Ινδικη 10.3

10.3

οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐκ πλίνθου ποιεομένας διαρκέσαι ἐπὶ χρόνον τοῦ τε ὕδατος εἵνεκα τοῦ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὅτι οἱ ποταμοὶ αὐτοῖσιν ὑπερβάλλοντες ὑπὲρ τὰς ὄχθας ἐμπιμπλᾶσι τοῦ ὕδατος τὰ πεδία.

The Vâyu Purâna, attributes its foundation to Udaya (called also Udayâsva), who mounted the throne of Magadha in the year 519 B.C., or 24 years after the Nirvâna (Vishnu Purâna, p. 467, n. 15; Lassen, Ind. Alt. II. p. 63). Pâtaliputra did not, however, according to the Cingalese chronicles, become the residence of the kings of Magadha till the reign of Kâlâsôka, who ascended the throne 453 B.C. Under Chandragupta (the Sandrakottos of the Greeks), who founded the Buddhistic dynasty of the Mauriyas, the kingdom was extended from the mouths of the Ganges to the regions beyond the Indus, and became in fact the paramount power in India. Nor was Pâtaliputra — to judge from the account of its size and splendour given here by Arrian, and in Frag. XXV. by Strabo, who both copied it from Megasthenês — unworthy to be the capital of so great an empire. Its happy position at the confluence of the Sôn and Ganges, and opposite the junction of the Gandak with their united stream, naturally made it a great centre of commerce, which would no doubt greatly increase its wealth and prosperity. Asôka, who was third in succession from Chandragupta, and who made Buddhism the state religion, in his inscription on the rock at Dhauli in Katak, gives it the title of Metropolis of the Religion, i.e. of Buddhism. The wooden wall by which, as Megasthenês tells us, it was surrounded, was still standing Lakedaimonians and the Indians here so far agree.