The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c29.24

v1.c29.24

⁴ Mahendra is said to have been twenty years of age, and Saṅghamitrā eighteen, at the time of their ordination. As the former was born fourteen years before the coronation, this brings us to the year 6 after that event, which is again hardly to be reconciled with the edicts. It was for Mahendra, who was ordained by Moggaliputta Tissa and who afterwards succeeded the latter as head of his followers, that Açoka built the Açokārāma at Pāṭaliputra. As is well known, Mahendra is in the northern stories made the brother, and not the son, of Açoka, probably through confusion with Tissa. A son of Saṅghamitrā, Sumana by name, also became a monk. Of a daughter of Açoka, by name Chārumatī, a Nepāl legend will be mentioned below (p. 501).