The suggestion that Indians as a people lack a sense of history is repeated often with little scrutiny. The beginnings of Indian historiography have been attributed to the marunmatta-s and mleccha-s, ignoring a much older native tradition of chronicling the past. The beginnings of historiography date back much earlier, to the period of oral transmission as reflected in the purANa-s and itihAsa-s. Likewise the nAstika-s have their own histories preserved in the biographical works of the jina-s and sthavira-s of their sect. Various other historical traditions were preserved within the narrative work the bR^ihatkathA. In addition there exists a vast corpus of historical plays. Several of these sources contain what appear to be reasonably accurate records of historical events that occurred long before their composition, suggesting that they drew upon pre-existing literature much of which is lost today. While the absolute dates are only speculative, much of the relative chronology is beyond doubt.
The bArhadratha-s
The territory of magadha lay to the east of Aryavarta (southern Bihar of the present day), separated from its northern neighbour vaishAlI by the ga~NgA. It had for its capital the town of girivraja, a town surrounded by the five hills — vaibhAra, varAha, vR^iShabha, R^iShigiri and chaityaka — and supposedly founded by the legendary king vasu chaidya, the progenitor of its earliest dynasty the bArhadratha-s.
It was in the line of bArhadratha-s that the villainous monarch jarAsandha was born. At the dawn of the kaliyuga the ruling monarch of the line was his grandson somAdhi. Very little other than the names of its kings of this dynasty is known.
A great deal of error has crept into the purANic accounts with regard to the following period. The purANa-s describe the pradyota-s as capturing power in the period following the fall of the bR^ihadratha-s and the vItihotra-s. The purANa-s seem to have mistakenly placed them amidst the dynasties of magadha, whereas they were the rulers of avantI.
The pradyota-s
The last vItihotra king was assassinated by his general puNika who placed his son pradyota on the throne of avantI, c. 598 BCE. The murder of a brother of pradyota by a tAlajangha named vetAla at the festival of mahAkAla mentioned by bANabhatta may have been an act of revenge by a member of the former royal clan. pradyota earned the epithet chaNDa-pradyota or mahAsena on account of his powerful army and remained feared by his neighbours. He led two campaigns against shatAnIka of kaushambI, while the first ended in failure, it was during the second that shatAnIka met his end. An impending attack by him on ajAtashatru is mentioned in the majjhima nikaya. The jaina tradition also alludes to a war with udrAyaNa of king sindhu and sauvira which ended in defeat.
Following a 23-year long reign he was succeeded by his second son pAlaka (r. 475–451 BCE), his elder son gopAla having abdicated the throne — an event that coincided with the nirvANa of mahAvIra according to jaina accounts. After ruling for 23 years he was overthrown by his nephew Aryaka (r. 451–430 BCE) the son of gopAla, who reigned for 21 years. The kingdom then passed into the hands of avantivardhana, the son of pAlaka. Their rule came to an end following defeat at the hands of shishunAga soon after assuming control of magadha.
The bimbisArids
The purANa-s place the shaishunAga-s after the pradyota-s whose fame shishunAga is said to have destroyed. This would mean shishunAga reigned after the time of bimbisAra, who was a contemporary of pradyota, and the later redactors of the purANa-s have mistakenly considered bimbisAra a descendant of the latter.
The overthrow of ripu~njaya the bArhadratha was carried out by a predecessor of shreNika bimbisAra (a contemporary of the buddha), likely his father named kshemajit/kshatraujas in the purANa-s and bhaTiya in the mahAvaMsa — an event that can be dated c.550 BCE. The mahAvamsA makes bimbisAra (b. 571 BCE) 5 years junior to the buddha and attributes to him a reign of 52 years following his accession at the age of 15. It was during his reign that a~Nga was conquered under its last monarch brahmadatta. He was also responsible for the establishment of the new town of rAjagR^iha.
ajAtashatru (r. 494–469 BCE), identified in the jain accounts by the epithet kUNika, imprisoned and later assassinated his father, seizing control of the kingdom. In the initial years of his reign he faced attacks by prasenajit of kosala and pradyota. Disputes also arose with the vR^ijji-s to the north, and the dIghanIkaya mentions the building of fortifications at pATaligrAma to hold out the invaders. A few years later the brAhmaNa minister varShakAra was planning a campaign against the vR^ijji confederation. The war with the vR^ijji-s led by the lichchhavI chieftain cheTaka lasted twelve years after which ajAtashatru emerged victorious, breaching the fortifications of vaishAlI.
