The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.10

c18.10

¹ ‘He was born in humble life . . . when by his insolent behaviour he had offended Nandrus [= Nanda], and was ordered by that king to be put to death, he sought safety by a speedy flight’ (Justin, xv, 4, with von Gutschmid’s emendation of *Nandrum* for *Alexandrum*, McCrindle, pp. 327, 405). The *Mudrā Rākshasa* play lays great emphasis on the low-caste origin of Chandragupta, and on his relationship to the Nanda king. But see reference to Harit Krishna Deb’s views in note 1, p. 44 *ante*. It is hardly safe to rely wholly for matter-of-fact history on a work of imagination composed several centuries after the events dramatized. The character of Mahāpadma Nanda himself may have suffered from tales spread by sectarian rancour.