The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5.40

c5.40

Under Aśoka the Mauryan Empire extended over the whole of Northern India, from Afghanistan to Maisūr, and from Kāṭhiāvāḍ to Kaliṅga (Orissa). Among his contemporaries were Antiokhos II of Syria (B. C. 260–247), Ptolemy Philadelphos (285–247), Antigonos Gonatos of Makedonia (278–242), Magas of Kyrēnē (d. 258), and Alexander of Epeiros (between 262 and 258), who have been identified with the kings mentioned in his thirteenth edict. Senart has come to somewhat different conclusions regarding Aśoka's initial date. Taking the synchronism of the Greek kings as the basis of his calculation, he fixes Aśoka's accession in B.C. 273 and his coronation in 269. This would force Chandragupta's accession back to B.C. 325.—MV., chap. v. LIA. ii, 223 ff. IA. vi, 149 ff. CI. i, pref. vii. *Vinayapiṭakam*, ed. Oldenberg, Int. xxxviii. CT. 23. ZDMG. xxxv, 473; xxxvii, 87; xxxix, 489; xl, 127; xli, 1; xliii, 128, 273; xliv, 702; xlvi, 54, 539; xlviii, 49. IA. xx, 154, 229 ff.; xxii, 299. EI. ii, 245 ff.