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62
Lord Mahâvîra
As regards the Mauryas, there seems to be great uncertainty about their reign-period in the Jain traditions given above. One Svetambara tradition assigns 160 years to them, another 108 years, and the Digambara traditions assign to this dynasty only 40 years. The last seems to be of no value as the reign-period, of the first three great Mauryas, Chandragupta, Bindusara and Ashoka, itself comes to 85 years according to the unanimous tradition recorded in the Puranas,17 and 93 years according to the Ceylonese Buddhist traditions.18 There is also no doubt, as is evidenced by inscriptional records as well as the traditional accounts, that the rule of these first three great Mauryas extended to Central and Western India. The association of Samprati, grandson of Ashoka and a great patron of Jainism, with Central and Western India is also very strongly attested by the Jain traditions.19 Only in certain Puranas we get a complete record of the chronology of the Maurya kings, which is as follows 20:
Satadhanvan Brihadratha
Years.
24 25
36 8 8 7 8 9 13 7 8
20
Chandragupta Bindusara Ashoka .. Kunala .. Bandhupalita Dasona .. Dasaratha
Samprati Salisuka..
Devadharman or Devavarman
∞ a ~ ~ ∞ 78
Total
Against this total of 160 years obtained by adding the reign-periods of the various Maurya kings, some of the Puranas give a total of 137 years for this dynasty. A comparison of the Pauranic and the Jain traditions concerning the reign period of the Mauryas will make us give more credit to a total reign-period of 160 years to this dynasty. In any caste it must be noted that following certain Pauranic traditions referred to above if we assign 100 years to the Nandas and 160 years to the Mauryas we get a
160
