96 ESSAY ON 



to PalihofJ/ra, in tlie year 3S8, B. C. arict in the hU 

 ter end of it. Nanua was then assassinated in tliat 

 year; and in the following, or 327, B. C. Alf.xan- 

 DtR encamped on the banks of the Hijphasis. It was 

 then that Chandragupta visited that conqueror's 

 camp; and, by his lo([uacity and freedom of speech, 

 so much offended him, that he would have put 

 Chandragupta to death, if he had not made a pre- 

 cipitate retreat, according to Justin*. The eight 

 brothers ruled conjointly twelve years, or till 315 

 years B. C. when Chandragupta was raised to the 

 throne, by the intrigues of a wicked and revengeful 

 priest called Cha'nacva. It was Chandragupta 

 and Cha'nacya, who put the imperial family to 

 death; and it was Chandragupta who was said to 

 be the spurious offspring of a barber, because hi* 

 mother, who was certainly of a low tribe, was called 

 MuRA, and her son of course Maurya, in a deri- 

 vative from ; which last signifies also the offspring 

 of a barber: and it seems that Chandragupta 

 went by that name, particularly in the west; for 

 be is known to Arabian writers by the name of 

 ^luR, according to the Nubian geographer, ^ho 

 Bays that he was defeated and killed by Alexan- 

 der; for these authors supposed that this conqueror 

 crossed the Ganges: and it is also the opinion of 

 some ancient historians in the \ves-t. 



In theC2/w^/;7VY/-6'7w;?6^^, i t is said, that it was^ the wick- 

 ed Cha'n ACTA who caused the eight royal brothers to 

 be murdered ; and it is added, that Cha'nacya, after 

 tiis paroxism of revengeful rage was over, was exceed- 

 iQ":lv troubled in his mind, and so much stun": with 

 remorse for his crime, and the effusion of human blood, 

 which tookplaceinconseqncnceof it, that he withdrew 

 to the Sncta-T'trtlia, a famous place of worship near 



* Lib. XV. c, 1, 



