Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s6.60

c12.s6.60

king Nanda.¹ The Purāṇic as well as the Ceylonese; chroniclers know of the existence of only one Nanda line and agree with Jaina tradition in taking *nava* to mean *nine* (and *not new*).² They represent Nandivardhana as a king of the Śaiśunāga line—a dynasty which is sharply distinguished from the Nandas. The Purāṇas contain nothing to show that Nandivardhana had anything to do with Kaliṅga.³ On the contrary, we are distinctly told that when the Śaiśunāgas and their predecessors were reigning in Magadha 32 kings ruled in Kaliṅga synchronously. “It is not Nandivardhana but Mahāpadma Nanda who is said to have brought ‘all under his sole sway’ and ‘uprooted all *Kshatriyas*.’ So we should identify Naṁdarāja of the Hāthigumphā inscription who held possession of Kaliṅga either with the all-conquering Mahāpadma Nanda or one of his sons.”