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356 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA earlier authorities. As already pointed out above! the Mahāparinibhāna sutta represents the Moriyas (Mauryas) as belonging to the Kshatriya caste. The Mahāvarisa” refers to the Moriyas as a noble (kshatriya) clan and represents Chandragupta as a scion of this clan. In the Divyāvadānas Bindusāra, son of Chandragupta, said to a girl, "Tvam Nāpinī ahai Rāja Kshatriyo. Mūrdhābhishiktah kathai mayā sārdham samāgamo bhavishyati p” Thou art a barber girl, I am a consecrated kshatriya (king). How can I unite myself with theep” In the same work* Aśoka says to one of his queens (T'ishyarakshitā), "Devi aham Kshatriyah katham palūndum paribhakshayāmi ?”' 'Queen, I am a kshatriya, how can I take onion ? In a Mysore inscription Chandragupta is described as “an abode of the usages of eminent kshatriyas." 5 The Kauțiliya's preference of an "abhijāta” king seems also to suggest that the sovereign of the reputed author was born of a noble family. 6
Having referred to the prohibition of animal sacrifices Pandit Sāstri goes on to say : "this was followed by
that a Purāņic text applies it even to the founder of the so-called Andhra dynasty (Pargiter, DKA, 38). But we learn from contemporary epigraphs that the dynasty regarded itself as 'Bamhana.' According to Manu (X.43) the epithet Vrishala could be applied to degraded Kshatriyas (cf. IHQ, 1930, 271 ff. Cf. also Mbh. XII. 90, 15ff., "The Blessed Dharma is Vrisha. He who deals with it in such a way that it ceases to be of any use, i.e., transgresses it, is called a Vrishala, Vrishohi Bhagavān Dharmo yastasya kurute hyalam). The Mauryas by their Greek connection and Jaina and Buddhist leanings certainly deviated from the Dharma as understood by the great Brāhmaṇa law-givers. Attention may be invited in this connection to the epithet Vasalaka (Vrishala) applied by Brāhmaṇas to the Buddha himself (Mookerji, Hindu Civilization, 264).
1 p. 267 supra. 2 Geiger's Translation, p. 27. 3 P. 370. 4 P. 409. 5 Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 10. 6 Cf. Arthaśāstra, p. 326. See also supra, 266 f. (the reign of Chandragupta).
