Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 379

350 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
The Vayu Purana says that after Aśoka's death his son Kunāla reigned for eight years. Kunala's son and successor was Bandhupalita, and Bandhupalita's dāyāda or heir was Indrapalita. After Indrapalita came Devavarman, Satadhanus and Brihadratha.
The Matsya Purana gives the following list of Aśoka's successor :-Dasaratha, Samprati, Satadhanvan and Brihadratha.
The Vishnu Purana furnishes the following names :Suyaśas, Dasaratha, Sangata, Saliśūka, Somaśarman Satadhanvan and Brihadratha.
The Divyavadana1 has the following list :-Sampadi, Vrihaspati, Vrishasena, Pushyadharman and Pushyamitra. Jaina writers refer to a Maurya King of Rajagriha, named Balabhadra.2
The Rajatarangini mentions Jalauka as the successor of Asoka in Kaśmira, while Taranatha mentions another successor Virasena who ruled in Gandhara and was, as Dr. Thomas suggests, probably the predecessor of Subhāgasena of Polybius.
It is not an easy task to reconcile the divergent versions of the different authorities. The reality of the existence of Kunāla is established by the combined testimony of the Puranic and Buddhist works (which represent him as the father of Sampadi) as well as the evidence of Hemachandra and Jinaprabhasuri, the well-known Jaina writers. The names Dharma-vivardhana occurring in the Divyavadana and the Records of Fa Hien and Suyasas found in the Vishnu and the Bhagavata Purānas were probably birudas or epithets of this prince. Tradition is not unanimous regarding the accession of Kunala to the imperial
1 P. 433.
2 Jacobi, Introduction to the Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabahu, 1879, p. 9.
3 Ind. Ant., 1875, p. 362; Camb. Hist, Ind., I, p. 512.