Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.175

c11.175

On occasions he seems to have attended public spectacles. One such show is referred to by Pliny (on the authority of Megasthenes) in which foals of *kartazons*—a kind of one horned animal, probably the rhinoceros,—were set to fight each other². Some of the facts mentioned by the classical writers receive confirmation from the inscriptions of Aśoka. The predecessors of that king, we are told, went on *vihāra-yātrā*, an important feature of which was hunting. They also celebrated *samājas* which may be compared with the public spectacles of Pliny.