricious 18. Like another Para\u015bur\u00e1ma, he will be the annihilator of the Kshatriya race; for after him the kings of the earth will be \u015a\u00fadras. He will bring the whole earth under one umbrella: he\nwill have eight sons, Sum\u00e1lya and others, who will reign after Mah\u00e1padma; and he and his sons 19 will govern for a hundred years. The Brahman Kaut\u0301ilya will root out the nine Nandas 20\nUpon the cessation of the race of Nanda, the Mauryas will possess the earth, for Kant\u0301ilya will place Chandragupta 21 on the throne: his son\nwill be Vindus\u00e1ra 22; his son will be A\u015bokavarddhana 23; his son will be\n[paragraph continues] Suya\u015bas 24; his son will be Da\u015baratha; his son will be Sangata; his son will be \u015a\u00e1li\u015b\u00faka; his son will be Soma\u015barmman; his son will be Sa\u015badharman 25; and his successor will be Vrihadratha. These are the ten Mauryas, who will reign over the earth for a hundred and thirty-seven years 26.\nThe dynasty of the \u015aungas will next become possessed of the sovereignty; for Pushpamitra, the general of the last Maurya prince, will\nput his master to death, and ascend the throne 27: his son will be Agnimitra 28; his son will be Sujyesht\u0301ha 29; his son will be Vasumitra 30; his son will be \u00c1rdraka 31; his son will be Pulindaka 32; his son will be Ghoshavasu 33; his son will be Vajramitra 34; his son will be Bh\u00e1gavata 35; his son will be Devabh\u00fati 36. These are the ten \u015aungas, who will govern the kingdom for a hundred and twelve years 37.\nDevabh\u00fati, the last \u015aunga prince, being addicted to, immoral indulgences, his minister, the Ka\u0144wa named Vasudeva will murder him, and usurp the kingdom: his son will be Bh\u00famimitra; his son will be N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a; his son will be Su\u015barman. These four K\u00e1\u0144was will be kings of the earth for forty-five years 38.\nSu\u015barman the K\u00e1\u0144wa will be killed by a powerful servant named \u015aipraka, of the \u00c1ndhra tribe, who will become king, and found the \u00c1ndhrabhritya dynasty 39: he will be succeeded by his brother Krish\u0144a 40; his son will be \u015ar\u00ed \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i 41; his son will be P\u00farnotsanga 42; his son will be \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i (2nd) 43; his son will be Lambodara 44; his son will be Iv\u00edlaka 45; his son will be Meghasw\u00e1ti 46; his son will be Patumat 47; his\nson will be Arisht\u0301akarman 48; his son will be H\u00e1la 49; his son will be T\u00e1laka 50; his son will be Pravilasena 51; his son will be Sundara, named \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i 52; his son will be Chakora \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i 53; his son will be \u015aivasw\u00e1ti 54; his son will be Gomatiputra 55; his son will be Pulimat 56; his son will be \u015aiva\u015br\u00ed \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i 57; his son will be \u015aivaskandha 58; his son will be Yajna\u015br\u00ed 59; his son will be Vijaya 60; his son will be Chandra\u015br\u00ed 61; his son will be Pulom\u00e1rchish 62. These thirty Andhrabhritya kings will reign four hundred and fifty-six years 63.\nAfter these, various races will reign, as seven \u00c1bh\u00edras, ten Garddhabas, sixteen \u015aakas, eight Yavanas, fourteen Tush\u00e1ras, thirteen Mu\u0144d\u0301as,\neleven Maunas, altogether seventy-nine princes 64, who will be sovereigns\nof the earth for one thousand three hundred and ninety years; and\nthen eleven Pauras will be kings for three hundred years 65. When they are destroyed, the Kailakila Yavanas will be kings; the chief of whom will be Vindhya\u015bakti; his son will be Puranjaya; his son will be R\u00e1machandra; his son will be Adharma, from whom will be Var\u00e1nga, Kritanandana, \u015audhinandi, Nandiya\u015bas, \u015ai\u015buka, and Prav\u00edra; these will rule for a hundred and six years 66. From them will proceed thirteen sons;\nthen three B\u00e1hl\u00edkas, and Pushpamitra, and Pat\u0301umitra, and others, to the number of thirteen, will rule over Mekala 67. There will be nine\nkings in the seven Koalas, and there will be as many Naishadha princes 68.\nIn Magadh\u00e1 a sovereign named Vi\u015bwasphat\u0301ika will establish other tribes; he will extirpate the Kshatriya or martial race, and elevate fishermen, barbarians, and Brahmans, and other castes, to power 69. The nine N\u00e1gas will reign in Padm\u00e1vati, K\u00e1ntipuri, and Mathur\u00e1; and the Guptas of Magadh\u00e1 along the Ganges to Pray\u00e1ga 70. A prince named\n[paragraph continues] Devarakshita will reign, in a city on the sea shore, over the Ko\u015balas, Od\u0301ras, Pu\u0144d\u0301ras, and T\u00e1mraliptas 71. The Guhas will possess K\u00e1linga, M\u00e1hihaka, and the mountains of Mahendra 72. The race of Ma\u0144idhanu will occupy the countries of the Nish\u00e1das, Naimishikas, and K\u00e1latoyas 73.\n[paragraph continues] The people called Kanakas will possess the Amazon country, and that called M\u00fashika 74. Men of the three tribes, but degraded, and \u00c1bh\u00edras and \u015a\u00fadras, will occupy \u015aaur\u00e1sht\u0301ra, Avanti, \u015a\u00fara, Arbuda, and Marubh\u00fami: and \u015a\u00fadras, outcastes, and barbarians will be masters of the banks of the Indus, D\u00e1rvika, the Chandrabh\u00e1g\u00e1, and K\u00e1shmir 75.\nThese will all be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth; kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness. They will inflict death on women, children, and cows; they will seize upon the property of their subjects; they will be of limited power, and will for the most part rapidly rise and fall; their lives will be short, their desires insatiable, and they will display but little piety. The people of the various countries intermingling with them will follow their example, and the barbarians being powerful in the patronage of the princes, whilst purer tribes are neglected, the people will perish 76. Wealth and piety will decrease day by day, until\nthe world will be wholly depraved. Then property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification. Earth will be venerated but for its mineral treasures 77; the Brahmanical thread will constitute a Brahman; external types (as the staff and red garb) will be the only distinctions of the several orders of life; dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence; weakness will be the cause of dependance; menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; simple ablution will be purification 78; mutual assent will be marriage; fine clothes will be dignity 79; and water afar off will be esteemed a holy spring. Amidst all castes he who is the strongest will reign over a principality thus vitiated by many faults. The people, unable to bear the heavy burdens imposed upon them by their avaricious sovereigns, will take refuge amongst the valleys of the mountains, and will be glad to feed upon wild honey, herbs, roots, fruits, flowers, and leaves: their only covering will be the bark of trees, and they will be exposed to the cold, and wind, and sun, and rain. No man's life will exceed three and twenty years. Thus in the Kali age shall decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation.\nWhen the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of law shall nearly have ceased, and the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a\nportion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth: he will be born in the family of Vish\u0144uya\u015bas, an eminent Brahman of Sambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the Mlechchhas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, or age of purity. As it is said; \"When the sun and moon, and the lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in one mansion, the Krita age shall return 80.\"\nThus, most excellent Muni, the kings who are past, who are present, and who are to be, have been enumerated. From the birth of Par\u00edkshit to the coronation of Nanda it is to be known that 1015 years have elapsed 81. When the two first stars of the seven Rishis (the great Bear)\nrise in the heavens, and some lunar asterism is seen at night at an equal distance between them, then the seven Rishis continue stationary in that conjunction for a hundred years of men 82. At the birth of\n[paragraph continues] Par\u00edkshit they were in Magh\u00e1, and the Kali age then commenced, which consists of 1200 (divine) years. When the portion of Vish\u0144u (that had been born from Vasudeva) returned to heaven, then the Kali age commenced. As long as the earth was touched by his sacred feet, the Kali age could not affect it. As soon as the incarnation of the eternal Vish\u0144u had departed, the son of Dharma, Yudhisht\u0301hira, with his brethren, abdicated the sovereignty. Observing unpropitious portents, consequent upon Krish\u0144a's disappearance, he placed Par\u00edkshit upon the throne. When the seven Rishis are in Purv\u00e1sh\u00e1d\u0301h\u00e1, then Nanda will begin to reign 83, and thenceforward the influence of the Kali will augment.