Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.8

c5.8

But he achieved this position by nefarious means on which the Buddhist text is silent but other sources throw some light. Bāṇa’s *Harshacharita*, a text of the seventh century A.D., records the story that 'Kākavarṇī Śaiśunāga was killed by a dagger thrust into his throat in the neighbourhood of his city' (Pāṭaliputra). He is called Kākavarṇa in the *Purāṇas* but Kālāsoka in the *Mahāvaṁsa* list of the kings preceding the Nandas. Very probably the incident of this assassination is related by Curtius when he states : "The father of Agrammes was a barber scarcely staving off hunger by his daily earnings, but who, from his being not uncomely in person, had gained the affections of the queen, and was by her influence advanced to too near a place in the confidence of the reigning monarch. Afterwards, however, he treacherously murdered his sovereign and then, under the pretence of acting as guardian to the royal children, usurped the supreme authority, and, having put the young princes to death, begot the present king." The form Agrammes is modified into Xandramas by Diodorus, and F. W. Thomas takes it to be the equivalent of *Chandramas*. He takes Agrammes to be Dhana-Nanda [*Cambridge History*, I. p. 469], taking Dhana-Nanda to be his nickname, and Chandramas as his personal name. 'The young princes' mentioned by Curtius as being murdered by Ugrasena-Nanda were most probably the ten sons of Kālāsoka-Kākavarṇī of the aforesaid *Mahāvaṁsa* list.