The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c11.10

c11.10

Ajātaśatru is assigned twenty-five, or twenty-seven years by different Purāṇas, and thirty-two years by Tibetan and Ceylonese Buddhist tradition. I assume the correctness of the oldest Purāṇic list, that of the *Matsya*, and take his reign to have been twenty-seven years. The real existence of Darśaka (erroneously called Vaṁśaka by the *Matsya*) having been established by Bhāsa's *Svapna-Vāsavadattā*, his reign may be assigned twenty-four years, as in the *Matsya*. Udaya, who is mentioned in the Buddhist books, and is said to have built Pāṭaliputra, is assigned thirty-three years by the Purāṇas, which may pass.¹