Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s23.6

c11.s23.6

When Bindusāra fell ill and was near his end, Aśoka left Ujjayinī and went over to Pushpapura (Pāṭaliputra) and took charge of the administration of the empire. Legend³ implies that this was done against the wish of Bindusāra who had other ideas regarding succession, and there was an interval of four years between the end of Bindusāra's rule and the formal abhisheka of Aśoka from which event his regnal years are counted in the inscriptions. It seems probable that Aśoka's accession was not uncontested, but stories of wholesale destruction of all his brothers are given the lie direct by the inscriptions of the reign.