\nThe day that Krish\u0144a shall have departed from the earth will be the first of the Kali age, the duration of which you shall hear; it will continue for 360,000 years of mortals. After twelve hundred divine years shall have elapsed, the Krita age shall be renewed.\nThus age after age Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vai\u015byas, and \u015a\u00fadras, excellent Brahman, men of great souls, have passed away by thousands; whose names and tribes and families I have not enumerated to you, from their great number, and the repetition of appellations it would involve. Two persons, Dev\u00e1pi of the race of Puru, and Maru of the family of Ikshw\u00e1ku, through the force of devotion continue alive throughout the whole four ages, residing at the village of Kal\u00e1pa: they will return hither in the beginning of the Krita age, and, becoming members of the family of the Manu, give origin to the Kshatriya dynasties 84. In this manner the earth is possessed through every series of the three first ages, the Krita, Treta, and Dw\u00e1para, by the sons of the Manu; and some remain in the Kali age, to serve as the rudiments of renewed generations, in the same way as Dev\u00e1pi and Maru are still in existence.\nI have now given you a summary account of the sovereigns of the earth; to recapitulate the whole would be impossible even in a hundred lives. These and other kings, who with perishable frames have possessed this ever-during world, and who, blinded with deceptive notions of individual occupation, have indulged the feeling that suggests, \"This earth is mine--it is my son's--it belongs to my dynasty,\" have all passed away. So, many who reigned before them, many who succeeded them, and many who are yet to come, have ceased, or will cease, to be. Earth laughs, as if smiling with autumnal flowers, to behold her kings unable to effect the subjugation of themselves. I will repeat to you, Maitreya, the stanzas that were chanted by Earth, and which the Muni Asita communicated to Janaka, whose banner was virtue. \"How great is the folly of princes, who are endowed with the faculty of reason, to cherish\nthe confidence of ambition, when they themselves are but foam upon the wave. Before they have subdued themselves, they seek to reduce their ministers, their servants, their subjects, under their authority; they then endeavour to overcome their foes. 'Thus,' say they, 'will we conquer the ocean-circled earth;' and, intent upon their project, behold not death, which is not far off. But what mighty matter is the subjugation of the sea-girt earth to one who can subdue himself. Emancipation from existence is the fruit of self-control. It is through infatuation that kings desire to possess me, whom their predecessors have been forced to leave, whom their fathers have not retained. Beguiled by the selfish love of sway, fathers contend with sons, and brothers with brothers, for my possession. Foolishness has been the character of every king who has boasted, 'All this earth is mine--every thing is mine--it will be in my house for ever;' for he is dead. How is it possible that such vain desires should survive in the hearts of his descendants, who have seen their progenitor, absorbed by the thirst of dominion, compelled to relinquish me, whom he called his own, and tread the path of dissolution? When I hear a king sending word to another by his ambassador, 'This earth is mine; immediately resign your pretensions to it;' I am moved to violent laughter at first, but it soon subsides in pity for the infatuated fool.\"\nThese were the verses, Maitreya, which Earth recited, and by listening to which ambition fades away like snow before the sun. I have now related to you the whole account of the descendants of the Manu; amongst whom have flourished kings endowed with a portion of Vish\u0144u, engaged in the preservation of the earth. Whoever shall listen reverently and with faith to this narrative, proceeding from the posterity of Manu, shall be purified entirely from all his sins, and, with the perfect possession of his faculties, shall live in unequalled affluence, plenty, and prosperity. He who has heard of the races of the sun and moon, of Ikshw\u00e1.ku, Jahnu, Ma\u0144d\u0301h\u00e1tri, Sagara, and Raghu, who have all perished; of Yay\u00e1ti, Nahusha, and their posterity, who are no more; of kings of great might, resistless valour, and unbounded wealth, who have been overcome by still more powerful time, and are now only a tale; he will learn wisdom, and forbear to call either children, or wife, or house, or\nlands, or wealth, his own. The arduous penances that have been performed by heroic men obstructing fate for countless years, religious rites and sacrifices of great efficacy and virtue, have been made by time the subject only of narration. The valiant Prithu traversed the universe, every where triumphant over his foes; yet he was blown away, like the light down of the Simal tree, before the blast of time. He who was K\u00e1rtav\u00edryya subdued innumerable enemies, and conquered the seven zones of the earth; but now he is only the topic of a theme, a subject for affirmation and contradiction 85. Fie upon the empire of the sons of Raghu, who triumphed over Da\u015b\u00e1nana, and extended their sway to the ends of the earth; for was it not consumed in an instant by the frown of the destroyer? Ma\u0144d\u0301h\u00e1tri, the emperor of the universe, is embodied only in a legend; and what pious man who hears it will ever be so unwise as to cherish the desire of possession in his soul? Bhag\u00edratha, Sagara, Kakutstha, Da\u015b\u00e1nana, R\u00e1ma, Lakshmana, Yudhisht\u0301hira, and others, have been. Is it so? Have they ever really existed? Where are they now? we know not! The powerful kings who now are, or who will be, as I have related them to you, or any others who are unspecified, are all subject to the same fate, and the present and the future will perish and be forgotten, like their predecessors. Aware of this truth, a wise man will never be influenced by the principle of individual appropriation; and regarding them as only transient and temporal possessions, he will not consider children and posterity, lands and property, or whatever else is personal, to be his own.\n466:1 Munika, V\u00e1yu; Pulika, Matsya; \u015aunaka, Bh\u00e1g.\n466:2 For 23 years, V. and M.\n466:3 24 yrs. V.; Tilaka or B\u00e1laka, 28, M.\n466:4 50 yrs. V.; 53, M.\n466:5 Ajaka, 21 yrs. V.; S\u00faryaka, 21, M.; Rajaka, Bh\u00e1g.\n466:6 20 yrs. V. and M.\n466:7 This number is also specified by the V\u00e1yu and Bh\u00e1gavata, and the several years of the reigns of the former agree with the total. The particulars of the Matsya compose 145 years, but there is no doubt some mistake in them.\n466:8 \u015ai\u015bun\u00e1ka, who according to the V\u00e1yu and Matsya relinquished Benares to his son, and established himself at Girivraja or Rajgriha in Behar, reigns 40 years, V. and M.\n466:9 36 yrs. V. and M.\n466:10 Kshemakarman, 20 yrs. V.; Kshemadharmman, 36, M.\n466:11 40 yrs. V.; Kshemajit or Kshem\u00e1rchis, 36, M.; Kshetrajna, Bh\u00e1g.\n466:12 Vimbisara, 28 yrs. V.; Vindusena or Vindhyasena, 28, M.; Vidhis\u00e1ra, Bh\u00e1g.\n466:13 25 yrs. V.; 27, M.: but the latter inserts a Ka\u0144w\u00e1yana, 9 yrs., and Bh\u00famimitra or Bh\u00famiputra, 14 yrs., before him. In this and the preceding name we have appellations of considerable celebrity in the traditions of the Bauddhas. Vidmis\u00e1ra, read also Vindhus\u00e1ra, Vilwis\u00e1ra, &c., is most probably their Vimbas\u00e1ra, who was born at the same time with \u015a\u00e1kya, and was reigning at R\u00e1jgriha when he began his religious career. The Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo says that Siddhatto and Bimbisaro were attached p. 467 friends, as their fathers had been before them: p. 10. \u015a\u00e1kya is said to have died in the reign of Aj\u00e1ta\u015batru, the son of Vimbas\u00e1ra, in the eighth year of his reign. The V\u00e1yu transposes these names, and the Matsya still more alters the order of Aj\u00e1ta\u015batru; but the Bh\u00e1gavata concurs with our text. The Buddhist authority differs from the Pur\u00e1\u0144as materially as to the duration of the reigns, giving to Bimbisaro 52 years, and to Ajatasattu 32: the latter, according to the same, murdered his father. Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, p. 10. We may therefore with some confidence claim for these princes a date of about six centuries B. C. They are considered co-temporary with Sudhodana, &c. in the list of the Aikshw\u00e1kavas (p. 463. n. 20).