Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c23.5

c23.5

³ Dr. Jarl Charpentier has contributed a paper to *A Volume of Indian Studies presented to Professor E. J. Rapson* in which he revives the suggestion of Prinsep (Hultzsch, *Aśoka*, xxxi) that "Aṁtiyaka" referred to by Aśoka is Antiochos Soter (c 281-61), and not his son Antiochos Theos (261-46). But his theory requires that Chandragupta ascended the throne in 327-25 B.C., that he was identical with Xandrames and that the story of his visit to Alexander (recorded by Justin and Plutarch) is a myth. The theory is opposed not only to the evidence of Justin and Plutarch, but to the known facts about the ancestry of Chandragupta. Unlike Xandrames, Chandragupta is nowhere represented as of barber origin. His paternal ancestors are described as rulers by Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist writers alike.