Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c17.2

c17.2

Abridged references to these traditions are given in the body of the work but they may be given in greater detail in an Appendix. An easy access to these is furnished by Turnour in his translation of the *Mahāwanso* (1837) with an Introductory Essay upon which this Appendix is mainly based. Turnour's chief source is *Mahāvaṃsaṭīkā* composed by "Mahānāmo Thero." The *Ṭīkā* throws new light on the history of the Nandas. The Nandas were brothers numbering nine. The eldest brother is described as "a provincial person" who became a "confederate" of a band of bandits, finding their "mode of life" to be excellent. They did not believe in the "toils of tillage or cattle tending" but gave themselves to the more profitable pursuit of "pillaging towns and villages, and laying up stores of riches and grain, and providing themselves with fish and flesh, toddy and other beverage, passing their life thus jovially in feasting and drinking." The romance of this adventurous life made the eldest Nanda seek admission to this brotherhood of bandits. They elected him as their leader in place of the one slain in an unsuccessful attack upon a town. He "proclaimed himself to be Nanda" and "wandered about, pillaging the country", inducing his brothers also to join the gang. Very soon he thought that the career of marauders was not a fit one for valiant men but fit only for "base wretches", and so decided: "Let us aim at supreme sovereignty." Then, "attended by his troops, and equipped for war, he attacked a provincial town, calling upon its inhabitants either to acknowledge him sovereign, or to give him battle." By this means, "reducing under his authority the people of Jambudīpo in great numbers, he finally attacked Pātiliputta, and usurpring the sovereignty, died there a short time afterwards, while governing the empire. His brothers next succeeded to the empire in the order of their seniority. Their ninth youngest brother was called Dhana-Nando, from his being addicted to hoarding treasure."