\n467:14 Harshaka, 25 yrs. V.; Vansaka, 24, M.\n467:15 33 yrs. V.; Udibhi or Ud\u00e1sin, 33, M. According to the V\u00e1yu, Udaya or Uday\u00e1\u015bwa founded Kusumapur or P\u00e1t\u0301aliputra, on the southern angle of the Ganges. The legends of \u015a\u00e1kya, consistently with this tradition, take no notice of this city in his peregrinations on either bank of the Ganges. The Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo calls the son and successor of Aj\u00e1ta\u015batru, Udayibhadako (Udayinhhadraka): p. 15.\n467:16 42 and 43 yrs. V.; 40 and 43, M. The Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo has in place of these, Anuruddhako, Mundo, and N\u00e1gad\u00e1so; all in succession parricides: the last deposed by an insurrection of the people: p. 15.\n467:17 The several authorities agree in the number of ten \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1gas, and in the aggregate years of their reigns, which the Matsya and the Bh\u00e1gavata call 360: the V\u00e1yu has 362, with which the several periods correspond: the details of the Matsya give 363. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya call the \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1gas, Kshatrabandhus, which may designate an inferior order of Kshatriyas: they also observe, that cotemporary with the dynasties already specified, the Pauravas, the V\u00e1rhadrathas, and M\u00e1gadhas, there were other races of royal descent; as, Aikshw\u00e1kava princes, 24: P\u00e1nch\u00e1las, 25, V.; 27, M: K\u00e1lakas or K\u00e1sakas or K\u00e1seyas, 24: Haihayas, 24, V.; 28, M.: K\u00e1lingas, 32, V.; 40, M.: \u015aakas, V.; A\u015bmakas, M., 25: Kuravas, 26: Maithilas, 28: \u015a\u00farasenas, 23: and Vitihotras, 20.\n467:18 The Bh\u00e1gavata calls him Mah\u00e1padmapati, the lord of Mah\u00e1padma; which the commentator interprets, 'sovereign of an infinite host,' or 'of immense wealth;' Mah\u00e1padma signifying 100.000 millions. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya, however, consider Mah\u00e1padma as another name of Nanda.\n468:19 So the Bh\u00e1gavata also; but it would be more compatible with chronology to consider the nine Nandas as so many descents. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya give eighty-eight years to Mah\u00e1padma, and only the remaining twelve to Sum\u00e1lya and the rest of the remaining eight; these twelve years being occupied with the efforts of Kaut\u0301ilya to expel the Nandas. The Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, evidently intending the same events, gives names and circumstances differently; it may be doubted if with more accuracy. On the deposal of N\u00e1gad\u00e1so, the people raised to the throne the minister Susun\u00e1go, who reigned eighteen years. This prince is evidently confounded with the \u015ai\u015buu\u00e1ga of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. He was succeeded by his son K\u00e1l\u00e1soko, who reigned twenty years; and he was succeeded by his sons, ten of whom reigned together for twenty-two years: subsequently there were nine, who, according to their seniority, reigned for twenty-two years. The Brahman Chanako put the ninth surviving brother, named Dhana-Nando (Rich-Nanda), to death, and installed Chandagutto. Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, p. 15 and 21. These particulars, notwithstanding the alteration of some of the names, belong clearly to one story; and that of the Buddhists looks as if it was borrowed and modified from that of the Brahmans. The commentary on the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, translated by Mr. Turnour (Introduction, p. xxxviii.), calls the sons of K\u00e1l\u00e1soko 'the nine Nandas;' but another Buddhist authority, the D\u00edpawan\u015bo, omits K\u00e1l\u00e1soko, and says that Susun\u00e1go had ten brothers, who after his demise reigned collectively twenty-two years. Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal, Nov. 1838, p. 930.\n468:20 For the particulars of the story here alluded to, see the Mudr\u00e1 R\u00e1kshasa, Hindu Theatre, vol. II. Kaut\u0301ilya is also called, according to the commentator on our text, V\u00e1tsy\u00e1yana, Vish\u0144ugupta, and Ch\u00e1\u0144akya. According to the Matsya P., Kant\u0301ilya retained the regal authority for a century; but there is some inaccuracy in the copies.\n468:21 This is the most important name in all the lists, as it can scarcely be doubted that he is the Sandrocottus, or, as Athen\u00e6us writes more correctly, the Sandrocoptus, of the Greeks, as I have endeavoured to prove in the introduction to the Mudr\u00e1 R\u00e1kshasa. The relative positions of Chandragupta, Vidmis\u00e1ra, or Bimbis\u00e1ra, and Aj\u00e1ta\u015batru, serve to confirm the identification. \u015a\u00e1kya was cotemporary with both the latter, dying in the eighth year of Aj\u00e1ta\u015batru's reign. The Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo says he reigned twenty-four years afterwards; but the V\u00e1yu makes his whole reign but twenty-five years, which would place the close of it B. C. 526. The rest of the \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1ga dynasty, according to the V\u00e1yu and Matsya, reigned 143 or 140 years; bringing their close to B. C. 383. Another century being deducted for the duration of the Nandas, would place the accession of p. 469 Chandragupta B. C. 283. Chandragupta was the cotemporary of Seleucus Nicator, who began his reign B. C. 310, and concluded a treaty with him B. C. 305. Although therefore his date may not be made out quite correctly from the Paur\u00e1\u0144ik premises, yet the error cannot be more than twenty or thirty years. The result is much nearer the truth than that furnished by Buddhist authorities. According to the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo a hundred years had elapsed from the death of Buddha to the tenth year of the reign of K\u00e1l\u00e1soko (p. 15). He reigned other ten years, and his sons forty-four, making a total of 154 years between the death of \u015a\u00e1kya and the accession of Chandragupta, which is consequently placed B. C. 389, or above seventy years too early. According to the Buddhist authorities, Chan-ta-kutta or Chandragupta commenced his reign 396 B. C. Burmese Table; Prinsep's Useful Tables. Mr. Turnour, in his Introduction, giving to K\u00e1l\u00e1soko eighteen years subsequent to the century after Buddha, places Chandragupta's accession B. C. 381, which, he observes, is sixty years too soon; dating, however, the accession of Chandragupta front 323 B. C. or immediately upon Alexander's death, a period too early by eight or ten years at least. The discrepancy of dates, Mr. Turnour is disposed to think, proceeds from some intentional perversion of the buddhistical chronology. Introd. p. L. The commentator on our text says that Chandragupta was the son of Nanda by a wife named Mur\u00e1, whence he and his descendants were called Mauryas. Col. Tod considers Maurya a corruption of Mori, the name of a Rajput tribe. The T\u0301\u00edka on the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo builds a story on the fancied resemblance of the word to May\u00fara, S. Mori, Pr. 'a peacock.' There being abundance of pea-fowl in the place where the S\u00e1kya tribe built a town, they called it Mori, and there princes were thence called Mauryas. Turnour, Introduction to the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, p. xxxix. Chandragupta reigned, according to the V\u00e1yu P., 24 years; according to the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, 34; to the D\u00edpawasan\u015bo, 24.\n469:22 So the Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo, Bindus\u00e1ro. Burmese Table, Bin-tu-sara. The V\u00e1yu has Bhadras\u00e1ra, 25 years; the Bh\u00e1gavata, V\u00e1ris\u00e1ra. The Matsya names but four princes of this race, although it concurs with the others in stating the series to consist of ten. The names are also differently arranged, and one is peculiar: they are, \u015aatadhanwan, Vrihadratha, \u015auka, and Da\u015baratha.