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354 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
PULO
Tatah Sūketam ākramya Pañchalān Mathurūnstatha Yaranā dushțavikrāntā) prāpsyanti Kusumadhvajam tatah Pushpapure prāpte kardame prathite hite ūkulā vishayāḥ sarve
bhavishyanti na saṁsayah. 1 “Then the viciously valiant Greeks, after reducing Sāketa (in Oudh), the Panchāla country and Mathurā, will reach (or take) Kusumadhvaja. Push papura (Pāțaliputra) being reached....all provinces will undoubtedly be in disorder."
Where was now the power that had expelled the prefects of Alexander and hurled back the battalions of Seleukos ? .
According to Mahāmahopādhyāya Haraprasād Šāstrī? a reaction promoted by the Brāhmaṇas had sapped the foundations of the Maurya authority and dismembered the empire. .
Among the causes of the alienation of the Brāhmaṇas the foremost place is given to Asoka's Edict against animal sacrifices. The Edict, in Pandit Šāstrī's opinion, was certainly directed against the Brāhmaṇas as a class and was specially offensive because it was promulgated by a Áudra ruler. As to the first point we should remember that prohibition of animal sacrifices did not necessarily imply hostility towards Brāhmaṇas. Long before Asoka Brālimaņa sages whose teachings have found a place in the Holy Śruti, the most sacred literature of the Brāhmaṇas, declared themselves in no uncertain terms against sacrifices, and in favour of Ahimsā (non-violence).
1 Kern. Brihat Samhitā. p. 37. 2 JASB, 1910, pp. 259 ff,
