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130 AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA describe him as a son of Mahānandin, the last king of the Śaiśunāga dynasty by a Śädra woman (Sidra-garbha-odbhava). The Buddhist works call the first Nanda, Mahāpadma, as a bandit who captured the throne.' The Jaina Parisishța Parvano represents him as the son of a courtesan (ganikā) by a barbar (nāpita-kumāra or näpitasuta) and this is strikingly confirmed by the accounts of the Greek writer Curtius.3 He states that “His (Agrammes's)* father was in fact a barbar scarcely staving off hunger by his daily earning, but who, from his being not uncomely in person, had gained the affection 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 the sovereign, and then, under the pretext of acting as guardian to the royal children, usurped the supreme authority, and having put the young princes to death, begot the present king.
It may, however, be noted that the Parisishta Parvan5 relates a story that the deposed Nanda king (Dhana Nanda,
1. According to the Buddhist literature, nine Nanda kings, called the Navananda, reigned in India after the dynasty of Kalasoka and his son (Mahāvamsa, V, 15). The first of the Navananda dynasty was a bandit who captured the throne.
The names of these rulers are given in the Mahabodhivalinga (p. 98. For further details see Mahābodhivanga Tika pp. 177-79) as follows :Uggasena Nanda, Panduka Nanda, Pandugati Nanda, Bhūtapāla Nanda, Ratthapala Nanda, Govisāņaka Nanda, Dasasiddbaka Nanda, Kevatta Nanda and Dhana Nanda. The last was killed by Chanddagutta with the help of Chāņakka and his throne was seized. The nine Nandas together reigned for twenty-two years. Qtd Malalasekera, DPPN, II, p. 15.
2. p. 46. Text, VI, 231-32 and 244. 3. Mo Crindle-The Invasion of India by Alexander, p. 222.
4. The name Aggrammes and later on Xandrames is probably a distorted form of Sanskrit Augrasainy i.e. son of Ugrasena, the first of the nine Nanda kings. For full discussion see Raychaudhari, PHAI, p. 233, fn. 2.
5. VIII, 320.
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