\n469:23 A\u015boka, 36 years, V\u00e1yu; \u015auka, 26, Mats.; A\u015bokavarddhana, Bh\u00e1g.; A\u015boko and Dhamma\u015boko, Mah\u00e1wan\u015bo. This king is the most celebrated of any in the annals of the Buddhists. In the commencement of his reign he followed the Brahmanical faith, but became a convert to that of Buddha, and a zealous encourager of it. He is said to have maintained in his palace 64,000 Buddhist priests, and to have erected 84,000 columns or topes throughout India. A great convocation of Buddhist priests was held in the eighteenth year of his reign, which was followed by missions to Ceylon and other places. According to Buddhist chronology he ascended the throne 218 years after the death of Buddha, B. C. 325. As p. 470 the grandson of Chandragupta, however, he must have been some time subsequent to this, or, agreeably to the joint duration of the reigns of Chandragupta and Bindus\u00e1ra, supposing the former to have commenced his reign about B. C. 315, forty-nine years later, or B. C. 266. The duration of his reign is said to have been thirty-six years, bringing it down to B. C. 230: but if we deduct these periods from the date assignable to Chandragupta, of B. C. 283, we shall place A\u015boka's reign from B. C. 234 to 198. Now it is certain that a number of very curious inscriptions, on columns and rocks, by a Buddhist prince, in an ancient form of letter, and the P\u00e1li language, exist in India; and that some of them refer to Greek princes, who can be no other than members of the Seleucidan and Ptolem\u00e6an dynasties, and are probably Antiochus the Great and Ptolemy Euergetes, kings of Syria and Egypt in the latter part of the third century before Christ. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, February and March, 1838. The Indian king appears always under the appellation Piyada\u015b\u00ed or Priyadar\u015b\u00edn, 'the beautiful;' and is entitled Dev\u00e1nam-piya, 'the beloved of the gods.' According to Buddhist authorities, the Rasaw\u00e1hin\u00ed and D\u00edpawan\u015bo, quoted by Mr. Turnour (J. As. Soc. of Bengal, Dec. 1837, p. 1056, and Nov. 1838, p. 930), Piyada\u015b\u00ed or Piyada\u015bano is identified both by name and circumstances with A\u015boka, and to him therefore the inscriptions must be attributed. Their purport agrees well enough with his character, and their wide diffusion with the traditionary report of the number of his monuments. His date is not exactly that of Antiochus the Great, but it is not very far different, and the corrections required to make it correspond are no more than the inexact manner in which both Brahmanical and Buddhist chronology is preserved may well be expected to render necessary.\n470:24 The name of Da\u015baratha, in a similar ancient character as that of Piyada\u015b\u00ed's inscriptions, has been found at Gaya amongst Buddhist remains, and like them decyphered by Mr. Prinsep, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, Aug. 1837, p. 677. A different series of names occurs in the V\u00e1yu; or, Ku\u015bala, 8 yrs.; Bandhup\u00e1lita, Indrap\u00e1lita, Da\u015bavarman, 7 yrs.; \u015aatadhara, 8 yrs.; and Vrihada\u015bwa, 7 yrs. The Bh\u00e1gavata agrees in most of the names, and its omission of Da\u015baratha is corrected by the commentator.\n470:25 \u015aatadhanwan, Bh\u00e1g.\n470:26 The V\u00e1yu says nine Sum\u00farttyas reigned 137 years. The Matsya and Bh\u00e1gavata have ten Mauryas, and 137 years. The detailed numbers of the V\u00e1yu and Matsya differ from their totals, but the copies are manifestly corrupt.\n471:27 The Bh\u00e1gavata omits this name, but states that there were ten \u015aungas, although, without Pushpamitra, only nine are named. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya have the same account of the circumstances of his accession to the throne; the former gives him a reign of sixty, the latter of thirty-six years. In a play attributed to K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa, the M\u00e1lavik\u00e1gnimitra, of which Agnimitra is the hero, his father is alluded to as the Sen\u00e1n\u00ed or general, as if he had deposed his master in favour, not of himself, but of his son. Agnimitra is termed king of Vidi\u015ba, not of Magadh\u00e1. Pushpamitra is represented as engaged in a conflict with the Yavanas on the Indus; thus continuing the political relations with the Greeks or Scythians of Bactria and Ariana. See Hindu Theatre, vol. I. 347.\n471:28 8 yrs. V.; omitted M.\n471:29 7 yrs. V. and M.; but the latter places him after Vasumitra; and in the drama the son of Agnimitra is called Vasumitra.\n471:30 8 yrs. V.; 10 yrs. M.\n471:31 Andraka, V.; Antaka, M.: they agree in his reign, 2 years. Bhadraka, Bh\u00e1g.\n471:32 3 yrs. V. and M.\n471:33 3 yrs. V.; omitted, M.; Ghosha, Bh\u00e1g.\n471:34 9 yrs. M.\n471:35 Bh\u00e1ga, M.; 32 yrs. V. and M.\n471:36 Kshemabh\u00fami, V.; Devabh\u00fami, M.; 10 yrs. both.\n471:37 The Bh\u00e1gavata says, 'more than a hundred.' The commentator explains it: 112. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya have the same period.\n471:38 The names of the four princes agree in all the authorities. The Matsya transfers the character of Vyasan\u00ed to the minister, with the further addition of his being a Brahman; Dwija. In the lists given by Sir Wm. Jones and Col. Wilford, the four K\u00e1\u0144was are said to have reigned 345 years; but in seven copies of the Vish\u0144u P., from different parts of India, the number is, as given in the text, forty-five. There is however authority for the larger number, both in the text of the Bh\u00e1gavata and the comment. The former has, #### and the latter, ### p. 472 There is no doubt therefore of the purport of the text; and it is only surprising that such a chronology should have been inserted in the Bh\u00e1gavata, not only in opposition to all probability, but to other authority. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya not only confirm the lower number by stating it as a total, but by giving it in detail; thus:\n| Vasudeva will reign | 9 years | \n| Bh\u00famimitra | 14 | \n| N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a | 12 | \n| Su\u015barman | 10 | \n| Total | 45 | \n[paragraph continues] And six copies of the Matsya concur in this statement.\n472:39 The expressions Andhraj\u00e1tiyas and Andhrabhrityas have much perplexed Col. Wilford, who makes three races out of one, \u00c1ndhras, Andhraj\u00e1tiyas, and Andhrabhrityas. As. Res. IX. 101. There is no warrant for three races in the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, although the Matsya, and perhaps the V\u00e1yu, distinguishes two, as we shall hereafter see. Our text has but one, to which all the terms may be applied. The first of the dynasty was an \u00c1ndhra by birth or caste (j\u00e1tiya), and a servant (bhritya) of the last of the K\u00e1\u0144wa race. So the V\u00e1yu; ###: the Matsya; ### and the Bh\u00e1gavata; ###. The terms 'an Andhra by caste' and 'a Bhritya or servant,' with the addition, in the last passage, of Vrishala, 'a \u015a\u00fadra,' all apply to one person and one dynasty. Wilford has made wild work with his triad. The name of the first of this race is variously read: Sindhuka, V\u00e1yu; \u015ai\u015buka, Matsya; Balin, Bh\u00e1g.; and, according to Wilford, Chhismaka in the Brahma\u0144d\u0301a P., and \u015a\u00fadraka or \u015a\u00faraka in the Kum\u00e1rik\u00e1 Kha\u0144d\u0301a of the Sk\u00e1nda P. As. Res. IX. 107. He reigned 23 years, V\u00e1yu and Matsya. If the latter form of his name be correct, he may be the king who is spoken of in the prologue to the Mrichchhakat\u0301\u00ed.\n472:40 10 yrs. V.; 18, M.\n472:41 56 yrs. V.; 18, M.; 10, Brahma\u0144d\u0301a, Wilford; Sim\u00e1lakar\u0144i, Mats.; \u015a\u00e1ntakar\u0144a, Bh\u00e1g.\n472:42 Omitted, V.; 18 yrs. M.; Paurnam\u00e1sa, Bh\u00e1g.\n472:43 Omitted, V. and Bh\u00e1g.; 56 yrs. M.; but the latter has before him a \u015ar\u00edvasw\u00e1ni, 18 yrs.\n472:44 18 yrs. M.\n472:45 Apilaka, 12 yrs. V. and M.; Chivilika or Vivilika, Bh\u00e1g.\n472:46 Omitted, V. and M.\n472:47 Patum\u00e1vi, 24 yrs. V.; Drirham\u00e1na, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:48 Nemi-krish\u0144a, 25 yrs. V.; Arisht\u0301akar\u0144i, 25 yrs. M.\n473:49 H\u00e1la, 1 yr. V.; 5 yrs. M.; H\u00e1leya, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:50 Mandalaka, 5 yrs. M.; omitted, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:51 Pur\u00edshasena, 21 yrs. V.; Purindrasena, 5 yrs. Mats.; Pur\u00edshataru, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:52 \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i only, V. and M.; the first gives him three years, the second but one. Sunanda, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:53 Chakora, 6 months, V.; Vikar\u0144i, 6 months, M.\n473:54 28 yrs. V. and M.\n473:55 Gotam\u00edputra, 21 yrs. V. and M.\n473:56 Pulomat, 28 yrs. M.; Purimat, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:57 Omitted, V.; 7 yrs. M.; Medha\u015biras, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:58 Omitted, V.; 7 yrs. M.\n473:59 29 yrs. V.; 9 yrs. M.\n473:60 6 yrs. V. and M.\n473:61 Da\u0144d\u0301a\u015br\u00ed, 3 yrs. V.; Chandra\u015br\u00ed, 10 yrs. M.; Chandravijaya, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:62 Pulov\u00e1pi, 7 yrs. V.; Pulomat, 7 yrs. M.; Sulomadhi, Bh\u00e1g.