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152
AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
Naturally, therefore, Chandragupta Maurya would have looked forward to expand and consolidate his power beyond the Vindhyas, after having seen himself master of the northern part of the country. He had both the strength and the inclination for it. It seems more probable, hence, that the Greek, Jaina, Tamil, Epigraphical, Monumental' - all evidences are based on some facts, and in Chandragupta's wars and conquests may be included the conquest of the South too.
There is also the possibility, however, that Chandragupta Maurya had not to conquer the South, but found it a part of the empire that he seized from the Nandas. That the Nandas were masters of the South, as far as Kuntala in northern Mysore, has already been shown in the previous chapter. But does it preclude the idea that even if Mahapadma Nanda-in fact a powerful sovereign, had conquered the South, it had not fallen off from the Magadha Empire and Chandragupta had to conquer it again ?
There are, therefore, the following possibilities. Firstly, that the Kalinga country threw off the Magadhan yoke during the weak rule of the successors of Mahāpadma Nanda and continued to enjoy home rule till it was finally reduced by Aśoka in the eighth year of his coronation. Pliny says—"The tribe called the Calingae are nearer the sea...the royal city of the Calingae is called Parthalis. Over their king sixty thousand foot soldiers, one thousand horsemen and seven hundred elephants keep watch and ward in procinct of war."3 The statement of Pliny is of no little importance, since it was mostly copied from the Indika of Megasthenes, who visited the court of Magadha in the
1. Refer C. G. M. & T. pp. 38.42. 2. Supra pp. 131 f; Also refer Rice, Mysore & Coorg In Ings, p.3. 3. I.A., 1877, p. 338; PHAI, p. 305; Cf. Indika, Frag, I, vi.
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