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OCTOBER, 1974
inscription that the event took place three hundred years before the 13th regnal year of the Ceti or Cedi (Mahameghavahana) monarch of Kalinga, the likelihood that the statement connotes one hundred and three years cannot be also ruled out. Generally, it has been agreed that the Nandaraja was identical with the Sarva-Ksatrantaka Mahapadma Nanda and Kharavela ruled in 1st century B.C. It is, however, difficult to accept the view since the Asokan inscriptions have stated that Kalinga was not conquered before Asoka. As regards this statement Dr. H. C. Rai Chaudhuri has commented that, "such claims are on a par with the Gupta boast that Samudra Gupta was Ajita-Rajajeta, conqueror of unconquered kings, and that Asvamedha sacrifice had been revived, after a long period of abeyance, by him".15 But this opinion may not hold good in view of the almost universal agreement that Asokan Edicts contain truthful statements in their essential meaning and purport. If Asoka actually conquered Kalinga which was independent and was defended by a powerful army before him as noted by Pliny, who seemingly relied on the Indika of Megasthenes, the entire subject deserves renewed considerations. In fact, the Mudra-Raksasa describes Candragupta Maurya, the grand-father of Priyadarsi Asoka, both as a Mauryaputra as also a Nandanvaya (Act IV). Dr. H. C. Rai Chaudhuri has brought to light several important sources in this connection. Thus, he informs "Ksemendra and Somadeva refer to him as Purvananda-Suta. The commentator on the Visnu-Purana (IV, 24-Wilson IX, 187) says that Candragupta was the son of Nanda by a wife named Mura, whence he and his descendants were called Mauryas. Dhundiraja, the commentator on the Mudra-Raksasa, informs us, on the other hand, that Candragupta was the eldest son of Maurya who was the son of the Nanda King Sarvarthasiddhi by Mura, daughter of a Vrsala (Sudra ?)".16 Under the present circumstances is it possible that the Nandaraja who took away the statue of the Kalinga-Jina was indirectly a king of Nanda lineage following certain traditions ? The devastating war waged against Kalinga by Asoka should have an important bearing in respect of the statement of the HathiGumpha inscription. As regards the ancestry of Candragupta, Dr. H. C. Rai Chaudhuri has summed up that "Hindu
15 Political History of Ancient India, 4th Edition, p. 314. 16 lbid., p. 216, foot-note.
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