\n473:63 The V\u00e1yu and Bh\u00e1gavata state also 30 kings, and 456 years; the Matsya has 29 kings, and 460 years. The actual enumeration of the text gives but 24 names; that of the Bh\u00e1gavata but 23; that of the V\u00e1yu but 17. The Matsya has the whole 29 names, adding several to the list of our text; and the aggregate of the reigns amounts to 435 years and 6 months. The difference between this and the total specified arises probably from some inaccuracy in the MSS. As this list appears to be fuller than any other, it may be advisable to insert it as it occurs in the Radcliffe copy of the Matsya P.\n| 1. | \u015ai\u015buka | 23 | yrs. | \n| 2. | Krish\u0144a | 18 | | \n| 3. | Simalakar\u0144i | 18 | | \n| 4. | Purnotsanga | 18 | | \n| 5. | \u015ar\u00edvasw\u00e1ni | 18 | | \n| 6. | \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i | 56 | | \n| 7. | Lambodara | 18 | | \n| 8. | Ap\u00edtaka | 12 | | \n| 9. | Sangha | 18 | | \n| 10. | \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i | 18 | | \n| 11. | Skandhasw\u00e1ti | 7 | | \n| 12. | Mrigendra | 3 | | \n| 13. | Kuntalasw\u00e1ti | 28 | | \n| 14. | Sw\u00e1tikar\u0144a | 1 | | \n| 15. | Pulom\u00e1vit | 36 | | \n| 16. | Goraksh\u00e1\u015bwa\u015br\u00ed | 25 | | \n| 17. | H\u00e1la | 5 | | \n| 18. | Mantalaka | 5 | | \n| 19. | Pur\u00edndrasena | 5 | | \n| 20. | Raj\u00e1dasw\u00e1ti | 0 | 6 months | \n| 21. | \u015aiva\u015bw\u00e1ti | 28 | | \n| 22. | Gautamiputra | 21 | | \n| 23. | Pulomat | 28 | p. 474 | \n| 24. | \u015aiva\u015br\u00ed | 7 | | \n| 25. | Skandhasw\u00e1ti | 7 | | \n| 26. | Yajna\u015br\u00ed | 9 | | \n| 27. | Vijaya | 6 | | \n| 28. | Vada\u015br\u00ed | 10 | | \n| 29. | Pulomat | 7 | | \n| | Total | 435 | yrs. 6 m. | \n[paragraph continues] Several of the names vary in this list from those in my copy. The adjuncts Sw\u00e1ti and \u015a\u00e1tikar\u0144a appear to be conjoined or not with the other appellations, according to the convenience of, the metre, and seem to be the family designations or titles. The dynasty is of considerable chronological interest, as it admits of some plausible verifications. That a powerful race of Andhra princes ruled in India in the beginning of the Christian era, we learn from Pliny, who describes them as possessed of thirty fortified cities, with an army of 100,000 men and 1000 elephants. The Andr\u00e6 of this writer are probably the people of the upper part of the peninsula, Andhra being the proper designation of Telingana. The Peutingerian tables, however, place the Andre-Indi on the banks of the Ganges, and the southern princes may have extended or shifted the site of their power. Towards the close of the dynasty we find names that appear to agree with those of princes of middle India, of whom mention is made by the Chinese; as, Yue-gnai (Yajna\u015br\u00ed), king of Kiapili, A. D. 408; Des Guignes, I. 45; and Ho-lo-mien (Pulom\u00e1n), king of Magadh\u00e1 in 621; ibid. I. 56. The Paur\u00e1\u0144ik lists place these two princes more nearly together, but we cannot rely implicitly upon their accuracy. Calculating from Chandragupta downwards, the Indian date of Yajna and the Chinese Yue-gnai corresponds; for we have,\n| 10 | Mauryas | 137 | yrs. | \n| 10 | \u015aungas | 112 | | \n| 4 | Ka\u0144was | 45 | | \n| 27 | Andhras | 437 | | \n| | | 731 | | \n| | Deduct for Chandragupta's date | 312 | B. C. | \n| | | 419 | A. C. | \n[paragraph continues] A date remarkably near that derivable from the Chinese annals. If the Indian Pulom\u00e1n be the same with the Chinese Ho-lo-mien, there must be some considerable omission in the Paur\u00e1\u0144ik dynasty. There is a farther identification in the case of Ho-lo-mien, which makes it certain that a prince of Magadh\u00e1 is intended, as the place of his residence is called by the Chinese Kia-so-mo-pulo-ching and Potoli-tse-Ching; or in Sanscrit, Kusuma-pura and P\u00e1t\u0301ali-putra. The equivalent of the latter name consists, not only in the identity of the sounds P\u00e1t\u0301ali and Po-to-li, but in the translation of 'putra' by 'tse;' each word meaning in their respective languages 'son.' No doubt can be entertained therefore that the city intended is the metropolis of Magadh\u00e1, P\u00e1t\u0301aliputra or Palibothra. Wilford identifies Pulomat or Pulom\u00e1n with the Po-lo-muen of the Chinese; but Des Guignes interprets Po-lo-muen ku\u00eb, 'royaume des Brahmanes.' Buchanan (Hamilton), following the Bh\u00e1gavata as to the name of the last king, Sulomadhi, would place him about A. D. 846; but his premises are far from accurate, p. 475 and his deduction in this instance at least is of no weight. Geneal. of the Hindus, Introd. p. 16. He supposes the Andhra kings of Magadh\u00e1 to have retained their power on the Ganges until the Mohammedan invasion, or the twelfth century, when they retired to the south, and reigned at Warankal in Telingana. Inscriptions and coins, however, confirm the statement of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, that a different dynasty succeeded to the Andhras some centuries before the Mohammedan conquests; and the Chinese also record, that upon the death of the king of Magadh\u00e1, Ho-lo-mien (Puloman?), some time before A. D. 648, great troubles in India took place. Des Guignes. Some very curious and authentic testimony to the actual existence of these Andhra kings has been lately afforded by the discovery of an ancient inscription in Guzerat, in which Rudra D\u00e1m\u00e1, the Kshatrapa or Satrap of Surasht\u0301ra, is recorded to have repeatedly overcome \u015a\u00e1takar\u0144i, king of the southern country (Dakshi\u0144apatha). The inscription is without date, but it is in an old character, and makes mention of the two Maurya princes, Chandragupta and A\u015boka, as if not very long prior to its composition. Mr. J. Prinsep, to whom we are indebted for the decyphering and translating of this important document, has been also successful in decyphering the legends on a series of coins belonging to the princes of Sur\u00e1sht\u0301ra, amongst whom the name of Rudra D\u00e1m\u00e1 occurs; and he is inclined, although with hesitation, to place these princes about a century after Anoka, or Rudra D\u00e1m\u00e1 about 153 B. C. J. As. Soc. Bengal, May 1837, and April 1838. According to the computation hazarded above from our text, the race of Andhra kings should not commence till about 20 years B. C., which would agree with Pliny's notice of them; but it is possible that they existed earlier in the south of India, although they established their authority in Magadh\u00e1 only in the first centuries of the Christian era.\n475:64 These parallel dynasties are thus particularized in our other authorities:\n\u00c1bh\u00edras, 7, M.; 10, V; kings of Avabhriti, 7, Bh\u00e1g.\nGarddabhins, 10, M. V. Bh\u00e1g.\n\u015aakas, 18, M. V.; Kankas, 16, Bh\u00e1g.\nYavanas, 8, M. V. Bh\u00e1g.\nTush\u00e1ras, 14, M. V.; Tushkaras, 14, Bh\u00e1g.\nMar\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, 13, V.; Pur\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, 13, M.; Sur\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, 10, Bh\u00e1g.\nMaunas, 18, V.; H\u00fa\u0144as, 19, M.; Maulas, 11, Bh\u00e1g.\nTotal--85 kings, V\u00e1yu; 89, Matsya; 76, and 1399 years, Bh\u00e1g.\n[paragraph continues] The other two authorities give the years of each dynasty severally. The numbers are apparently intended to be the same, but those of the Matsya are palpable blunders, although almost all the MSS. agree in the reading. The chronology of the V\u00e1yu is, \u00c1bh\u00edras, 67 years; Garddabhins, 72; \u015aakas, 380; Yavanas, 82; Tush\u00e1ras, 500 (all the copies of the Matsya have 7000); Mar\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, 200; and Mlechchhas, intending perhaps Maunas, 300 yrs. Total 1601 years, or less than 19 years to a reign. They are not however continuous, but nearly cotemporary dynasties; and if they comprise, as they probably do, the Greek and Scythian princes of the west of India, the periods may not be very wide p. 476 of the truth. The Matsya begins the list with one more dynasty, another Andhra (see n. 39), of whom there were seven: 'When the dominion of the Andhras has ceased, there shall be seven other Andhras, kings of the race of their servants; and then nine \u00c1bh\u00edras.' The passage of the V\u00e1yu, although somewhat similar in terms, has a different purport: 'Of these, the Andhras having passed away, there shall be seven cotemporary races; as, ten \u00c1bh\u00edras,' &c. The passage is differently read in different copies, but this is the only intelligible reading. At the same time it subsequently specifies a period for the duration of the Andhra dynasty different from that before given, or three hundred years, as if a different race was referred to: 'The Andhras shall possess the earth two hundred years and one hundred.' The Matsya has twice five hundred: 'The \u015ar\u00edparvat\u00edya Andhras twice five hundred years.' One MS. has more consistently fifty-two years. But there is evidently something faulty in all the MSS. The expression of the Matsya, '\u015ar\u00edparvat\u00edya Andhras,' is remarkable; \u015ar\u00edparvat being in Telingana. There is probably some confusion of the two races, the Magadh\u00e1 and Tailinga kings, in these passages of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. The Bh\u00e1gavata has a dynasty of seven Andhra kings, but of a different period (see n. 39). Col. Wilford has attempted a verification of these dynasties; in some instances perhaps with success, though certainly not in all. The \u00c1bh\u00edras he calls the shepherd kings of the north of India: they were more probably Greeks or Scythians or Parthians, along the lower Indus: traces of the name occur, as formerly observed, in the Abiria of Ptolemy, and the \u00c1h\u00edrs as a distinct race still exist in Guzerat. Araish Mehfil. The \u015aakas are the Sac\u00e6, and the duration of their power is not unlikely to be near the truth. The eight Yavana kings may be, as he supposes, Greek princes of Bactria, or rather of western India. The Tush\u00e1ras he makes the Parthians. If the Bh\u00e1gavata has the preferable reading, Tushk\u00e1ras, they were the Tochari, a Scythian race. The Mur\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, or, as he has it, Maur\u00fa\u0144d\u0301as, he considers to be a tribe of Huns, the Morund\u00e6 of Ptolemy. According to the Matsya they were of Mlechchha origin, Mlechchha-sambhava. The V\u00e1yu calls them Arya-mlechchhas; quere, Barbarians of Ariana. Wilford regards the Maunas as also a tribe of Huns; and the word is in all the MSS. of the Matsya, H\u00fa\u0144as; traces of whom may be still found in the west and south of India. Inscription at Merritch. Journ. R. As. vol. III. p. 103. The Garddabhins Wilford conjectures to be descendants of Bahram Gor, king of Persia; but this is very questionable. That they were a tribe in the west of India may be conjectured, as some strange tales prevail there of a Gandharba, changed to an ass, marrying the daughter of the king of Dh\u00e1r. As. Res. VI. 35, and IX. 147; also 'Cutch' by Mrs. Postans, p. 18: fables suggested no doubt by the name Garddabha, signifying an ass. There is also p. 477 evidently some affinity between these Garddabhins and the old Gadhia Pysa, or ass-money, as vulgarly termed, found in various parts of western India, and which is unquestionably of ancient date. Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, Dec. 1835, p. 688. It may be the coinage of the Garddabha princes; Garddabla, being the original of Gadha, meaning also an ass. I have elsewhere conjectured the possibility of their being current about a century and a half before our era. Journ. R. As. Soc. vol. III. 385. Col. Tod, quoting a parallel passage in Hindi, reads, instead of Garddhabhin, Gor-ind, which he explains the Indras or lords of Gor; but the reading is undoubtedly erroneous.\n477:65 The copies agree in reading Pauras, but the commentator remarks that it is sometimes Maunas, but they have already been specified; unless the term be repeated in order to separate the duration of this dynasty from that of the rest. Such seems to be the purport of the similar passage of the Bh\u00e1gavata. These kings (Andhras, &c.) will possess the earth 1099 years, and the eleven Maulas 300.' No such name as Pauras occurs in the other authorities. The analogy of duration identifies them with the Mlechchhas of the V\u00e1yu: 'Eleven Mlechchhas will possess the earth for three centuries:' and the V\u00e1yu may refer to the Maunas, as no other period is assigned for them. The periods of the Bh\u00e1gavata, 1099 and 300, come much to the same as that of our text, 1390; the one including the three centuries of the Maunas, the other stating it separately. The V\u00e1yu apparently adds it to the rest, thus making the total 1601, instead of 1390. It is evident that the same scheme is intended by the several authorities, although some inaccuracy affects either the original statement or the existing manuscripts.\n477:66 Kilakila, Kolakila, Kolikila, Kilinakila, as it is variously read. Sir Wm. Jones's Pandit stated that he understood it to be a city in the Mahratta country (As. Res. XI. 142); and there has been found a confirmation of his belief in an inscription, where Kilagila, as it is there termed, is called the capital of M\u00e1rasinha Deva, king of the Konkan. Journ. R. As. Soc. vol. IV. p. 282. This inscription dates A. D. 1058. The Pur\u00e1\u0144as refer probably to a long antecedent date, when the Greek princes, or their Indo-Scythic successors, following the course of the Indus, spread to the upper part of the western coast of the peninsula. The text calls them Yavanas; and the V\u00e1yu and Matsya say they were Yavanas in institutions, manners, and policy. The Bh\u00e1gavata names five of their princes, Bhut\u00e1nanda, p. 478 Bangiri, \u015ai\u015bunandi, Ya\u015bnandi, and Prav\u00edra, who will reign 106 years, and they are therefore imperfect representatives of the series in our text. The Matsya has no farther specific enumeration of any dynasty. The V\u00e1yu makes Prav\u00edra the son of Vindhya\u015bakti; the latter reigning 96 years, and the former 60: the latter is king of K\u00e1nchana puri, 'the golden city,' and is followed by four sons, whose names are not mentioned. Between Vindhya\u015bakti and Prav\u00edra, however, a dynasty of kings is introduced, some of the names of which resemble those of the Kilakila princes of the text. They are, Bhogin the son of Seshan\u00e1ga, Sad\u00e1chandra, Nakhavat, Dhanadhamita, Vin\u015baja, Bhutinanda--at a period before the end of the \u015aungas? (the copies have ###)--Madhunandi, his younger brother Nandiya\u015bas; and in his race there will be three other R\u00e1j\u00e1s, Dauhitra, \u015ai\u015buka, and Ripuk\u00e1y\u00e1n. These are called princes of Vidi\u015ba or Vide\u015ba; the latter meaning perhaps 'foreign,' and constitute the N\u00e1ga dynasty. Our text calls Vindhya\u015bakti a Murddh\u00e1bhishikta, a warrior of a mixed race, sprung from a Brahman father and Kshatriya mother.\n478:67 The text of this passage runs thus: ###. 'Their sons,' the commentator explains by 'thirteen sons of Vindhya\u015bakti and the rest.' The Bh\u00e1gavata has a different statement, identifying the sons of the Vindhya race with the B\u00e1hlikas, and making them thirteen: 'The B\u00e1hlikas will be their thirteen sons.' As the commentator; 'There will be severally thirteen sons, called B\u00e1hlikas, of Bh\u00fatananda and the rest.' The following verse 'Pushpamitra, a king, and then Durmitra:' who or what they were does not appear. The commentator says, Pushpamitra was another king, and Durmitra was his son. Here is evidently careless and inaccurate compilation. The V\u00e1yu, though not quite satisfactory, accords better with our text. 'Prav\u00edra,' it says, will have four sons: when the Vindhya race is extinct, there will be three B\u00e1hl\u00edka kings, Suprat\u00edka, Nabh\u00edra, who will reign thirty years, and \u015aakyam\u00e1n\u00e1bhava (quere this name), king of the Mahishas. The Pushpamitras will then be, and the Pat\u0301umitras also, who will be seven kings of Mekal\u00e1. Such is the generation.' The plural verb with only two B\u00e1hl\u00edka names indicates some omission, unless we correct it to it 'they two will reign;' but the following name and title, \u015aakyam\u00e1n\u00e1bhava, king of the Mahishas, seems to have little connexion with the B\u00e1hlikas. If, in a subsequent part of the citation, the reading 'trayoda\u015ba' be correct, it must then be thirteen Pat\u0301umitras; but it will be difficult to know what to do with Sapta, 'seven' If for Santati we might read p. 479 Saptati, 'seventy,' the sense might be, 'these thirteen kings ruled for seventy-seven years.' However this may be, it seems most correct to separate the thirteen sons or families of the Vindhya princes from the three B\u00e1hlikas, and them from the Pushpamitras and Pat\u0301umitras, who governed Mekal\u00e1, a country on the Narbada (see p. 186. n. 18). What the B\u00e1hlikas, or princes of Balkh, had to do in this part of India is doubtful. The Durmitra of the Bh\u00e1gavata has been conjectured by Col. Tod (Trans. R. As. Soc. I. 325) to be intended for the Bactrian prince Demetrius: but it is not clear that even the Bh\u00e1gavata considers this prince as one of the B\u00e1hlikas, and the name occurs nowhere else.\n479:68 For the situation of Ko\u015bal\u00e1, see p. 190. n. 79. The three copies of the V\u00e1yu read Komal\u00e1, and call the kings, the Meghas, more strong than sapient. The Bh\u00e1gavata agrees with our text. The V\u00e1yu says of the Naishadhas, or kings of Nishadha, that they were all of the race of Nala. The Bh\u00e1gavata adds two other races, seven Andhras (see note 63) and kings of Vaid\u00fara, with the remark that these were all cotemporaries, being, as the commentator observes, petty or provincial rulers.