Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s38.5

c11.s38.5

Though the Purāṇas generally agree in stating that altogether nine Mauryas ruled for a period of 137 years, none of the lists gives details corresponding to these total figures which refer presumably to Magadha and the eastern half of the empire. The only name in these lists confirmed by epigraphy is that of Daśaratha who is ignored in the Buddhist and Jain accounts ; he is known by three short dedicatory inscriptions bestowing on the Ājīvakas caves in the Nāgārjuni hills immediately after his abhisheka (coronation) ; the script and the style of these records closely resemble those of the similar inscriptions of Aśoka in the neighbouring Barābar hills¹. For the rest we have only tradition ; though it is possible that tradition preserves the memory of what has been lost to history, perhaps for ever.