The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5.55

c5.55

Pushyamitra, according to Pauranic tradition, overthrows Bṛihadratha, last of the Mauryas, and founds the Śuṅga dynasty in Magadha, 137 years after Chandragupta’s coronation. The *Viṣṇu*, *Vāyu*, and *Matsya Purāṇas* represent him as Bṛhadratha’s general, the *Vāyu* assigning him a reign of sixty, the *Matsya* and *Brahmāṇḍa* one of thirty-six years, after which, according to the *Viṣṇu* and *Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas*, he was succeeded by his son Agnimitra, who, as king of Viḍiśa, is the hero of Kālidāsa’s *Mālavikāgnimitra*. Pushyamitra, who figures in the same play, is also mentioned in the *Aśoka Avadāna* as a persecutor of the Buddhists.—WVP. iv, 190 ff. LIA. ii, 283, 361 ff., 1208. Shankar P. Pandit’s *Mālavikāgnimitra*, pref. xxxi. *Bhāgavata Purāṇa*, xii, 1. 15. BD. 23. IA. i, 301; ii, 61, 362. See Appendix.