Tribes in Ancient India c50.47

c50.47

After Ripuñjaya, the last king of Jarāsandha's line, came the Pradyotas, of whom there is not much to relate; and then followed the Śiśunāgas. The Śiśunāga dynasty was established before 600 B.C. (perhaps in 642 B.C.) by a chieftain of Benares named Śiśunāga who fixed his capital at Girivraja or Rājagṛha. Bimbisāra, said to have been the fifth of his line, came to the throne about 528 B.C. The *Mahāvaṃsa*, however, makes Śiśunāga the founder of a dynasty which succeeded that of Bimbisāra; and the Purāṇas are self-contradictory. The first Pradyota, namely, Caṇḍa Pradyota Mahāsena, was a contemporary of Bimbisāra according to the early Pāli texts; but the Purāṇas, as we have seen, make Śiśunāga an ancestor of Bimbisāra.¹ The fact that Vārāṇasī was included within Śiśunāga’s dominions² supports the view that Śiśunāga came after Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru, who were the first to establish Magadhan authority in Kāśī. The *Mālālaṃkāravatthu*³ tells us that Rājagṛha lost its rank as a royal city from the time of Śiśunāga. This also goes to show that Śiśunāga came after the flourishing days of Rājagṛha, i.e. the period of Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru.