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142
Candragupta Maurya's death in a very simplified manner. He says -
बिन्दुसारे प्रपेदाने वयो मन्मथवल्लभम् । समाधिमरणं प्राप्य चन्द्रगुप्तो दिवं ययौ ।।
Pari-pa, sarga 8 verse 444 This reference confirms that Candragupta Maurya has not taken dīksa and has not moved towards south as depicted by Harișeņa. Hemacandra never associated this Mauryan king with the first
Bhadrabāhu.
[4] The Bșhatkathākoşa of Harişeņa is the oldest collection of the narratives available in Sanskrit which is written during the 10th century A.D. Harișeņa is a Digambara writer who collected 157 traditional narratives of the famous historical personalities. In these narratives he has given the full life-accounts of Bhadrabāhu, Vararuci, Svāmi Kārttikeya etc. These narratives are written in poetical-form. It seems that Harişeņa has got the inspiration from the Bhagavatī Ārādhanā in which the names of the personalities are referred to in a brief manner.
The 143rd tale is titled as, “Cāņakya-muni-kathānakam' (pp.336338) in which Cāņakya’s whole biography is documented in 85 Sanskrit verses. As the main source of the Svetāmbara narratives of Cāņakya is the Avaśyaka literature, likewise Harisena's Cāņakyamuni-kathā is the spring-well of the legacy of Cāņakya in the Digambara literature.
Here, an attempt has been made to give literal translation of each verse of Cāņakya-kathā accurately as far as possible. Afterwards, the sailent features of this narrative are noted in comparison with the Svetāmbara accounts of Cāņakya.
