The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c12.7

c12.7

⁴ A tradition recorded in an inscription of the 12th century A.D. states that Kuntala, a large tract including the Western Deccan as well as Northern Mysore, was ruled by the Nandas and that the Kadamba kings claimed descent from Nanda (Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 3). But this assertion finds no support in earlier tradition. The Matsya, Vâyu and Brahmâṇḍa Purâṇas call Mahâpadma Nanda Sarvakṣatriyântaka, destroyer of all Kṣatriyas. The statement supports the tradition that the Nandas were not Kṣatriyas (V. A. Smith, op. cit., pp. 55-56; Thomas, Cambridge History of India, I, pp. 467-73). The course of the revolution is indicated in Viśâkhadatta's Mudrârâkṣasa, which though composed probably in the seventh century A.D. (Rapson, J. R. A. S., 1900, p. 535) or, according to Jacobi, in the 9th century A.D. (Vienna Oriental Journal, II, 1888, p. 212), is, as Hillebrandt emphasises, based on ancient court tradition (Tawney, J. R. A. S., 1908, p. 910). Konow (Ind. Ant., 1914, p. 68) places the play about the 5th century A.D. See also Ind. Ant., 1913, pp. 265-67. For Greek and Roman references to Candragupta, Wilson, Preface to his translation of the Mudrârâkṣasa. The Mahâvaṃśa (tr. Geiger, p. 27) calls Candragupta a scion of the Moriya clan. The Divyâvadâna (ed. Cowell and Neil, 370, 409) calls the Mauryas Kṣatriyas.