History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.102.2

v7.c90.102.2

that only the principal or important kings are named and *not all*) and the total of the reigns of all these (1408 years), finds that the average of the reign of each king in the three lines works out at such large figures as 47, 50, 31, which he regards as impossible when tested by real historical averages But he forgets that the Purānas say that in the Aikṣvāka, Magadha and Paurava lines and also generally only the prominent kings are mentioned and also that the extant Purānas are only fragments left of the originals, since in the Brahmāṇḍa (III. 74) all Paurava and Aikṣvāka kings are altogether lost. Then he takes the total number of kings in ten kingdoms up to Mahāpadma and arrives at the average of 26 kings for each kingdom (AIHT p 181). Then he says that the average of fourteen series of kings in Eastern and Western countries which he examined comes to 19 years for each reign and, holding that the average in eastern countries is less than in western countries, he arrives at the average of 18 years for each reign (pp. 181-182), which he regards as fair and rather liberal. He then multiplies the average 18 (of length of reigns) by 26 (the average number of kings in ten countries which he supposes to be the only kings in those ten) and arrives at the figure 468 years. He adds these to the date which he assigns to Mahāpadma Nanda 382 B. C. and thus arrives at 850 B. C.