Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Maurya Dynasty--The Fifth dynasty of Magadha

Correct Reigning periods of kings of Maurya Dynasty
Reigned for 316 years at 'Girivraja' as capital of Magadha Kingdom
From 1604 After Yudhistira(A.Y.) to 1920 A.Y. :: From B.C.1534 to 1218

























Total rule 316 Years.









Meaning of the Above Sloka:-"These twelve Maurya kings Chandragupta etc., will rule for 316 years."

Note: Also see "History of Classical Literature" By Dr. M. Krishnamacharya and "Age of Mahabharata war" By Sri Nadimpalli Jagannadha Rao; and the manuscript copy of Matsya Purana in the library of T, S. Narayana Sastri. B.A, B.L., Madras. Author of the Book °‘Age of Sankara".

"The greatest mistake that has ever been committed in the field of the Chronology of Ancient India-nay the greatest harm that has ever been done to the cause and progress of the ancient Indian History and Literature-is the so called identification of Sandrocottus, Sandrocyptus, of the Greek writers of Alexander’s history with Chandragupta Maurya, the first king of the Maurya Dynasty, and of the so-called identification of Xandrames or Andramen with Nanda, the father of the said Chandragupta Maurya. We have shown from the various Hindu, Jain and Buddhistic accounts contained in the various Puranas, Kaliyugaraja vrittanta, Brihatkatha etc., and Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa, Asokavadana, Parisistaparva etc., that this Chandragupta Maurya, the son of Mahapadma or Dhana Nanda by his Sudra wife 'Mura', came to the throne of his father in the year 1604 of the Yudhistira Saka, corresponding to 1534 B.C., which is not the date of the invasion of India by Alexander the Great, that event being placed by all Greek historians in 328-327 B.C. The Greecian Empire itself had not come into existence at this early period of 1534 B.C. And Alexander the Great flourished nearly 1200 years after this period. There is absolutely no allusion to any foreign invasion into India in any of these Buddhistic and Hindu accounts about this period. The description given by the Greek writers about Sandrocottus and his father Xandrames are quite inapplicable to Chandragupta Maurya and could only apply to Samudragupta, and his father Chandragupta, the founder of the Gupta Dynasty (Andhra Britya Dynasty) which was raised on the ruins of the Andhra Dynasty, which came to an end about 2771 A.Y. or 368 B.C., according to the true interpretation of all the Puranas and Hindu accounts.

We know from the various Puranas that no less than eight great dynasties ruled at Magadha from the time of Yudhistira’s coronation up to the rise of the Gupta Dynasty for 2771 years from 1 A.Y. to 2771 A.Y. (corresponding to 3139-3138 B.C to 328-327 B.C.).
I. Barhadradha Dynasty......1006 years
II. Pradyota Dyniasty .........138 years
III. Saisunaga Dynasty........ 360 years
VI. Nanda Dynasty.............100 years
V. Maurya Dynasty........... 316 years
VI. Sunga Dynasty.............300 years
VII. Kanva Dynasty..............95 years
VIII.Andhra Dynasty............456½ years
Total period..................2771½ years

Subsequent to the downfall of the Andhra Dynasty,came a humble protage of the last Andhra king by name Chandragupta (Sandrocottus of the Greeks) to the throne of Magadha. His son Samudragupta (Sandrocyptus of the Greeks) conquered the whole of India; and became a Universal monarch and his biographer Harisena has truly depicted him as the greatest of all Indian Emperors, to whom even foreign powers paid tributes. It is most likely that these two monarchs, Chandragupta I and Samudragupta were contemporaries of Alexander and Seleukos Nikator, and were known to the Greeks under the names of Xandrames (Chandramas), Sandrocottus and Sandrocyptus, and they come according to the ancient Indian Chronology to the period of Alexander and his followers. The Puranas especially refer to the invasion of Sakas and yavanas at the close of the Andhra Dynasty and these are no other than the Persians under Darius and the Greeks under Alexander. The Sakas or Persians were finally turned out of India by Sri Harsha Vikrama of Ujjain in 457 B.C., and Alexander and his followers by Samudragupta in 324 B.C." (Vide "Age of Sankara Part I, B. Appendix pages 35 ff,)

