Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 380

SUCCESSORS OF ASOKA
throne.
He is reputed to have been blind. His position was, therefore, probably like that of Dhritarashtra of the Great Epic and, though nominally regarded as the sovereign, he was physically unfit to carry on the work of government which was presumably entrusted to his favourite son Samprati, who is described by Jaina and Buddhist writers as the immediate successor of Asoka.
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Kunala's son was Bandhupalita according to the Vayu Purana, Sampadi (Samprati) according to the Divyāvadāna and the Paṭaliputrakalpa of Jinaprabhasuri,1 and Vigataśoka according to Taranatha. Either these princes were identical or they were brothers. If the latter view be correct then Bandhupalita may have been identical with Dasaratha whose reality is established by the brief dedicatory inscriptions on the walls of cavedwellings at the Nagarjuni Hills which he bestowed upon the Ajivikas. Dasaratha, who receives the epithet "devanampiya" in the inscriptions, was a grandson of Aśoka according to the Matsya and Vishnu Purāņas, and the predecessor of Samprati (variant Sangata) according to the same authorities.
Indrapalita must be identified with Samprati or Saliśūka according as we identify Bandhupalita with Dasaratha or Samprati. "In the matter of the propagation of the Jaina faith, Jaina records speak as highly of Samprati as Buddhist records do of Aśoka." The Pataliputrakalpa of Jinaprabhasuri3 says, “in Pataliputra flourished the great king Samprati, son of Kunāla, lord of Bharata with its three continents (trikhandam Bharatakshetram Jinayatanamanditam), the great Arhanta who established Vihāras for Śramanas even in non-Aryan
countries."
1 See also Parisishṭaparvan, IX, 51-53.
2 Ind. Ant., 1875, 362.
3 Bomb., Gaz, I. i, 6-15. Parisishta, XI. 65.