The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-12

I the fourth century B. c., Seleukes Nika-
| tor. then at the height OF his power. at
tempted to rival Alexander by invading
India. He met with a very different foe.
! Alexander had encountered succession
Of small kingdoms and republics whose
mutual jealousies more than cOuntsrbal-
| anced the striking bravery Of their forces,
| and enabled him to attack and defeat them
| one by one. Ssieukes. on the other hand,
was confronted by the consolidated and
organized empire of Magadha, against
which all his efforts we're In vain. After
an unsuccessful campaign, he was glad to
escape by ceding all his provinces west
Of the Indus, including Gedrosia and Ar
achosia collectively about equal to the
Afghanistan OF to-day, and by giving
his daughter in marriage To the victorious
Emperor of India in exchange for five
hundred elephants-o
II WIS then that Megasthenes was sent
az Ambassador to Pataliputta, the Maya
dhan capital, which stood ON the south
bank OF the Ganges, considerably To the
east Of Benares. Prof. Davids thinks that
what with the Greek princess and her suite,
and the Ambassador and his. not to speak
of the Greek artists and artisans employed
at the Magadhan court, there must have
been considerable Greek community
about 400 b. c. at the distant city, once a
mere fort whose foundations were being
laid by the Brahmin Minister OF the then
King of Magadha, when, some two hundred
and fifty years before, the great Indian
teacher was starting on his last journey.
The Greek community, however, would care
but little for these things; and, no fur as
can be judged from the extant fragments
of his work, Megasthenes. in his account
Of India said not word about Gautams
OF his system.
The deep impression made by Chan
dragupta's marvellous career, in the course
of which he worked his way up from the
position Of robber chief on the western
frontier to the mightiest throne then ex-
isting in the world, is reflected In the legen-
Diary nature of all the accounts TINT have
reached usGreek, Buddhist and Hindu,
He has suffered the fate of other great con-
querors and rulers; and. like Alexander
and Charlemagne, has become the hero
Of popular romance. Every school boy
has read the story about King Alfred the
Great, who. when defeated and refugee,
helped a peasant woman TO fry pancakes.
just such an anecdote ID told of Chandra-
gupta in the commentary on the Great
Chronicles OF Ceylon: in one Of these viii
lagos a woman Iby whose hearth Cham
dragupta has taken refugel baked a chu-
patty lpancakel and gave it TO her child.
He, leaving the edges. ate only the centre,
and, throwing the edges away, asked for
another cake. Then she said: This boys
conduct is like Chandragupta's attack on
the kingdom The boy said Why. moth
CT, what am doing, and what has Chan
dragupta done?' Thou, my dear said
she, throwing away the outside Of the
cake eatest the middle only. SO Chan
dragupta, in his ambition to be a monarch.
instead Of beginning from the frontiers,
and taking the towns in order as he passed,
has invaded the heart Of the country and,
behold! his army was surrounded and de-
stroyed That was his folly Chandra-
gupta overheard, learnt the lesson, and
prospered. According to another legend,
the future sovereign owed his success
throughout the long series Of adventures,
defeats and victories. Of intrigues, muir
q and treasons which led him to the
throne, to the continual advice and aid OF
a Brahmin nicknamed Chanakya, as de-
formed In body as he was depraved at heart.
Justin, on Greek authority, relates two
stories Of the effect Of the kings natural
grandeur upon animals. Once. when a
fugitive from his foes. he lay down, over
taken by sleep, and a lion came and minis
tered to him by licking his exhausted body.
On another occasion, when no had collected
a band Of followers, and went forth 10 at
ack his enemies, a wild elephant came
nut Of the Jungle and bent low to receive
Nhaudragupta on his back.
In the prestly literature compiled by
The Brahmins Chandragupta is completely
ignored for about ten centuries. In spite
Of his friendship for the Brahmin Chanakya,
he belonged to, or rather founded, the
hated Moriya dynasty, to which, in the
erson Of his grandson, Buddhism was
to owe 80 much. But. although the Brah-
Minis did their best to coDsign him TO OBJ
livion. the memory Of him. or at least of
the popular romance attached to him.
must have been kept alive among the peo-
Piles of India. In the eighth century of
the Christian era a layman, the author
Of famous Sanskrit drama, takes that
romance for his plot. He gives a number
Of details, out of which an effort was made
half century ago TO unravel, with the
help Of other traditions, the nucleus Of
historic fact.
Ill.
Chandragupta. largely aided by the
previous organization of the great empire
OF Magadha, was able once he had gained
main in possession of it for twenty-four
years (about B. c. a22-2ss), but to transmit
the empire with enlarged territory TO his
son. Bindusara, OF him we know almost
nothing The Ceylon Chronicles merely
say that he reigned for twenty-eight years,
and the Greeks, who call him Amitrechates
chat is, Amitra- ghata, foe-destroyer, ap-
parently an official title), only relate that
one Deimaches was sent to him az Am
bassador by Antiokhos, and another en-
voy named Dionysies, by Ptolemy Phila-
delphos, A few sentences from the pen
OF the former are still extant When
BindusaTa died, about 27O b. c., he was
succeeded by his son Asoka, then the
Magadha Viceroy at Ujjepi. of whom the
Ceylon Chronicles and other Buddhist
writings and his own Inscriptions tell us
a great deal. The Brahmin records, on
the other hand, completely ignore him,
until the time when, ten or twelve CEN