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Vol. XVIII, No. 3
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does not reach 153 up to the Mauryas; though it may up to the age of the Guptas. Not more than ten kings are known to have ruled in Magadha before 3137 B. C. Political history of Magadha does not pass beyond 250 to 300 years before the age of the Mahābhārata while this tradition takes it to more than 3600 years before that. The reference to the republics is even more bewildering. The duration of the two republics given amounts to (300+120=420) years and if we add the figure to 6042, we get 6462 years, though the duration of the first republic is missing. It is a puzzle that the total exceeds 6451 years. Then, the history of the Magadha is well-known but we are not aware of a republic ever being established there.
How bafiling this tradition becomes when interpreted in connection with Magadha is evident from the latest writings of Dr. D. S. Triveda on the subject. There were 22 kings of the Bärhadratha dynasty, 5 of the Pradyota, 12 of the Siśunāga, 9 of the Nanda, 12 of the Maurya, 10 of the Sunga, 4 of the Kaņva and 32 of the Andhra dynasty during the post Mahābhārata period. That totals 106 and falls short of 153. Dr. Triveda completes the total by adding 47 kings belonging to Kţta, Tretā and Dvāpara. True, they were famous but they were not rulers of Magadha and there can be, therefore, no justification for counting them as such.47
Even the regnal years have to be manipulated for the purpose. The Nandas reigned not less than 136 years but Dr. Triveda counts a hundered only. The reign of the Mauryas given as 137 years in the Purāņas is raised to 316. Similarly the reign of the Sungas is raised to 302 years from 112 or 120, of the Kanvas to 85 from 45 and of the Andhras to 560 from 460. Such changes we find hard to defend, we do not find names of all the Andhra rulers and their regnal years fully in any of the Puraņas, but we find that in case of the Maurya, Sunga and Kaņva rulers. We can add the regnal years of the individual kings and check the figures for the dynasties against them. Such checks and counter-checks prove the figures given in the Purāņas reliable. Again 2336 years passed since the birth of Parikşit to 'Andhrānta' according to the Purāņas. If the term is interpreted as the beginning of the Andhra rule, Dr. Triveda has 2304 years only which is less than 2336 years of the Purāņas. If the term is interpreted as the end of the Andhra rule, Dr. Triveda has 2810 years which is more than one cycle of the Saptarsis. The cycle has an important place in the chronology of the Purāņas. One cycle of the Saptarsis was completed from the days of Pratipa to the end of the Andhara rule. The samething is put differently when the Purānas declare that the Saptarsis were staying in the Maghā during the age
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