Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.190

c11.190

We have seen above that one of the occasions when the king came out of the palace was to offer sacrifice. This possibly implies that Chandragupta was known to the Greeks as a follower of the Brāhmaṇical religion. The celebrated Jaina author Hemachandra admits that the emperor patronised heretical (i.e., non-Jaina) teachers (*mithyādṛikpāṣaṇḍimatabhāvitam*⁵). As has been noted above one of the king's ministers was a Jatilian or a follower of "a class of ascetics, so called on account of their matted hair"⁶. Jaṭilakas figure in a list of "schools or corporate bodies of Wanderers, or of Hermits" mentioned in early Pali Canon⁷. We do not know what was exactly the attitude of Chandragupta towards the Buddhists. If the *Theragāthā* Commentary is to be believed he put into prison the father of an Elder (*Thera*) at the instigation of Chāṇakya⁸.