The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5.22

c5.22

485 Ajātaśatru or Kūnika murders and succeeds his father Bimbisāra, eight years before Buddha's death. He is said to have been at first a persecutor of the Buddhists, but later on a convert. Amongst other acts ascribed to him are:—the founding of the new Rājagṛiha and the capture of Vaiśālī. The *Mahāvaṃśa* assigns him a reign of thirty-two years, the *Vāyu Purāṇa* one of twenty-five, and the *Matsya* one of twenty-seven. According to the *Viṣṇu*, *Vāyu*, and *Matsya Purāṇas* his successors were:—Darbhaka, Udayāśva, called also Udāyin or Udibhi, Nandivardhana, and Mahānandin, ruling 143 (or 140) years. Their successors, known to Buddhist sources as the Nandas, reigned until the accession of Chandragupta in B.C. 315. Singhalese and other Buddhist authorities, while omitting Darbhaka, name Udāyin as the successor of Ajātaśatru. They differ, however, entirely from the Pauranic sources in their lists of the succeeding kings. For the comparative tables of these see Appendix.—LIA. ii, 82, 86 ff., 90, 97. WVP. iv, 181. MV., chap. ii. ZDMG. xxxiv, 183 ff., 748 ff.; xxxv, 667.