Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c14.s1.38

c14.s1.38

² Barnett suggests (*Camb. Hist. Ind.*, I. 596) that the 'Vamba Moriyar' or 'Bastard Mauryas' were possibly a branch of the Konkani Mauryas. But there is hardly any genuine historical record of the penetration of the Mauryas of the Koṅkaṇ deep into the southern part of the Tamil country. For other suggestions, see *JRAS.*, 1923, pp. 93-96. Some Tamil scholars hold that "the Moriyar were not allowed to enter Tamilakam, and the last point they reached was the Veṅkaṭa hill" (*IHQ.*, 1928, p. 145). They also reject Dr. Aiyangar's statement about the Kosar. But the view that the arms of Chandragupta possibly reached the Pāṇḍya country in the Far South of India which abounded in pearls and gems receives some confirmation from the *Mudrārākshasa*, Act, III, verse 19, which suggests that the supremacy of the first Maurya eventually extended "from the lord of mountains (the Himālayas), cooled by showers of the spray of the divine stream (Ganges) playing about among its rocks, to the shores of the southern ocean (Dakshiṇārṇava) marked by the brilliance of gems flashing with various colours". The description, however, may be purely conventional. Prof. N. Sastri is critical of the account in the Tamil texts (*ANM*, p. 253f).