The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c7.20

c7.20

Bimbisāra enlarged his dominions by conquest, and became very powerful. His principal queens were a princess of the great Lichchavi clan, and a daughter of the King of Kōsala. He had only been three years on the throne when he was threatened from the north-west;² for Cyrus the great King of Persia conquered Bactria, Kābul and Gandhāra and practically all the country to the west of the Indus. Bimbisāra, however, was not actually attacked by Cyrus, but the danger became greater with the advent to the Persian throne in 522 B.C. of Darius son of Hystaspes, whose general, Skylax, sailed down the Indus to the sea, thus allowing his master to annex the Indus valley about the year 512 B.C. Bimbisāra was murdered by his own son Ajātaśatru who seized the throne of Magadha (about 500 B.C.).³