324 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Sept., 1914. 



monastery was situated not far from BhuvanesVara in the 

 district of Katak. 1 Dr. Fleet has identified Suvarnagiri with 

 Sonagiri, one of the hills at old Rajgir. If this identification 

 is correct, then Anga was possibly administered by the governor 

 of Suvarnagiri. 



From the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, king of 

 Kalinga, it may fairly be concluded that in the 2nd century 

 B.C., after the death of Asoka, his vast empire lost all the 

 outlying provinces, and it consisted " only of the ancient 

 kingdoms of Magadha and Campa, together with the eastern 

 portion of Kosala."* 



During the next three centuries after the death of Asoka, 

 Buddhism spread rapidly and steadily, notwithstanding the 

 encouragement which Samprlti, the grandson and immediate 

 successor of Asoka according to the Jaina authorities, 3 and 

 who perhaps was identical with Dasaratha of the Puranas, 

 gave to the Jaina religion and the Brahminical faith. In the 

 1st century of the Christian era Nagarjuna, the promoter and 

 expounder of the Mahayana system of Buddhism, flourished at 

 the time when the third Buddhist synod was convened by 

 Kaniska. The Mahayana system, according to Dr. Waddell, 

 " substituted for the agnostic idealism and simple morality of 

 Buddha a speculative theistic system with a mysticism of 

 sophistic nihilism in the background." As it laid much stress 

 on the practice of fervent devotion and active compassion, 

 it found an echo in the heart of millions of people and enlisted 

 their sympathy.* Anga, Bariga and Magadha at once welcomed 

 and adopted the new doctrine, and many images of gods and 

 goddesses belonging to the Tantric system, which was the later 

 development of the Mahayana creed, maybe found abounding 

 in various parts of the district of Bhagalpur. 



In the 3rd century of the Christian era, the Sakas, taking 

 advantage of the weakness of the later kings of the Andhrabhrtya 

 dynasty, must have attacked Anga and ruled over it, as is tes- 

 tified by a silver coin of " Mahaksatrapa Svami Rudra Sena " 

 found with a coin of Candragupta Vikramaditya, 5 that is 

 Candragupta II of the Gupta dynasty, at the bottom of a 

 stupa at Sultanganj in the district of Bhagalpur. The succes- 

 ses and victories of the Sakas under Rudradaman, the founder 

 of the Western Satrapy, at Surastra or Kathiawad in the 2nd 

 century, must have encouraged them to extend their conquests 

 to the east during the disorder that prevailed at the latter part 

 of the rule of the Satakarnl princes. Though Samudragupta 



l J.A.S.B.,m8, pp. 136, 138. 

 4 Rhys Davids: B.I., 310. 



I ^aviravalichanta ( Jacobi's Ed. ) , canto 

 * xx " AA ~" ■ Buddhism — 



- 



Arch. Surv. Rep., xv, 29 ; see also J.A.S.B.,' xxxi'ii, 361. 



