Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s4.1

c12.s4.1

According to Jaina legend Pradyota went forth to attack Rājagṛiha even during the lifetime of Bimbisāra.¹ The last-mentioned prince, the real founder of Magadhan *imperial* power in the historic period, was the son of a petty chief of South Bihār, whose very name seems to have been forgotten. Tradition tried to fill the lacuna possibly by an imaginary nomenclature.² An early authority describes the family to which the prince belonged as the *Haryaṅka-kula*. As we have already seen,³ there is no reason to discard this evidence in favour of the later tradition of the *Purāṇas*. Young Bimbisāra, who also bore the name or epithet of Seṇiya (Śreṇika), is said to have been anointed king by his own father when he was only fifteen years old.⁴ The momentous event cannot fail to recall a solemn ceremony that took place some nine hundred years later when another king of Magadha clasped his favourite son in arms in the presence of the princes royal and ministers, in council assembled, and exclaimed, “Protect the entire land”.