The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.71

v1.c24.71

After these two reigns we come once more to a period of conflicting authorities and chronological uncertainty which lasts until the reign of Chandragupta. The Buddhist genealogy preserved in the Mahāvaṃsa is certainly not above suspicion²; for each of the five kings from Ajātasattu to Nāgadāsaka is said to have killed his father and predecessor within a period of fifty-six years, and we are solemnly told that, after the last of these, Nāgadāsaka, had occupied the throne for twenty-four years, the citizens awoke to the fact that ‘this is a dynasty of parricides’ and appointed the minister Susunāga (Çiçunāga) in his stead. The Jain tradition recognises only Udāyin and the nine Nandas as reigning during this interval; and the Purāṇic list (*Kali Age*, pp. 21–6, 68–9) is as follows: