A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature So Far as It Illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...Greeks is but natural, particularly as many of the Hindu stories were evidently invented at a later time and with a certain object. As the grandson of Chandragupta was the great patron of the Buddhists, attempts were naturally made by Buddhist writers to prove that Chandragupta belonged to the same race as Buddha; while on the other hand the Brahmanic writers would be no less fertile in inventing fables that would throw discredit on the ancestor of the Buddhist sovereigns of India. Some extracts from the writings of these hostile parties will best show how this was achieved. In the Mahavansol we read: "Kalasoko had ten sons: these brothers (conjointly) ruled the empire righteously for twenty-two years. Subsequently there were nine brothers: they also according to their seniority reigned for twenty-two years. Thereafter the Brahman Chanakko, in gratification of an implacable hatred borne towards the ninth surviving brother, called Dhana-nando, having put him to death, installed in the sovereignty over the whole of J ambudipo, a descendant of the dynasty of Moriyan sovereigns, endowed with illustrious and beneficent attributes, and surnamed Chandagutto. He reigned 24 (not 34) years." 1 The name of Maurya seems to have been known to the Greeks. See Cunningham, Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal, xxiii. p. 680. The wooden houses in which the tribe of the Morieis are said to have lived, may refer to the story of the Mauryas living in a forest. See Mahfivanso, p. xxxix. The statement of Wilford, that Maurya meant in Sanskrit the offspring of a barber and 0. Sudra-woman, has never been proved. The commentary on this passage adds the following details2: " Subsequent to Kalasoko, who patronised those who held the second convocation, the royal line i...