\n479:69 The V\u00e1yu has Vi\u015bwasph\u00e1\u0144i and Vi\u015bwasphi\u0144i; the Bh\u00e1gavata, Vi\u015bwasph\u00fartti, or in some MSS. Vi\u015bwaph\u00faiji. The castes he establishes or places in authority, to the exclusion of the Kshatriyas, are called in all the copies of our text Kaivarttas, Pat\u0301us, Pulindas, and Brahmans. The V\u00e1yu (three MSS.) has Kaivarttas, Panchakas, Pulindas, and Brahmans. The Bh\u00e1gavata has, Pulindas, Yadus, and M\u00e1drakas. The V\u00e1yu describes Vi\u015bwasph\u00e1\u0144i as a great warrior, and apparently as a eunuch: He worshipped the gods and manes, and dying on the banks of the Ganges went to the heaven of Indra.\n479:70 Such appears to be the purport of our text. The nine N\u00e1gas might be thought to mean the same as the descendants of \u015aesha N\u00e1ga, but the V\u00e1yu has another series here, analogous to that of the text: 'The nine N\u00e1ka kings will possess the city Champ\u00e1vat\u00ed, and the seven N\u00e1gas (?) the pleasant city Mathura. Princes of the Gupta race will possess all these countries, the banks of the Ganges to Pray\u00e1ga and S\u00e1keta and Magadh\u00e1.' p. 480 This account is the most explicit, and probably most accurate, of all. The N\u00e1kas were R\u00e1j\u00e1s of Bh\u00e1galpur; the N\u00e1gas, of Mathura; and the intermediate countries along the Ganges were governed by the Guptas, or R\u00e1j\u00e1s of the Vai\u015bya caste. The Bh\u00e1gavata seems to have taken great liberties with the account, as it makes Vi\u015bwasph\u00fartti king over Anugang\u00e1, the course of the Ganges from Haridwar, according to the commentator, to Pray\u00e1ga, residing at Padm\u00e1vat\u00ed: omitting the N\u00e1gas altogether, and converting 'gupta' into an epithet of 'medini,' the preserved or protected earth. Wilford considers the N\u00e1gas, N\u00e1kas, and Guptas to be all the same: he says, 'Then came a dynasty of nine kings, called the nine N\u00e1gas or N\u00e1gas; these were an obscure tribe, called for that reason Guptavan\u015bas, who ruled in Padm\u00e1vati.' That city he calls Patna; but in the M\u00e1lati and M\u00e1dhava, Padm\u00e1vat\u00ed lies amongst the Vindhya hills. K\u00e1ntipuri he makes Cotwal, near Gwalior. The reading of the V\u00e1yu, Champ\u00e1vati, however, obviates the necessity of all vague conjecture. According to Wilford there is a powerful tribe still called N\u00e1kas between the Jamuna and the Betwa. Of the existence and power of the Guptas, however, we have recently had ample proofs from inscriptions and coins, as in the Chandragupta and Samudragupta of the Allatabad column; Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, March and June, 1834; and Kum\u00e1ragupta, Chandragupta, Samudragupta, \u015aa\u015bigupta, &c. on the Archer coins, found at Kanoj and elsewhere; As. Res. XVII. pl. 1. fig. 5, 7, 13, 19; and Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, Nov. 1835, pl. 38 and 39; and in other numbers of the same Journal: in all which, the character in which the legends are written is of a period prior to the use of the modern Devanagari, and was current in all probability about the fifth century of our era, as conjectured by Mr. Prinsep: see his table of the modifications of the Sanscrit alphabet from 543 B. C. to 1200 A. D. Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, March 1838.\n480:71 The V\u00e1yu also mentions the descendants of Devarakshita or Daivarakshitas as kings of the Ko\u015balas, T\u00e1mralipta, and the sea coast; so far conforming with our text as to include the western parts of Bengal, Tamlook, Medinipur, and Orissa. One copy reads Andhra, perhaps for Od\u0301ra, Orissa; and one has Champ\u00e1 for the capital, which is probably an error, although the two other MSS., being still more faulty, do not offer the means of correction.\n480:72 The V\u00e1yu has the same. The countries are parts of Orissa and Berar.\n480:73 The V\u00e1yu has sons of Ma\u0144idha\u0144ya for the ruling dynasty, but names the countries those of the Naishadhas, Yudakas, \u015aa\u015bikas, and K\u00e1latoyas. The first name applies to a tract of country near p. 481 the Vindhya mountains, but the last to a country in the north. The west or southwest, however, is probably intended in this place.\n481:74 The Stri R\u00e1jya is usually placed in Bhote. It may perhaps here designate Malabar, where polyandry equally prevails. M\u00fashika, or the country of thieves, was the pirate coast of the Konkan. The V\u00e1yu reads Bhokshyaka or Bhokhyaka for M\u00fashika. The Bh\u00e1gavata omits all these specifications subsequent to the notice of Viwasph\u00fartti.\n481:75 From this we might infer that the Vish\u0144u P. was compiled when the Mohammedans were making their first encroachments on the west. They seem to have invaded and to have settled in Sindh early in the eighth century, although Indian princes continued on the Indus for a subsequent period. Scriptor. Arab. de rebus Indicis. Gildemeister, p. 6. They were engaged in hostilities in 698 or 700 with the prince of Kabul, in whose name, however disguised by its Mohammedan representations of Ratil, Ratbal, or Ratibal, it is not difficult to recognise the genuine Hindu appellation of Ratanp\u00e1l, or Ratnap\u00e1l. Their progress in this direction has not been traced; but at the period of their invasion of Sindh they advanced to Multan, and probably established themselves there and at Lahore within a century. Kashmir they did not occupy till a much later date, and the R\u00e1ja Tarangini takes no notice of any attacks upon it; but the Chinese have recorded an application from the king of Kashmir, Chin-tho-lo-pi-li, evidently the Chandr\u00e1pid\u0301a of the Sanscrit, for aid against the Arabs, about A. D. 713. Gildemeister, p. 13. Although, therefore, not actually settled at the Panjab so early as the beginning, they had commenced their incursions, and had no doubt made good their footing by the end of the eighth or commencement of the ninth century. This age of the Pur\u00e1\u0144a is compatible with reference to the cotemporary race of Gupta kings, from the fourth or fifth to the seventh or eighth century; or, if we are disposed to go farther back, we may apply the passage to the Greek and Indo-Scythian princes. It seems more likely to be the former period; but in all such passages in this or other Pur\u00e1\u0144as there is the risk that verses inspired by the presence of Mohammedan rulers may have been interpolated into the original text. Had the Mohammedans of Hindustan, however, been intended by the latter, the indications would have been more distinct, and the localities assigned to them more central. Even the Bh\u00e1gavata, the date of which we have good reason for conjecturing to be the middle of the twelfth century, and which influenced the form assumed about that time by the worship of Vish\u0144u, cannot be thought to refer to the Mohammedan conquerors of p. 482 upper India. It is there stated, that rulers fallen from their castes, or \u015a\u00fadras, will be the princes of Saur\u00e1sht\u0301ra, Avanti, Abh\u00edra, \u015a\u00fara, Arbuda, and M\u00e1lava; and barbarians, \u015a\u00fadras, and other outcastes, not enlightened by the Vedas, will possess K\u00e1shm\u00edr, Kaunt\u00ed, and the banks of the Chandrabh\u00e1g\u00e1 and Indus.' Now it was not until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that the Mohammedans established themselves in Guzerat and Malwa, and the Bh\u00e1gavata was unquestionably well known in various parts of India long before that time. (Account of Hindu Sects, As. Res. vol. XVI.) It cannot therefore allude to Mohammedans. By specifying the princes as seceders from the Vedas, there is no doubt that the barbarians and outcastes intended are so only in a religious sense; and we know from indisputable authorities that the western countries, Guzerat, Abu, M\u00e1lava, were the chief seats, first of the Buddhists, and then of the Jainas, from a period commencing perhaps before the Christian era, and scarcely terminating with the Mohammedan conquest. Inscriptions from Abu, As. Res. vol. XVI.