________________
Section III. THE EARLY YEARS OF Asoķa. Both the Divyāvadāna and the Ceylonese Chronicles agree that there was a fratricidal struggle after the death of Bindusāra. Asoka is said to have overthrown his eldest step-brother with the help of Rādbagupta whom he made his Agrāmātya (Chief Minister). Dr. Smith observes, the fact that his formal consecration or coronation (abhisheka) was delayed for some four years? until 269 B.C., confirms the tradition that his succession was contested, and it may be true that his rival was an elder brother named Susima." In his Ašokas published a few months later, he says, “it is possible that the long delay may have been due to a disputed succession involving much bloodshed, but there is no independent evidence of such a struggle.” Dr. Jayaswal* gave the following explanation for the delay in Asoka's coronation : "it seems that in those days for obtaining royal abhisheka5 the age of 25 was a condition precedent. This seems to explain why Aśoka was not crowned for three or four years after accession." The contention can hardly be accepted. The Mahābhārata, for instance, informs us that the abhisheka of king Vichitravirya took place when he was a mere child who had not yet reached the period of youth:
Vichitravīryancha tada balam aprāptayauvanam
1 The Oxford History of India, p. 93. 2 Mahāvarsa, Geiger's translation, p. 28. 3 Third edition. 4 JBORS., 1917, p. 438.
5 There were other kinds of abhisheka also, e.g., those of Yuvarāja, Kumāra, and Senāpati, as we learn from the epics and the Kauțiliya (trans., pp. 377, 391).
