The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t4.20

c6.s1.t4.20

Paṇḍit M. Rāghava Aiyangar agrees with this interpretation. To me this passage is significant in more than one respect. This literary reference to the floods of the Ganges, a fact supported by archæological evidence³ is further corroborated by an independent testimony. Haraprasād Śāstri writes: "Buddha-ghoṣa says in his commentary that Buddha predicted the destruction of Pāṭaliputra by fire, flood and feud. So it seems that before his time, *i.e.*, in the third and fourth centuries there were destructive fires, destructive inundations and internal strifes which is very possible in periods of anarchy."¹ In summarising briefly the synthesis published in the Annual Reports of the Archæological Survey, Bengal Circle, D. B. Spooner remarks thus: "The fact that we observe a belt of virgin soil some eight feet thick distributed evenly over the floor appears to me susceptible of only one explanation, namely, that the building was flooded while it stood intact. It was at all events buried to this depth, or its *disjecta membra* must certainly have lain upon the floor. Whether this burial was due to flood or to some other cause, is not a question of much archæological interest, but I assume it was by flood, because the soil is Ganges silt and virgin.