PRINCIPAL DYNASTIES. 211 



sive capitals : first, Mahesvati, in Malwa ; next, Allahabad, 

 called the Pooraj, and afterward Hastinapoori, higher up 

 the Ganges. Colonel Tod, upon some probable grounds, 

 considers that the subjects of this empire must have entered 

 it as invaders from the great plains of Scythia or Tartary. 

 Several bloody wars were waged between these states, 

 striving for pre-eminence or final conquest. The most 

 dreadful of these contests took place at the close of the treta 

 yug, in which almost all the powers of India appear to have 

 been engaged. It is celebrated under the title of the Ma- 

 habarat, or great war, in the remarkable Hindoo composition 

 bearing that title. The chief actors were Krishna, Arjoona, 

 Yadhisthur, and Jarasandha ; the first of whom has, as an 

 incarnation of Vishnu, been enrolled among the principal 

 deities. This sanguinary conflict appears to have termi- 

 nated in the premature fate of almost all the leaders on both 

 sides. 



The lunar and solar dynasties continued to reign con- 

 temporaneously, during almost the whole of the third, or 

 dwapar yug. Yet the prevalence of fable is strongly marked 

 in the genealogy of the leading princes throughout this 

 period ; one of whom is the offspring of Pavana, the god of 

 the winds, another of Indra, or the firmament, a third of the 

 river Ganges. These two lines, according to Sir William 

 Jones, come down for thirty generations, into the cali yug, 

 or present age, when both are supposed to have become 

 extinct. There reigned, however, along with them another 

 dynasty, sprung from the lunar branch, which rivalled and 

 soon surpassed them both in pdwer. This was that of the 

 kings of Magadha, whom the Greeks found reigning at 

 Palibothra over the greater part of the Gangetic provinces, 

 and spreading their sway even to the remoter quarters of 

 India. Chandragupta, after the murder of Nanda, one of 

 the Magadha kings, became the founder of a new dynasty, 

 called Maurya, and is supposed to be the same with San- 

 dracottus, whom the ambassadors of Seleucus found ruling 

 at Palibothra. Other successful usurpers established the 

 dynasties of Sunga, Canna, and Andhra, till that of Ma- 

 gadha became extinct by the death of Chandrabija ; which, 

 according to Sir William Jones, took place in 452 B. C. 

 Very considerable obscurity envelops the succession of 

 Indian princes during the next four hundred years. In that 



