DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0741
APPENDIX.
717
so reasonable and consistent that it can hardly he to any great
extent. The whole, too, is now found to be so perfectly in accord
with the architecture of their age, and with such inscriptions as have
been found, that I see no reason whatever for doubting its general
correctness.
The cardinal point on which the whole hinges is the twelfth
year of Asoka's reign after his consecration—the sixteenth from his
inauguration. In that year he published his rock-cut edicts, in which
he mentions his allies, Antiochus and Antigonus, Ptolemy (Phila-
delphia), Magafi (of Cyrene), and Alexander (of Macedonia).1 As it
happens, all these five names are mentioned together in Justin's
abridgment of Trogus Pompeius (xxvi. 2, 3 and xxvii. l), though
without giving any date. As Magas, however, died b.c. 257, and the
only year in which all five were alive together was either that year or
the preceding, we may safely assume that the sixteenth of Asoka
was b.c. 25G or b.c. 257. If that is so it seems impossible to bring-
down the date of the accession of Chandragupta to a time more
modem than one or two years after b.c. 325. The Ceylonese annals
allow him thirty-four years,2 but our knowledge of what happened in
India in Alexander's time forbids any such extension. On the other
hand, his accession happening in the year, or the year after, the
defeat of Porus, is not exactly what we would expect from the
context; but there is nothing, so far as I know, to controvert it.
Even if it were not so certain as it appears to be from the state-
ments just quoted, there can be no doubt that the chronology of this
period can easily be settled from the numerous inscriptions found in
the rock-cut excavations quoted in the table, as well as from coins
and other materials that exist. These dynasties thus become a fixed
starting-point for all our enquiries, either backwards or forwards.
Axdka, or Andhabritva Dynasty.
Chronology.
Buildikgs.
II. c.
Sipraka
Krishna
31
A.n. 8
Cave at Nassick.
South gateway, Sanehi.
Caves 10 and 11 Ajunta.
Satakarni I.
Purnot-saiiga
Srivaswanri
10
28
46
1 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of vol. v. p. 20, Sc., &c.
Bengal,' roL vii. p. 261; 'Journal of the " 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xii. p. 232; Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 714.
Cunningham's ' Archa-ologicol Reports,'
717
so reasonable and consistent that it can hardly he to any great
extent. The whole, too, is now found to be so perfectly in accord
with the architecture of their age, and with such inscriptions as have
been found, that I see no reason whatever for doubting its general
correctness.
The cardinal point on which the whole hinges is the twelfth
year of Asoka's reign after his consecration—the sixteenth from his
inauguration. In that year he published his rock-cut edicts, in which
he mentions his allies, Antiochus and Antigonus, Ptolemy (Phila-
delphia), Magafi (of Cyrene), and Alexander (of Macedonia).1 As it
happens, all these five names are mentioned together in Justin's
abridgment of Trogus Pompeius (xxvi. 2, 3 and xxvii. l), though
without giving any date. As Magas, however, died b.c. 257, and the
only year in which all five were alive together was either that year or
the preceding, we may safely assume that the sixteenth of Asoka
was b.c. 25G or b.c. 257. If that is so it seems impossible to bring-
down the date of the accession of Chandragupta to a time more
modem than one or two years after b.c. 325. The Ceylonese annals
allow him thirty-four years,2 but our knowledge of what happened in
India in Alexander's time forbids any such extension. On the other
hand, his accession happening in the year, or the year after, the
defeat of Porus, is not exactly what we would expect from the
context; but there is nothing, so far as I know, to controvert it.
Even if it were not so certain as it appears to be from the state-
ments just quoted, there can be no doubt that the chronology of this
period can easily be settled from the numerous inscriptions found in
the rock-cut excavations quoted in the table, as well as from coins
and other materials that exist. These dynasties thus become a fixed
starting-point for all our enquiries, either backwards or forwards.
Axdka, or Andhabritva Dynasty.
Chronology.
Buildikgs.
II. c.
Sipraka
Krishna
31
A.n. 8
Cave at Nassick.
South gateway, Sanehi.
Caves 10 and 11 Ajunta.
Satakarni I.
Purnot-saiiga
Srivaswanri
10
28
46
1 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of vol. v. p. 20, Sc., &c.
Bengal,' roL vii. p. 261; 'Journal of the " 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xii. p. 232; Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 714.
Cunningham's ' Archa-ologicol Reports,'