Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.50

c11.50

Buddhist writers do not regard Maurya as a metronymic. They invariably represent it as the name of a clan⁵ the members of which ranked as Kshatriyas since the days of the Buddha. Even Kshemendra who speaks of Chandragupta as *pūrvanan-dasuta* in his version of the *Brihat-kathā*, distinctly mentions Aśoka as born in the Solar Race in the *Avadānakalpalatā*⁶. The latter view accords with the testimony of several mediaeval inscriptions⁷. The antiquity of Moriya or Maurya as a clan name is clear from the *Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta* which represents the people in question as Kshatriyas and rulers of the little republic of Pipphalivana, probably lying between Rummindei in the Nepalese Tarai and Kasia in the Gorakhpur District¹. Some recent writers seek to connect the first Maurya with Gandhāra and its neighbourhood on the basis of evidence which does not bear scrutiny². The suggested identification of Chandragupta with Sisikottos is not borne out by Greek evidence. The treatment of the two eminent men by Alexander is different, and there is nothing to show that Sisikottos was a mere stripling when he met the Macedonian king for the first time. Equally implausible is the attempt to connect Śakuni, whom the Kāshmir Chronicle represents as the great-grand-father of Aśoka, with Śakuni of Gandhāra, famed in the *Mahābhārata*³. Śakuni is by no means an exclusive designation of Gandhārian princes as it occurs in the Purāṇic list of Videhan kings⁴. In *Mudrārākshasa*, Act V, the Gandhāras are actually found arrayed against Chandragupta.