The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.77

v1.c24.77

The period of the nine Nandas is thus determined. According to the Purāṇas they represent no new family: they are the direct descendants of the Çiçunāgas, the last and the last but one of whom, Mahānandin and Nandivardhana, bear names which indicate their connexion. There are, therefore, two groups of these kings, which seem to be distinguished in literature as the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ Nandas; and, as Mr Jayaswal has suggested, ‘new’ and not 'nine' may have been the correct designation of the later group¹. The Purāṇas know no break of political continuity between the Çiçunāgas and the Nandas; but they recognise that a great social and religious gulf has been fixed between the earlier and the later Nandas by the flagrant violation of caste law which placed Mahāpadma, the son of a Çūdra woman, on the throne; and they mark their sense of this chasm by interpolating after the reign of Mahānandin a summary of the number of reigns in other contemporary dynasties before proceeding with their account of the rulers of Magadha.