English
If the order of the names implies anything, it points to the yicinity of the Ganges, rather than of the Godaveri. But compare Lassen, VoL n. pp. 371 — 345, and Vol. I. p. 178, with Wilson in the Viihnu Purdna on the MagadhiC dynasties. t De Guignes, I. 45, quoted by Wilson in F. P. and Journal As, Soc. Benffol, 2^7f 1837. 80 the Puloman of Magadh^ becomes in Chinese, Ho-lo-mien. BAUDDHA CHBOKOLOGT. 248 '' that as yet we have not been able to fix any one chronological point satisfactorily, without calling in the aid of other than Brahmanical documents. However, we have some farther in- quiries to go through." " But you admit, that our Bauddha documents have been of use?" asked the Saugata. " Certainly," answered Blancombe, '^ and to the Bauddhas, as far as I am able to judge, belongs the praise of having first introduced a properly historical element into Hindti literature*. Yet this praise must be accompanied by the blame of having also intro- duced a great many childish legends, some of which I alluded to a little time ago, and others I have reason to believe are worse. There is also an error of about forty years in your placing of Chandragupta, which Mr Tumour thought could hardly have been accidental ; but, as compared to Hindti chro- nology in general, it appears to me accurate." " Then what course would you now suggest to be taken," here asked Sad4nanda, ''in order to extract something like probability out of those earlier generations, over the history of which a certain confusion seems to prevail ?" " Why, if one may venture," replied Blancombe, ** to employ a sort of conjecture, I should go back to those twenty-nine kii;igs of the Sim-dynasty, whose reigns were reported by our venerable friend as extending over eight hundred and sixty-four thousand years between Bdma and the Great War ; and just as with the four Kanwa kings of Magadhi, it turned out that we were right in striking off the hundreds, so, in this case, I think we might easily dispense with the thousands of years, and so reduce their period to eight hundred and sixty-four years. Nor does this appear to me altogether an arbitrary licence; for thirty generations of men might be expected on the average to extend over about nine hundred years. It is true, indeed, that a reign is seldom so long as a generation, and, if we were working without any clue at all, I should not in conjecture allow it so long: yet some * Laasen finds general causes in the state of India for the more accurate genius of Bauddha histoiy, B. ii. pp. i — 15. 250 DYNASTIES BEFORE CHANDRAGUPTA. reigns may have been longer ; and since here the Hindd annalists give ns the umnber eight hundred and sixty-four, which may possibly have been a statement for which they had traditional reasons, I am inclined hypothetically to accept the number. For at least it is within the range of possibility that thirty kings, with, as we may conceive, some time lost in interreg- nums, may altogether have occupied that period. Let the conjecture that they did so, therefore, stand for a few moments as an hypothesis. Only it must be understood, that the true time is likely to have been shorter, rather than longer ; for we have lengthened the supposed time out of deference to the Uindii annals. "We shall then have to consider, in the next place, the thirty-six kings of Magadhd, exclusive of Nanda, between Saha- d^va and Chandragupta, or between the Great War, whenever that may have been, and the period of Seleucus Nicator, which is B. c. 310. Now a little lower down at Magadhd we find thirty Andhra kings occupy only four hundred and fifty-six years. This fact we are certain of, because it is not only stated so in the Vishnu Purina, but it also coincides, as we have seen, with notices of the Roman Pliny, and of the Chinese annalists. Now you will please to observe, that the average of reigns, when taken over this large number of kings, is only about fifteen years. In other words, it is just half a generation ; and this is very much what, on general grounds of probability, we should expect to be the case. In peacefiil countries, like Great Britain, kings may reign longer ; but in troubled ones, as we see in the case of the emperors of Rome, they reign less ; and I would not venture to affirm more than that, for such stages of society as we find exemplified in the Indian Magadhi, fifteen years is a fair average duration for a king's reign. Is there, then, any reason why the thirty-six kings between the Great War and Chandra- gupta should have reigned longer?" "We at least believe," here remarked Vidyteh&rya, "that the twenty kings who followed Sahaddva reigned for a thousand years." " But, if they did," MAQADHA' PRINCES. 251 replied Blancombe, "they must have lived very mucli longer than men in general do; for even the reign of every one most have extended over one whole generation, and two-thirds of another. Now, if such a supposition is in itself improbable, it does not become less so from our having already observed what errors creep into your chronology. Moreover, you allow, I think, only a like space of a thousand years to thirty kings who follow Paricshit in the Sim-dynasty either at Oude, or Canouj, or Capila-vastu, or whatever may have been the capital of the Solar Aryans after the Great War. Why, then, should twenty kings of Magadh& be supposed to have reigned as long as a parallel chain of thirty in the Sun-dynasty else- where? Such a contradiction is so improbable, that, in the absence of proof, we may set it aside as impossible. Yon must forgive me, then, if I say, that we have a right to ignore your theoiy of a thousand years for the first twenty kings of Magadhi, especially as it seems to have been imagined only to five the Tables a look of symmetry ; and we must croup the whole n^W f a^-.iz'^g.to . ^. ckSg U- ward from Chandragupta, who is a certain point, to Sahad^va, who is an uncertain one. We can then allot to the entire thirty-six, by way of conjecture, whatever number of years it is probable they might reigu. I treat Nanda and his family apart, thinking them approximately fixed." " But may you not," here the Saugata asked, " throw light upon at least the later of the Magadhi kings, such as the Saisu* nagas, from our Bauddha annals?" "You remind me," re- plied Blancombe, " of what had for the moment escaped my memory. Only you must not ask me to take in the story of the serpent, or others among your accounts which have a decidedly legendary air." "But you admit," said the Saugata, "that our chronology from the time of S&kya, or Bimbis&ra's reign, is tolerably correct?" " Why we found there," said Blancombe, " an error of nearly forty years ; and it does not follow that a system tolerably correct for a contemporary period is equally so 252 SAHADtiVA TO RIPUNGAYA. for an age more remote. But I am quite ready, since we are treading after all upon conjectural ground, to accept your chro- nology of the Saisunaga princes, so far as it agrees with the genealogies of the Yishnu Pur4na, because so far we appear to have a concurrence of two independent witnesses. We will therefore allow not only for Nanda, but for his sons, who must be added to the thirty-six kings we had to consider, and we will admit the round number of one hundred years which is claimed for the Nanda family. There will then be no difficulty in re- cognising the place of Ajatasatru, in or near whose reign Sdkya died, as about 550 B. c. ; and we may admit, as not involving any great extravagance, the three hundred and sixty-two years claimed for the ten Saisunaga princes, and one himdred and forty-five for Pradyota and the four other Saunakas. We have gone back, therefore, without improbability, six hundred and seven years from Chandragupta ; though part of the period, especially about the Nandas, and any interregnum which may then have been, is far from certain, and I suspect also that the duration of the reigns of the earlier Saisunaga princes is esti- mated too highly. I accept, however, the figures. But now the old question recurs, what average we are to assign the twenty remaining kings from Bipunjaya up to Sahad^va? You will not be angry, if I observe, that the ten Maurya kings, a little lower down, reign only one hundred and thirty-seven years, as the thirty Andhra lower still last only four himdred and fifty-six ; and I can see no reason why the earlier kings of Magadhi should have been longer lived.