The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.t4.27

c6.s1.t4.27

There can then be no doubt that the Nandas mentioned by Māmūlaṇār could be none other than the famous line of the Nanda kings who reigned at Pāṭali or Pāṭaliputra and that the *Moriyar* or the new Moriyar as they are called were the armies of the Mauryan King Candragupta who succeeded to the throne of the Nandas or some one of his lineal successors. From the evident gusto with which Māmūlaṇār in more than one place refers to the magnificent wealth of the Nandas and the martial enterprise of the Mauryas where the subject of the poems does not call for it, it is safe to surmise that these incidents should have been of no distant occurrence, and therefore fresh in the memory of the poet. Now if we could from other sources of information ascertain even approximately the time of Māmūlaṇār it would certainly set this question at rest, but unfortunately the materials are too meagre to arrive at any definite conclusion.¹