Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.3

c4.3

**Earlier Emperors.** India had seen many great kings and emperors before him like Mahāpadma, Nanda, Ajātaśatru, or Bimbisāra whose reign was enlivened by the moving personality of the great Buddha. And even before these we read in the texts of earlier emperors with high-sounding titles acquired by conquests and formally conferred upon them with appropriate religious ceremonies announcing such achievements. Indeed, the tradition of such great kings and emperors goes back to the Vedas. The *Ṛigveda* tells of Sudās who had achieved his overlordship of Ṛigvedic India by his victory at the Battle of Ten Kings (*Dāśa-rājña*) [*Ṛv.* VIII. 33, 2, 5; 83, 8], representing about forty different Ṛigvedic peoples.