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300 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDÍA who had translated it into their own language and modes of expression.' "Garga and Varāhamihira in a later age testify to the honour that was paid to Greeks for their knowledge of astronomy.
Bindusāra's Family Bindusāra had many children besides Asoka, the son who succeeded him on the throne. We learn from a passage of the Fifth Rock Edict in which the duties of the Dharma-mahāmātras 3 are described, that Asoka had many brothers and sisters. The Divyāvadāna mentions two of these brothers, namely, Susima and Vigataśoka. The Ceylonese Chronicles seem also to refer to these two princes though under different names, calling the former Sumana and the latter Tishya. Susima-Sumana is said to have been the eldest son of Bindusāra and a stepbrother of Asoka, while Vigatasoka-Tishya is reputed to have been the youngest son of Bindusāra and a co-uterine brother of Asoka, born of a Brāhmaṇa girl from Champā. Hiuen Tsang mentions a brother of Aśoka named Mahendra. Ceylonese tradition, however, represents the latter as a son of Asoka. It is possible that the Chinese pilgrim has confounded the story of Vigataśoka with that of Mahendra.
1 McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 177. Cf. Grote, XII. p. 169, possible representation of a Greek drama on the Hydaspes.
2 Brihat Samhitā, II, 14. Aristoxenus and Eusebius refer to the presence in Athens, as early as the fourth century B. C. of Indians who discussed philosophy with Socrates. (A note by Rawlinson quoted in the Amrita Bazar Patrika, 22-11-36, p. 17).
3 "High Officers for the Establishment and Propagation of the Law of Duty." 4 Pp. 369-73 ; Smith, Asoka 3rd ed., pp. 247 ff.
5 According to R. L. Mitra (Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, 8) and Smith the name of Asoka's mother was Subhadrângi, Bigandet II. 128 mentions Dhammā as the mother of Asoka and Tissa.
6 Cf. Smith, Asoka, 3rd ed., p. 257.