\n482:76 The commentator, having no doubt the existing state of things in view, interprets the passage somewhat differently: the original is, ###. The comment explains 'strong', and adds, the Mlechchhas will be in the centre, and the \u00c1ryyas at the end:' meaning, if any thing, that the unbelievers are in the heart of the country, and the Hindus on the borders: a description, however, never correct, except as applicable to the governments; and in that case inconsistent with the text, which had previously represented the bordering countries in the hands of outcastes and heretics. All that the text intends, is to represent infidels and foreigners high in power, and the Brahmans depressed. It is not unlikely that the reading is erroneous, notwithstanding the copies concur, and that the passage should be here the same as that of the V\u00e1yu; 'Intermixed with them, the nations, adopting every where barbaric p. 483 institutions, exist in a state of disorder, and the subjects shall be destroyed.' The expression Mlechchh\u00e1ch\u00e1r\u00e1\u015bcha being used instead of Mlechchha\u015bch\u00e1ry\u00e1\u015bcha. A passage similar to that of the text, noticing the intermixture of Hindus and barbarians, occurs in a different place (see p. 175. n. 4), and designates tare condition of India in all ages: at no period has the whole of the population followed Brahmanical Hinduism.\n483:77 That is, there will be no T\u00edrthas, places held sacred, and objects of pilgrimage; no particular spot of earth will have any especial sanctity.\n483:78 Gifts will be made from the impulse of ordinary feeling, not in connexion with religious rites, and as an act of devotion; and ablution will be performed for pleasure or comfort, not religiously with prescribed ceremonies and prayers.\n483:79 The expression Sadve\u015badh\u00e1rin is explained to mean either one who wears fine clothes, or who assumes the exterior garb of sanctity. Either interpretation is equally allowable.\n484:80 The Bh\u00e1gavata agrees with the text in these particulars. The chief star of Tishya is \u03b4 in the constellation Cancer.\n484:81 All the copies concur in this reading. Three copies of the V\u00e1yu assign to the same interval 1050 years: and of the Matsya five copies have the same, or 1050 years; whilst one copy has 1500 years. The Bh\u00e1gavata has 1115 years; which the commentator explains, 'a thousand years and a hundred with fifteen over.' He notices nevertheless, although he does not attempt to account for the discrepancy, that the total period from Par\u00edkshit to Nanda was actually, according to the duration of the different intermediate dynasties, as enumerated by all the authorities, fifteen centuries; viz.\n| Magadh\u00e1 kings | 1000 | yrs. | \n| Pradyota, &c. | 138 | | \n| \u015ai\u015bun\u00e1ga, &c. | 362 | | \n| | 1500 | | \n[paragraph continues] The shorter period is best proportioned to the number of kings; for reckoning from Sahadeva, who was cotemporary with Par\u00edkshit, and taking the number of the V\u00e1rhadrathas from the Matsya, we have thirty-two of them, five of the Pradyota race, and ten \u015aai\u015bun\u00e1gas, or in all forty-seven; which, as the divisor of 1050, gives rather more than twenty-two years to a reign. The V\u00e1yu and the Matsya further specify the interval from Nanda to Pulomat, the last of the \u00c1ndhra kings, as being 836 years; a total that does notp. 485 agree exactly with the items previously specified:\n| 9 | Nandas | 100 | yrs. | \n| 10 | Mauryas | 137 | | \n| 10 | \u015aungas | 112 | | \n| 4 | Ka\u0144was | 45 | | \n| 29 | Andhras | 460 | | \n| 62 | | 854 | | \n[paragraph continues] In either case the average duration of reign is not improbable, as the highest number gives less than fourteen years to each prince. It is important to remember that the reign of Par\u00edkshit is, according to Hindu chronology, coeval with the commencement of the Kali age; and even therefore taking the longest Paur\u00e1\u0144ik interval we have but sixteen centuries between Chandragupta--or considering him as the same with Sandrocoptos, nineteen centuries B. C.--for the beginning of the Kali age. According to the chronology of our text, however, it would be but B. C. 1415; to that of the V\u00e1yu and Matsya, B. C. 1450; and to that of the Bh\u00e1gavata, 1515. According to Col. Wilford's computations (As. Res. vol. IX. Chron. Table, p. 116) the conclusion of the great war took place B. C. 1370: Buchanan conjectures it to have occurred in the thirteenth century B. C. Vy\u00e1sa was the putative father of P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301u and Dhritar\u00e1sht\u0301ra, and consequently was cotemporary with the heroes of the great war. Mr. Colebrooke infers from astronomical data that the arrangement of the Vedas attributed to Vy\u00e1sa took place in the fourteenth century B.C. Mr. Bentley brings the date of Yudhisht\u0301hira, the chief of the P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301avas, to 575 B. C. (Historical View of Hindu Astronomy, p. 67); but the weight of authority is in favour of the thirteenth or fourteenth century B. C. for the war of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, and the reputed commencement of the Kali age.\n485:82 A similar explanation is given in the Bh\u00e1gavata, V\u00e1yu, and Matsya Pur\u00e1\u0144as; and like accounts from astronomical writers are cited by Mr. Colebrooke, As. Res. vol. IX. p. 358. The commentator on the Bh\u00e1gavata thus explains the notion: \"The two stars (Pulaha and Kratu) must rise or be visible before the rest, and whichever asterism is in a line south from the middle of those stars, is that with which the seven stars are united; and so they continue for one hundred years.\" Col. Wilford has also given a like explanation of the revolution of the Rishis; As. Res. vol. IX. p. 83. According to Bentley the notion originated in a contrivance of the astronomers to shew the quantity of the precession of the equinoxes. \"This was by assuming an imaginary line or great circle passing through the poles of the ecliptic and the beginning of the fixed Magh\u00e1, which circle was supposed to cut some of the stars in the Great Bear. The seven stars in the Great Bear the circle so assumed was called the line of the Rishis, and being fixed to the beginning of the lunar asterism Magh\u00e1, the precession would be solved by stating the degree &c. of any moveable lunar mansion cut by that fixed line or circle as an p. 486 index. Historical View of Hindu Astronomy, p. 65.\n486:83 The Bh\u00e1gavata has the same; and this agrees with the period assigned for the interval between Par\u00edkshit and Nanda of 1050 years; as, including Magh\u00e1, we have ten asterisms to Purv\u00e1sh\u00e1d\u0301h\u00e1, or 1000 years. The V\u00e1yu and Matsya are so very inaccurate in all the copies consulted, that it is not safe to affirm what they mean to describe. Apparently they state that at the end of the Andhra dynasty the Rishis will be in Krittik\u00e1, which furnishes other ten asterisms; the whole being nearly in accordance with the chronology of the text, as the total interval from Par\u00edkshit to the last of the Andhras is 1050 + 836 =1886, and the entire century of each asterism at the beginning and end of the series need not be taken into account. The copies of the Matsya read, 'The seven Rishis are on a line with the brilliant Agni;' that is, with Krittik\u00e1, of which Agni is the presiding deity. The V\u00e1yu intends in all probability the same phrase, but the three copies have, ### a very unintelligible clause. Again, it seems as if they intended to designate the end of the Andhra race as the period of a complete revolution, or 2700 years; for the V\u00e1yu has, 'The races at the end of the Andhas will be after 2700 years:' the Matsya has, ### and at the close of the passage, after specifying as usual that 'the seven Rishis were in Magh\u00e1 in the time of Par\u00edkshit,' the V\u00e1yu adds, ### a passage which, though repeated in the MSS., is obviously most inaccurate; although it might perhaps be understood to intimate that the Rishis will be in the twenty-fourth asterism after the Andhra race; but that would give only 1400 years from Par\u00edkshit to Pulomat; whilst if the twenty-fourth from Magh\u00e1 was intended, it would give 2400 years: both periods being incompatible with previous specifications. The Matsya has a different reading of the second line, but one not much more satisfactory; 'A hundred years of Brahm\u00e1 will be in the twenty-fourth (asterism?).' In neither of these authorities, however, is it proposed by the last-cited passages to illustrate the chronology of princes or dynasties: the specification p. 487 of the period, whatever it may be, is that of the era at which the evil influence of the Kali age is to become most active and irresistible.\n487:84 The Bh\u00e1gavata has the same. Dev\u00e1pi, as the commentator observes, being the restorer of the lunar, and Maru of the solar race.\n489:85 To be the cause of Sankalpa, 'conviction,' 'belief;' and Vikalpa, 'doubt,' 'disbelief.' The Bh\u00e1gavata indulges in a similar strain, and often in the same words. The whole recalls the words of the Roman satirist;","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter XXIV","type":"page"}