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310 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
1
the dominions of the king of the Prasii, i.e., Magadha, as early as the time of Agrammes, i.e., the last Nanda king. A passage of Pliny clearly suggests that the "Palibothri," ie., the rulers of Pataliputra, dominated the whole tract along the Ganges. That the Magadhan kings retained their hold on Bengal as late as the time of Asoka is proved by the testimony of the Divyavadāna 3 and of Hiuen Tsang who saw Stupas of that monarch near Tamralipti and Karnasuvarna (in West Bengal), in Samatata (East Bengal) as well as in Pundravardhana (North Bengal). Kāmarupa (Assam) seems to have lain outside the empire. The Chinese pilgrim saw no monument of Aśoka in that country.
2
We have seen that in the south the Maurya power at one time, had probably penetrated as far as the Podiyil Hill in the Tinnevelly district. In the time of Aśoka the Maurya frontier had receded probably to the Pennar river near Nellore as the Tamil Kingdoms are referred to as "Prachamta" or border states and are clearly distinguished from the imperial dominions (Vijita or Rājavishaya), which stretched only as far south as the Chitaldrug District of Mysore. The major part of the
Several scholars find it mentioned in the Aitareya Aranyaka. But this is doubtful. Bodhayana brands it as an impure country and even Patanjali excludes it from Aryavarta. The country was, however, Aryanised before the Manusamhita which extends the eastern boundary of Aryavarta to the sea, and the Jain Prajñāpana which ranks Anga and Vanga in the first group of Aryan peoples. The earliest epigraphic reference to Vanga is probably that contained in the Nagarjunikonda Inscriptions.
1 McCrindle, Inv. Alex., pp. 221, 281.
2 Ind. Ant., 1877, 339. Megasthenes and Arrian (1926) p, 141-2.
3 P. 427. Cf. Smith's Aśoka, 3rd ed, p. 255. The Mahasthāna Inscription which is usually attributed to the Maurya period, contains no reference to Aśoka.
4 Mr. S. S. Desikar thinks that the last point reached by the Mauryas was the Venkata hill (IHQ., 1928, p. 145).
