Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s38.49

c11.s38.49

Māmūlanār had a better knowledge of the Nandas and the Mauryas, and his statements are much more precise and credible though he too retains the quasi-legendary feature which is all that the two other poets recorded about the Mauryas. He mentions the Nandas and the enormous treasure accumulated by them in a telling context. ‘What is it’, asks a love-lorn lady, ‘that has attracted my lover better than my charms?’ ; and among the alternatives postulated occurs this¹ : ‘Is it the treasure accumulated in the prosperous Pāṭaliputra and hidden in the waters of the Ganges by the Nandas of great renown, victorious in war?’ Here is much that we know of the Nandas from other sources, and one fact that is new—the manner in which they kept the treasure hidden under the waters of the Ganges, which reminds one of a similar practice attributed to the Mahārājas of Zabag by Arab travellers of the eighth century A. D. Māmūlanār’s mention of the Mauryas is accompanied by equally clear and precise indications of historical events. There are two passages for consideration, both from the Ahanāṉūṟu. One² starts by saying that the lover would not stay behind even if he got the wealth of the Nanda for doing so—a second reference to this topic by this poet ; it then proceeds to say that Kōśar of the victorious banner started operations against their foes and gained victories against several ; but as Mōhūr did not submit to them, the Mōriyas who had a large army led an expedition ; and it adds that the Mōriyar’s chariots rolled across a cutting made in the mountain for that purpose. Here is perhaps some fresh support for the identification proposed above of the Kōśar with the Satiyaputa ; but what is more important, the Mauryan imperial power was so friendly to the Kōśar as to be ready to go to their help in their wars against their enemies; this active intervention in the politics of the Tamil country brings to our view a phase of Mauryan imperialism that has so far escaped notice. The last reference in Māmūlanār¹ adds some more particulars; it says that when the Mōriyar turned to the south, the war-like Vaḍugar preceded them as their van, and the mountain which was cut to make a way for the chariots on this occasion is described as the large snow-mountain reaching up to the skies—obviously the Himālayas. This last detail betrays that Māmūlanār too is by no means free from the legendary notion about Mauryas that was the entire stock-in-trade of the two other poets; only he manages to convey to us some facts besides the legend. Vaḍugar is a rather vague term in Tamil literature ; it means literally northerners, and was generally applied to the Kannaḍa-Telugu peoples of Southern and Eastern Deccan together. These peoples were included in the Mauryan empire, and it is probable that in a move further south they were called upon to take the lead.