120 Remarks on the second Inscription [March, 



of the whole earth, increasing and expanding throughout the whole 

 ground of the earth, was equalling Tridasapati (Indra)." 



The name of Chandragupta repeated here twice, as that of the great- 

 grandfather, and that of the father of a Raja, cannot fail to excite atten- 

 tion. 



According to the Hindee genealogies of the Vishnupurana and other 

 books, Chandragupta, a son, or at least a relative, of Nanda, founded 

 a dynasty (called by his name, and also the M miry a dynasty, from his 

 mother Mura), of 10 kings, who reigned during 137 years from the year 

 1598 to 1735 of the Kaliyug, (from 1504 to 1367 before our era,) in 

 Magadha, the capital of which was Palibothra. It needs scarce be 

 repeated that the Indian name Chandragupta (the moon-protected) was 

 found to be the same with Sandra-cottus, or Sandrokuptos mentioned 

 by the Greek historians. It is also known that from the similarity of these 

 names, an identity of the persons of the contemporary of Alexander 

 and ally of Seleucus Nicator, and of the before-mentioned founder of 

 the Indian dynasty of that name was supposed, and that a whole system 

 of Indian chronology was made dependent upon this supposition. 



No disquisition upon this important and extensive subject will here 

 be expected, so much less as the imperfect remains of the inscription 

 here examined furnish no vestige of a date, nor any other data which 

 may lead our conjectures towards, if not fix, a historical fact. It would 

 be adventurous to assert that the Chandragupta of line 25th, was the 

 founder of the Maurya dynasty : all that appears in the inscription is, 

 that a Raja Samudragupta (the sea-protected) was a descendant in the 

 4th generation of a Chandragupta. 



It is further to be remarked, that the name of the second Chandragupta 

 and that of Samudragupta are joined with the title Adhirdja, supreme 

 Raja, and not with that of Chakrctvartti, or emperor of the world, always 

 assumed by the ruler of India. We may therefore infer that the 

 Adhirajas of the inscription did not pretend to universal, although but 

 titular, sovereignty ; but may have been only counted among the many 

 Rajas who at all times divided India among themselves. It was pro- 

 bably by their flatterers that the conquest of a few provinces was made 

 the conquest of the whole world ; in which expression, found entire among 

 the ruins of so many others, nothing else but a monument of empty vanity 

 was preserved. 



Translation of Sanscrit Words of the Allahabad Inscription. 

 Line I. 



II. — 1. minding sacrifice of the gods. 2. for the sake of a better state. 



III. — 3. counting the low. 4. knowing good qualities. 5. in heaven. .. 



6 and 7. enjoying a poet's fame and a kingdom. .. .. .. 



