1920.| The Later Mauryas. 307 
the Puranas but also in Bana’s Harshacharita. He was 
assassinated by his general Pushyamitra Sunga who is wrong- 
ly described by the Divyavadana as of Maurya descent. 
There can be no doubt that during the rule of the later 
Mauryas the Magadha Empire experienced a gradual decay. 
Asoka: died in or about the year 232 or 231 B.C. Within 
twenty-five years of his death a Greek army crossed the Hindu- 
kush which was the Maurya frontier in the days of Chandra- 
gupta and his grandson. The Yuga Purana section of the 
Gargi Samhita bears testimony to the decline of the Mauryan 
power in the Madhyadesa after the reign of Salistka. 
According to Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri (J.A. 
S.B. 1910, p. 259) the dismemberment of the Maurya Empire 
sacrifices. The edict, in Pandit Sastri’s opinion, was certainly 
directed against the Brahmanas as a class and was specially 
offensive because it was promulgated by a Sadra ruler. As to 
the first point we should remember that prohibition of animal 
sacrifices did not necessarily imply hostility towards Brah- 
manas. Long before Asoka Bre ne 
have found a place in the Holy Srutt, the most sacred literature 
of the Brahmanas, declared themselves in no uncertain terms 
against sacrifices, and in favour of Ahimsa. In the M undaka 
Upanishad we have the following passage :— 
“WaT Bat BEST TTSAT 
ATMAATL BY AH | 
waa ashracia Fet 
aca & uatarty afar Ql! 
‘« Frail, in truth are those boats, the sacrifices, the eighteen. 
in which this lower ceremonial has been told. Fools who 
praise this as the highest good, are subject again and again to 
old age and death.”’ In the Chhandogya Upanishad (iii. 17. 4) 
Ghora Angirasa lays great stress on Ahimsa. 
As to the second statement we should remember that 
tradition is not unanimous in representing the Mauryas as 
ul er ca 
Moriyas as a noble clan. In the Maha-parinibbana-sulta the 
Moriyas are represented as belonging to the Kshatriya caste. 
