The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t4.1

c11.s2.t4.1

In his work on *‘Jainism or the Early Faith of Aśoka,’* Thomas says: “the testimony of Megasthenes would likewise seem to imply that Candragupta submitted to the devotional teachings of the Śramaṇas as opposed to the doctrines of the Brahmanas,”² and remarks that Candragupta and his successors Bindusāra, and Aśoka, at least in his early years of his reign, were Jainas, and that it was Aśoka who introduced Jainism in Kashmir as the *Rājatarangiṇī* would have it. The theory that Candragupta adopted the Jaina faith seems to have won the general approval of scholars interested in the subject.¹ The distinguished Mysore Archæologist Rao Bahadur R. Narasimhacāriar (now retired) who has reopened the question after Lewis Rice; and has examined it in the light of literary and other evidences, concludes "the evidence may not be quite decisive, but it may be accepted as a working hypothesis until the contrary is proved by future research."² This theory is built upon two lines of evidence, one that of Megasthenes and the other that of the literary tradition embodied in the sacred books of the Jainas. The latter version seems to have been based on the inscription No. 1 at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa.