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CHAPTER XIV
CHANDRAGUPTA
W E have sketched in the opening chapters the
V V political divisions of India at the time of the rise of Buddhism. We know, whether from native or foreign sources, very little of what happened during the century and a half that followed after the Buddha's death. When the curtain rises again it shows considerable changes in the picture. But the new picture is in harmony with the old ; the principal figures and most of the minor ones are the same; and the changes in their position can be fairly understood in the light of their previous relations.
In the middle of the seventh century B.C., the paramount power was the great kingdom of Kosala, then at the height of its prosperity, under Pasenadi's father, the Great Kosalan (Mahākosala), whose dominions extended from the mountains to the Ganges, and from the Kosala and Rāmaganga rivers on the west to the Gandak on the east. West and south of it a number of small kingdoins maintained their independence. Eastward Kosala had already extended its suzerainty over the Sākiyas; but was stopped in
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
