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222 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
individual. The conclusion accords with the evidence of the Aśokāvadāna which places Kākavarnin after Muņda, and does not mention Kālāsoka. The new king already served his apprenticeship in the art of government possibly at Benares and in the district of Gayā. The two most important events of his reign are the meeting of the second Buddhist Council at Vaiśāli, and the final transfer of the capital to Pāțaliputra.
Bāņa in his Harsha-charita? gives a curious legend .concerning his death. It is stated that Kākavarņa Saišunāgi had a dagger thrust into his throat in the vicinity of his city. The story about the tragic fate of this king is, as we shall see later on, confirmed by Greek evidence.
The traditional successors of Kālāsoka were his ten sons who are supposed to have ruled simultaneously. Their names according to the Mahābodhivamsa were Bhadrasena, Korandavarna, Mangura, Sarvañjaha, Jālika, Ubhaka, Sanjaya, Koravya, Nandivardhana and Pañchamaka.3
Only one of these names viz, that of Nandivardhana occurs in the Purānic lists. This prince attracted some attention in recent years. His name was read on a Patna statues and in the famous Hāthigumphā inscription of Khāravela. He was sought to be identified with Nandarāja of Khāravela’s record on the strength of Kshemendra's reference to Pūrvananda (Nanda the Elder) who,
1 Divyāvadāna, 369; Geiger, Mahāvamsa, p. xli. 2 K. P. Parab, 4th ed. 1918. p. 199.
3 The Divyāvadāna (p. 369) gives a different list of the successors of Kākavarnin: Sahālin, Tulakuchi, Mahāmandala and Prasenajit. After Prasenajit the crown went to Nanda.
4 Bhandarkar, Carm. Lec. 1918, 83.
5 Dr. Jayaswal opined that the headless "Patna statue" which stood, at the time when he wrote, in the Bhārhut Gallery of the Indian Museum, was a portrait of this king. According to him the inscription on the statue runs as follows:
Sapa (or Sava) khate Vata Namdi.
