________________
MAGADHAN KINGS
115 Jinas. But little reliance can be placed on uncorroborated assertions of this character.
The second Magadhan dynasty, according to the less corrupt texts of the Purāṇas, was the Saišunāga line which is said to have been founded by a king named śiśunāga. Bimbisāra, the contemporary of the Buddha, is assigned to this family. Aśvaghosha, an earlier authority,' refers however, in his Buddha-charita, to Śrenya i.e., Bimbisāra, as a scion, not of the Saišunāga dynasty, but of the Haryanka-kula, and the Mahāvamsa makes 'Sugunāga' i.e., Siśunāga, the founder of a distinct line of rulers which succeeded that of Bimbisāra. The Purūnas themselves relate that Śiśunāga "will take away the glory of the Pradyotas” whom we know from other sources to be contemporaries of the Bimbisārids :- :
Ashta-trimśachchhatam bhāvyāh Pradyotāl, pañcha te sutāli hatvā teshāin yasah kritsnaiii
ģisunāgo bhavishyati, If this statement be true, then Siśunāga must be later than the first Pradyota, namely Chanda Pradyota Mahāsena, who was, judged by the evidence of the Pāli texts, which is confirmed in important details by the ancient Sanskrit poets and dramatists,' a contemporary of Bimbisāra and his son. It follows that Sisunāga, according to the last-mentioned authorities, must be later than those kings. But we have seen above that the Purānas make Siśunāga an ancestor of Bimbisāra and the progenitor of his family. This part of the Purāņic
1 Asvaghosha was a contemporary of Kanishka (C. 100 A. D.) (Winternitz, Ind. Lit. II. 257). On the other hand the Puraộic chronicles pre-suppose Gupta rule in the Ganges Valley (DKA, 53). C. 320 A. D.
2 XI. 2. 3 Vāyu Purāna, 99, 314. 4 Indian culture, VI, 411,