The reign of his successor darshaka, mentioned only in the purANa-s but whose existence is vouched for by his mention in the svapnavAsavadattam of bhAsa, was likely but a short interregnum. udayin (460 BCE–?) another son of ajAtashatru, succeeded darshaka. Astika and jaina traditions attribute the foundation of pATaliputra at the site of the village of pATaligrAma on the southern bank of the ga~NgA to the king udayin. The reigns of the successors of udayin are obscure — muNDa named only in the southern and northern bauddha texts is encountered in the anguttara nikaya as a king of pATaliputra. He was succeeded by another obscure ruler aniruddha. These two rulers together reigned a total of 8 years. The final ruler of the dynasty nick-named nAgadAsa assumed the throne after killing his father and was ousted by the people of magadha tired of patricidal rulers.
The shishunAga-s
The first king of this line to rule over magadha was the obscure ruler shishunAga (r.411?–396 BCE), who as per certain commentaries on the mahAvamsha was a minister of nAgadAsa hailing from the lichchhavI clan, invited to invade magadha by its citizens. The purANa-s state that shishunAga shifted the capital back to girivraja from pATaliputra and placed his son on the throne of kAshI.
He was succeeded by his son kAlAshoka (‘ashoka the black’) also known as kAkavarNin (‘The crow-coloured’). He is said to have ruled at the time of the second Buddhist council at vaishAlI and was also responsible for presiding over the shift of the magadhan capital to pATaliputra once and for all. The purANa-s state that he ruled for 36 years from around 396–360 BCE. bANabhatta’s harshacharita refers to kAkavarNin shaishunAgi as having been murdered in the vicinity of his capital by having his throat slashed. His successor was ugrasena ‘mahApadma’ nanda who ruled initially as a guardian of kAkavarNI’s sons.
Other contemporary dynasties
The Vatsa-s: The ruling clan of vatsa was an offshoot of the kuru-s and claimed descent from parIkshit. They had their seat at kaushambI. sahasrANIka vasudAna the twentieth in line from parIkshit probably reigned in the mid 6th century. He was succeeded by his son shatAnIka parantapa who was a contemporary of mahAvira and the buddha. He was succeeded on his death by his young son udayana, who married vAsavadatta the daughter of pradyota and later padmAvatI the sister of darShaka. Famed for his mastery over the vINA, the stories of his romances were the subject of several plays and remained popular centuries after his death.
Kosala: At the time of the buddha, kosala was ruled by prasenajit, the son of sa~njaya mahAkosala who had annexed the neighbouring kingdom of kAshI. ajAtashatru of magadha is known to have waged war with him over the non-remittance of revenues from a village in kAshI given to his father as dowry. The war ended in a truce and a matrimonial alliance. He was succeeded by his son virUDhaka/kshUdraka. The AikShvAku-s too lost their independence three generations later under the reign of sumitra, probably annexed by the rising magadha under mahApadma nanda.
Gandhara: gandhAra fell under the control of achaemenid Iran around c. 500 BCE and is named along with hindush (sindhu?) amongst the achaemenid satrapies in the behistun inscription of Darius the great. Previously at the time of the buddha it was ruled by the king puShkarashakti. It seems to have regained independence soon after, being several smaller principalities in the time of Alexander.
The nanda-s
The nanda-s are conventionally identified as a set of nine rulers — a father and his eight sons in the Astika and jaina traditions, or as nine brothers by the pAlI tradition. Both the Astika and jaina traditions identify the nandas as a clan of low birth, though differing in explaining their relationship to the previous ruling clan. The purANic accounts identify the senior nanda as the son of mahAnandin through a shUdra wife while the jaina-s identify him as the son of a barber. The latter account seems to tally better with the accounts of graeco-roman writers, who identified the father of the king contemporary to Alexander as a barber who, having seduced the queen, murdered the reigning monarch.
mahApadma nanda was perhaps the first emperor since the decline of the kuru-s of old. He managed to capture vast tracts of land — the purANa-s compare him to bhArgava of the tret-yuga in being a vanquisher of kshatriyas. His reign included most of the Gangetic plain, extending south to ashmaka, kuru in the north-west and to kalinga in the east. He was succeeded upon his death by his 8 sons who ruled in succession. dhana nanda the youngest was the emperor at the time of chandragupta’s conquest. The PurANic accounts give the dynasty a century-long rule, though the la~Nkan chronicles reduce the reign of the entire nanda line to 22 years. Thus mahApadma nanda began his reign around 360 BCE, dying around 332 BCE. He was succeeded by his sons who ruled until c. 320 BCE.
The maurya-s
The origin of the maurya-s remains obscure. While later Astika traditions identify them as a line of kings of shUdra descent, the bauddha-s identify them as a kShatriya clan from pippalivana, mentioned as one of the kShatriya clans vying for a share of the tathAgata’s remains in the mahAparinibbAna sutta. There is sufficient reason to believe the tradition that chandragupta was assisted by the scheming brAhmaNa chANakya in his attempt to overthrow the nandas — as attested by Astika, bauddha and jaina sources. He even defeated seleucus I nikator, who ceded to him territories to the west of the sindhu perhaps as far west as arachosia. He was succeeded upon his death by his son bindusara amitraghAta, known to the Greeks as amitrochates. bindusara was eventually succeeded by his son ashoka, the last great maurya, after whose death the empire seems to have been divided up between his grandsons dasharatha in the east and samprati in the west. The dynasty was brought to an end with the murder of bR^ihadratha by his brAhmaNa general puShyamitra.
Dating the Mauryas: A clue as to the date of ashoka is from his inscriptions that mention the names of various contemporary yavana kings — antiyoka (Antiochus), turamAya (Ptolemy), magA (Magas), antekina (Antigonos), alikasudara (Alexander) — identifiable as Antiochus I or II of Syria, Ptolemy II of Egypt (285–247BCE), Antigonos of Macedonia, Magas of Cyrene, and Alexander of Corinth or Epirus. This would mean the edicts were commissioned between 272 and 250 BCE, placing ashoka’s coronation no later than 286–264 BCE.
Hellenic accounts of the reign of chandragupta maurya (known to the Greeks as sandrocottus of palibothra) suggest that chandragupta rose to power following Alexander’s death (323 BCE). His rise to power must have occurred before 302 BCE when seleucus I returned to Cappadocia following his campaigns in the east.
The date of the buddha and mahAvIra
That the buddha and mahAvira were contemporaries is borne out by multiple statements in the canonical texts of both traditions. The canonical texts of the bauddha-s refer to mahAvira as the nirgratha jnAtaputra and he is one of the chief rivals of the buddha. Both contain references to shreNya bimbisAra and his son ajAtashatru. The mainstream shvetAmbara tradition places the nirvANa of mahAvira in the year 527 BCE. However hemachandra’s chronology fits better with the chronology of sthAvira-s attested within jaina tradition, placing the nirvANa 155 years later. Legends associating the AchArya bhadrabAhu who died in the 170th year after nirvANa with Chandragupta are possible only if the latter chronology were true. Thus the nirvANa of mahAvira may be dated to around 475 BCE, and given that he was 72 years old at the time he was born around 545 BCE.
The pALI tradition identifies the date of the birth of the buddha at 644 BCE and the nirvANa 80 years later at 564 BCE, however this appears to be a later tradition with an older nirvANa era at 482 BCE. The corrected long chronology seems to best explain various circumstances, though a date closer to 420 BCE as proposed by some cannot be entirely ruled out.
pANini
pANini uses the word yavana, a derivative of the old Persian yauna referring to Ionian Greeks, suggesting that his work belongs to the period succeeding the achaemenid invasion. This is supported by the presence of the word lipi, another borrowing from old Persian. The aShtAdhyAyI also indicates a familiarity with certain Buddhist monastic custom and the existence of ascetics of the school of maskarI. All this suggests that the aShTAdhyAyI belongs to the period beyond the mid-fifth century. pANini recognizes the existence of shUrasena, avantI, kosala and ashmaka as independent states and seems to indicate no familiarity with a unitary empire. On this basis his work can be assigned to the last decades of the fifth century, allowing him to be a contemporary of mahAnandin i.e. kAlAshoka.