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Specimen-exracts from ancient Indla Vol. 11.. 484 he sent for him from Avanti"9 to Pāțliputra and declared him as his successor to the throne. At this time Samprati was a babe
of ten months3". He was born in Poşa, and The duration of his
** was proclaimed emperor probably on Vijayā. role and of his life
daśmi. (P. 256 f. n. 5).
His coronation ceremony took place, as we have already stated, (P. 256), in A. M. 237=B. C. 290. This is independently supported by the fact that king Tissä of Ceylon died during the 26th year of the reign of Priyadarsin31 (P. 238 f. n. 71 ).
Buddhist books contain no information about him, or the tenure of his reign, because he was not a Buddhist 3? but a Jain. The information supplied by the Jaina books is also misleading to a certain extent.33. Pundit Täranāth, a Tibetian writer, states in his account of Khotán, that Sambāti (Samprati) reigned for 54 years34. Thus his reign lasted from 290 B. C. to 237 B. C. The chronological list of the kings who ruled over Ujjain, as given by the author of the Parisiéta-parva, "5 supports these dates 38. In
(29) For want of proper information, I have stated Avauti as the place of his birth. It is probable, however, that kañchapmālà might have gone to her father's place, which was near the Babhrā-vairāta edict, during her pregnancy and the child may have been born there, and then, later on, brought to Avanti.
(30) Baroda Library, Samprati Kasha---Manuscript-pp. 88:--The age of the child is stated to have been ten days in place of months. It seems improbable that a ten-day-old child could be safely brought from Avanti to Pataliputra.
(31) Tissà died in (290-26), 264-3 B. C. (F. n. no. 71 for the chronological list of the kings of Ceylon). This king, queerly enough, came to the throne when Samprati was born, and died when Samprati got the rock-edicts erected,
(32) For details see the account of his rock-edicts. (33) Vol. 1. pp. 195 and f. n. about it.
(31) Smith, Asoka, pp. 82:-"The accession of Asoka apparently 48 or 49 years earlier in B. C. 301 or 3C2, assigning 54 years to his reign."
Mr. Smith bas borrowed this from Pandit Tarapäth's account of prince Kusthan of Tibet. Oply he has interpolated the word "apparently,' because he does not seem to have full faith in the Pandit's account of Asoka. Mr. Smith has erred into the belief that the person (Dharmaśoka) whose account is given by the Pandit, was Ašaka. But Asoka's reign lasted for 41 years, while that of Priyadarsin lasted for 54 years.
(35) F. A. Do. 33 above.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
