Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.107

c5.107

Considering the dates of the reigns of all these five kings, we find 255 B.C. as the date up to which all were alive. From this follows that the date of Asoka's reference to them in Rock Edict XIII must be before 255 B.C. Professor P. H. L. Eggermont of the Hague, Holland (who honoured me by posting to me his learned paper on 'The Date of Asoka's Rock Edict XIII' on 30th April, 1940, a few days before Holland itself was submerged by German invasion) has very well shown by skilful calculations that the news of the death of one of these Greek kings could not take more than 4 or 5 months to reach Asoka at Pāṭaliputra, and so we need not allow for an interval of one year for it, as I had done in my *Asoka*. He has also after a good deal of discussion established the dates of the two kings, Alexander of Epirus and Magas of Cyrene. The former lived up to 255 B.C. and the latter up to 250 B.C. according to his findings which are followed here. If, therefore, Rock Edict XIII is dated at 256 B.C. since it was in the 13th year of Asoka's coronation, the date of his coronation was 269 B.C., the very date which is led up to by the assumed date of 322 B.C. for Chandragupta's accession to sovereignty and the duration of his reign and that of his successor, as reckoned in the *Purāṇas*. We have thus here a remarkable convergence of chronological conclusions derived from sources as different as foreign and Indian works, Brahminical texts and Buddhist inscriptions, and this convergence proves their truth.