Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s23.5

c11.s23.5

² MV. XIII 8—11 ; DV. VI 15—17. As Mahinda was twenty years of age in the sixth year after his father's coronation (DV. VI 21—2 ; VII 21—2 and 24), his birth would fall ten years before Aśoka's accession, and this gives us some idea of the duration of Aśoka's political apprenticeship under his father. Smith (Aśoka, pp. 48, 50) accepts Hiuen Tsang's statement that Mahendra was a brother, not son, of Aśoka, and follows Oldenberg in doubting the real existence of Saṅghamitrā.