The founder of the Maurya Dynasty was Chandragupta Maurya.
"According to all the Puranas including the Kaliyuga Raja Vrittanta, Chandragupta is described as the son of Mahapadma Nanda by a Sudra wife named Mura from whom he and his Dynasty took their names. He was, therefore, called Maurya and the dynasty founded by him the Maurya Dynasty. He owed his sovereignity to Chanakya, a Brahmin sage, an Indian Machiavel, the author of an excellent treatise, on Polity, who not only placed Chandragupta on the throne of Magadha by rooting out the nine Nandas, but trained him up in all the necessary arts and sciences. Chandragupta appears to have been merely a puppet in his hands and no great deeds are attributed to him as are ascribed to Sandrocottus by the Greek historians of Alexander the Great."
"The Buddhistic accounts such as Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa give a description of the first three kings only of this dynasty. The accounts given of Chandrsgupta’s origin and parentage are various and contradictory. But all the Buddistic works are agreed on one point that Chandragupta owed his sovereignty entirely to Chanakya alias Kautilya; and not 'called to royalty by the power of the gods and by prodigies’ as stated by Justin with reference to his Sandrocottus. Nor is there any reference either in the Hindu or the Buddhistic accounts to Chandragupta Maurya’s "Having traversed India with an army of 6,00,000 men and conquered the whole" as stated by Plutarch. This and the other descriptions given by the various Greek writers will be found to apply on all fours to Chandragupta and Samudragupta of the Gupta Dynasty and not to this Chandragupta Maurya at all" (Vide Age of Sankara Part 1, B. pp. 53. ff.)
"Chandragupta Maurya, according to the majority of the Puranas, Kaliyuga Raja Vrittanta and Mahavamsa reigned for 34 years from 1604 to 1638 after Yudhistira’s coronation (in 3138 B.C.) or from 1534 to 1500 B.C.

T.S.Narayana Sastry writes:- "Fortunately in my library(T.S.Narayana Sastry's Library) I possess a manuscript copy of Matsya Purana in Grantah Character, which gives a complete list of the Maurya kings with years of individual reigns.and I give the same below:-

The Buddhistic accounts of Asoka as given by the two great schools of Buddhism -Mahayana and Hinayana- not only differ from each other but also from the accounts given of Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, by the Puranic accounts of theHindus. There is a great deal of confusion in those Buddhistic works as regards the very family and geneology of Asoka, the Buddhist king; and one can easily trace that the life and times of Asoka must have been constructed by Buddhistic writers who flurished several hundreds of years after him, by jumbling up the lives of three different kings viz.,

1. of Asoka(Dharmasoka), the third in ascent from Kanishka belonging to the first Gonanda Dynasty of Kashmir kings as described in the first book of Kalhana's Rajatarangini, who is said to have freed himself from sins by embracing the faith of Gautama Buddha and by constructing numerous Viharas and Stupas, and by building the town of Srinagari with its ninety-six lakhs of houses resplendent with wealth.

2. of Asokavardhana (Chandra Asoka), the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, as described in the Puranas; and

3. of Samudragupta or Asoka the Great,(Mahasoka), the son of Chandragupta, the founder of the Gupta Dynasty, as narrated by his biographer Harisena, and in the Kaliyuga Raja Vrittanta and as corroborated by his numerous coins and inscriptions recently unearthed by European scholars themselves.

The Asokavadana(according to the prose version in the Divyavadana) omits Chandragupta and Bindusara, the father of Asoka, is represented as being the son of Nanda. The metrical Ashokavadana, on the other hand, substitutes Mahipala for Ajatasatru, and exhibits numerous other variations, which make these Buddhistic accounts absolutely worthless and untrustworthy.

The conquests ascribed to Asoka in various Buddhistic accounts are no doubt taken from the conquests of Samudragupta or Asoka the Great, and the embassy of the Ceylon king is also traceableto the same origin. The story of his having embraced the faith of Buddha, of his having built Stupas and Viharas, of his having reconstructed the city of Pataliputra and of his having introduced several reforms in the affairs of the kingdom and in the matter of the appointment of the officers of the state, are all taken from the accounts of Asoka and his successors as given by Chavillakara and by Kalhana in his Rajatarangini." (Vide: Age of Sankara Part I,B. p. 59 ff.)

1 comment:

  1. నమస్కారమండీ, నేడే కోటవెంకటాచలము గారి ద ప్లాట్ ఇన్ ఇండియన్ క్రొనాలజీ పుస్తకాన్ని చదవడం ఆరంభించాను. వారి పరిశోధనాశక్తి అమోఘము. వారికి భక్తితో వేవేల వందనాలు.

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