Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 8, Part 1 (1966)
22 (of 340)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
14
啶啶班ぞ啶｀ぎ啷� - [pur膩峁嘺m - ] 笔鲍搁膧狈础
[Vol. VIII., No. 1
comparison in respect of the invaders of India-especially the
Greek ones. Dionysus is declared to be the first who invaded
India, Alexander the only other person to do so. The most
appropriate way to connect them is by calculating the time that
elapsed between them. Solinus gives us just this time-connection.
To connect the two invaders by a number of kings, as does Pliny,
is controversial; for, it brings up at once the issue: "Does the
number refer to the whole of ancient India ?" 153 or 154 kings
are far too few for the whole, in which there were
a host of
practically independent kingdoms, each with its own genealogy
of rulers. The number must be in reference to merely one parti-
cular kingdom which was associated with Alexander and with
which Dionysus may have been associated either directly or
through some scion of his. But can we associate any such
kingdom with Alexander? He subjugated several states, but
he was not specifically a king of this or that state. So his name
at one end of a king-series is an anomaly.
Quite the reverse is the case with Sandrocottus whose name
in Arrians' king-series replaces Pliny's "Alexander". Sandro-
cottus, though emperor of many peoples, is specifically known as
the King of the Prasii-the Prasii whom Pliny elsewhere (VI.22)
describes as the greatest nation in India. We can easily conceive
him as the tail-end of a line which goes back through various
dynasties of kings ol Palibothra to a hoary past along one branch
among many leading to a common ancestor.
This conception seems natural when we realise that the
small king-number was mentioned to Megasthenes at Palibothra
itself, where he was stationed as ambassador. And what endows
this conception with inevitability is the importance which Indian
chronologists and historians have given to Magadha whose capital
was Palibot hra: the kings of Magadha after the Bh膩rata War
are the principal theme of the Puranic lists of dynasties. Sandro-
cottus and not Alexander was certainly the terminus intended by
Megasthenes to the king-series the Indians mentioned to him.
But this series, although not related to Alexander, can well
serve to describe from the Magadhan point of view the time-span
