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234 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
• Maithilas, Śūrasenas, Vitihotras, etc. The Jainas, too,
allude to the wide dominion of Nanda.? The Indian account of the unification of a considerable portion of India under Nanda's sceptre is corroborated by several classical writers who speak of the most powerful peoples who dwelt beyond the 'extensive deserts' (apparently of Rājputāna) and the Ganges in the time of Alexander, viz., the Prasii (Prāchyas) and the Gangaridae ( people of the lower Ganges Valley ) as being under one sove. reign who had his capital at Palibothra (Pătaliputra).
1 Conquest of some of the territories occupied by the tribes and clans named here by former kings of Magadha does not necessarily mean the total extinction of the old ruling families, but merely a deprivation of their glory (yasah) and an extension of the suzerainty of the conqueror. Extirpation cannot be meant unless-it is definitely asserted as in the case of Mahāpadma Nanda's conquest, or that of Samudra Gupta in Āryāvarta. It may also sometimes be implied by the appointment of a prince of the conquering family as viceroy. Allowance, however, must be made for a good deal of exaggeration. Even the Vajjians were not literally 'rooted out' by Ajātaśatru, as the most important of the constituent clans, viz., the Lichchhavis, survive till the Gupta Age. A branch of the Iksh vākus may have been driven southwards as they are found in the third or fourth century A.D. in the lower valley of the Krishņā. The Kāśis overthrown by Nanda may have been the descendants or successors of the prince whom Siśunāga had placed in Benares. The Haihayas occupied a part of the Narmadā valley. Conquest of a part of Kalinga by Nanda is suggested by the Hāthigumphā record, that of Aśmaka and part of the Godāvari valley by the city called 'Nau Nand Dehra' (Nander, Macauliffe, Sikh Religion, V. p. 236). Vitihotra sovereignty had terminated before the rise of the Pradyotas of Avanti. But if the Purānic statement (DKA, 23, 69) "Contemporaneously with the aforesaid Kings (Śaisunāgas etc.) there will be............ Vitihotras" has any value, the Saiśunāgas may have paved the way for a restoration of some scion of the old line in Avanti. According to the evidence of the Purānas (Vāyu, 94. 51-52) the Vitihotras were one of the five ganas of the Haihayas, and the survival of the latter is well attested by epigraphic evidence. The Maithilas apparently occupied a small district to the north of the Vajjian dominions annexed by Ajātaśatru. The Pañchālas, Kurus, and the Śūrasenas occupied the Gangetic Doāb and Mathurā and the control of their territories by the King of Magadha c. 326 B.C. accords with Greek evidence. 2 Samudravasanesebhya āsmudramapiśriyah upāya hastairākrishya tatah so' krita Nandasāt
Pariśishta Parvan, VII. 81. 3 Inv. Alex, 221, 281 ; Megasthenes and Arrian by McCrindle (1926) pp. 67, 141, 161.
