Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s1.13

c11.s1.13

Some interesting details about the warlike activities of Bindusāra and his Chancellor, the Brāhmaṇ Chāṇakya, are recorded in the history of Tāranātha. We are told that they destroyed kings and nobles of about sixteen cities and reduced to submission all the territory between the eastern and the western seas. In view of the late date of the author it is difficult to say what element of truth is contained in his narrative. The vanquished-monarches "between the eastern and the western oceans" have been taken to refer to the petty sovereigns of the Peninsula.¹ This is not a necessary inference as North India from Kāthiāwar to Bengal may also be said to extend from sea to sea. Kalinga on the eastern coast of the Deccan is known to have retained its independence till the days of Aśoka. The statement of Tārānātha, if based on authentic tradition, need mean nothing more than the suppression of revolts of the type alluded to in the *Divyāvadāna* in the vast stretch of territory between Surāṣṭra and the Gangetic delta. No Greek or Indian record of any early date connects the name of Bindusāra Amitraghāta with the conquest of any large tract of Peninsular India. Inscriptions of Kalinga and Mysore, which tell us so much about the Nandas, Chandragupta and Aśoka, are silent about the second Maurya.