The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t4.4

c7.s1.t4.4

subject is Otto Stein, who in an article entitled the Coronation of Candragupta Maurya in the Journal of Czecho-slovakia Oriental Institute, Prague, Vol. I, 3, argues on the strength of the classical sources that the accession could not be earlier than B.C. 318. Hultzsch agrees with Fleet in fixing B.C. 320. (C.I.I., Vol. I, Intro., p. xxxv.) V. A. Smith is inclined to B.C. 322 (Early History of India, p. 45). The writer in the Cambridge History of India makes out a case for B.C. 321, while J. Carpentier brings it down to B.C. 313 (Ibid., pp. 156-64). Prof. Kern pleads for B.C. 322 (Ind. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79), while J. Sen for 325 B.C. (Ind. His. Quar., Vol. V, pp. 6-14). K. G. Sankara assigns 321 B.C. (Ind. Ant., 1920, 49f). L. D. Barnett also suggests this date (Antiquities of India, p. 39). I am rather inclined to take the date furnished by Jayaswal cir. 326|25 B.C. (J.B. O. R. S., Vol. I, Pt. 1, p. 116). The same difficulty is met with in the case of Bindusāra and Aśoka. The date of Bindusāra's coronation ranges from 296 to 298 B.C. That the reign of Candragupta extended for 24 years seems to be generally adopted. But Bindusāra's rule was 25 years according to the Purāṇas and 28 years according to the Ceylon chronicles. The same confusion awaits us when we come to Aśoka. Professor Kern is inclined towards 270 B.C. when Aśoka became emperor (Int. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79). According to Barnett Aśoka succeeded his father about 268 B.C. and his coronation was in 264 B.C. (Antiquities of India, p. 39). H. C. Ray Chaudry in his Political History of Ancient India pleads for 273 B.C. It is said that Aśoka died in 232 B.C. after a reign of about forty years. Barnett assigns 226 B.C. as the year of Aśoka's death (Antiquities, p. 40). Aśoka's reign was for 36 years according to the Vāyu Purāṇa and 37 according to the Mahāvaṃśa. Kern places his death in 234 or 233 B.C. (Ind. Ant., Vol. III, p. 79).