The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.101

c21.101

The legends have reached us in two main streams, the Ceylonese and the North-Indian. The accident that the Ceylonese varieties of the stories happen to be recorded in books which assume the form of chronicles with a detailed chronology, and have been known to European readers for many years, has given to the southern tales an illusory air of special authenticity. The earliest of the Ceylonese chronicles, the *Dīpavaṁśa*, which probably was compiled late in the fourth century after Christ, is some six centuries posterior to the death of Asoka, and has little claim to be regarded as a first-rate authority, although deserving respectful consideration.