APPENDIX OF NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE A. (Referred to, vol. i. p. 9.) Hindu Accounts of Sandrocotus, King of the Prasii, and the celebrated Capital of Palibothra. SANDROCOTUS, sovereign of the ancient Prasii, is in the Sanscrit language termed Chandra-Gupta, which, according to Mr. Wilford, means him who was saved by the Moon." By Athenæus he is called Sandracoptos, by other writers Sandracottos, and by some Androcottos. He was called Chandra simply; and, accordingly, Diodorus Siculus calls him Xandrames, from Chandra, or Chandram in the accusative case; for, in the western parts of India, the spoken dialects from the Sanscrit do always affect that case."* Sir William Jones, from a poem written by Somadeva, and a tragedy called the Coronation of Chandra, or Chandra-Gupta, "discovered, that he really was the Indian king * Wilford, As. Researches, vol. v. p. 284. mentioned by the historians of Alexander, under the name of Sandracottos. These two poems I have not been able to procure; but I have found another dramatic piece, intitled Mudra-Racshasa, or the Seal of Racshasa, which is divided into two parts: the first may be called the Coronation of Chandra-Gupta ; and the second, the Reconciliation of Chandra-Gupta with Mantri-Racshasa, the prime minister of his father."* By Hindu writers it is said, that Maha Nandi, king of Prachi or Prasii, had by a woman of the Sudra cast, a son named Nanda, who succeeded him. Nanda is described as victorious in war, and though fond of amassing wealth, just and wise in government. By his first wife, named Ratnavati, he had nine sons, and by a second, named Mura, Chandra-Gupta and others; who, to distinguish them from those of the first bed, were called, from their mother, Muryas. After the death of Nanda, ChandraGupta found means to exclude the race of Ratnavati, and usurp the crown. "Diodorus Siculus and Curtius relate, that Chandram was of a low tribe, his father being a barber. That he, and his father Nanda too, were of a low tribe, is declared in the Vishnu-purana, and in the Bhagavat Chandram; and that he, as well as his brothers, were called Maurya, from his mother Mura; and as that word,+ in Sanscrit, signifies a barber, it furnished occasion to his enemies to asperse him as the spurious offspring of one. Diodorus and Curtius are mistaken in saying, that Chan Wilford, As. Researches, vol. v. p. 262. +"See the Jutiviveca, where it is said, the offspring of a barber, begot by stealth, of a female of the Sudra tribe, is called Maurya: the offspring of a barber and a slave-woman is called Maurya." |