62 Ancient Indian Weights. [No. 2° 
of the information obtained from the Mahawanso and its subordinate 
commentaries. It would seem that there were nine Nanpas, the pre- 
decessors of Chandra Gupta, who ruled conjointly,* forming a co-equal 
brotherhood similar to those of lower degree, so common amid the still 
existing village communities of India; designated in the vernacular 
dialect, Bhaiydchdrd, proprietary fraternities.f |The Brahmanical chro- 
nicles, though they do not directly confirm this statement of the 
contemporaneous sovereignty of the Nanpas, incidentally support such 
a conclusion, as in the expressions, “the Brahman Kautilya will root 
out the nine Nandas;’’{ and in the southern legend, quoted in the 
introduction to the Play of the Mudra Rakshasa, the king is represent- 
ed as consigning the kingdom to his nine sons.§_ I advert to this point 
the more prominently, as one of the great difficulties has hitherto been 
to explain or reconcile the apparent anomaly of Krananda’s designating 
himself in the coin legends as “the King, the great King, Krananda, 
the brother of Amogha ;” and the question naturally arose, if Amogha | 
had no title, and no apparent position in the government, what was 
the object of his brother’s claiming relationship in so formal a manner 
upon the state coinage ? The coincidence may now be satisfactorily 
accounted for, by supposing Amogha to have been the eldest living 
brother in the family oligarchy, a position recognised to this day, 
while Krananda had already justified, by his talents and administrative 
ability, the choice of the brotherhood, who had apparently elected him 
* Mahawanso, p. 21. “ Kalasoko had ten sons; these brothers (conjointly) 
ruled the empire, righteously, for twenty-two years. Subsequently there were 
nine; they also, according to their seniority, reigned for twenty-two years,” 
Mahawanso, p. xxxviii. [from the commentary, the Tika]. ‘“ Kélasoko’s own 
sons were ten brothers. Their names are specified in the Atthakathéa. The 
appellation of ‘the nine Nandos’ originates in nine of them bearing that pa- 
tronymic title. . . . inaforetime, during the conjoint administration of the (nine) 
sons of Kalasoko. . . . His brothers next succeeded to the empire in the order 
of their seniority. They altogether reigned 22 years, It was on this account 
that (in the Mahawanso) it is stated that there were nine Nandos.” See also 
J. A. S. B. vi. 714, 726 (Buddhaghoso’s Atthakatha) “the ten sons of Kalasoko 
reigned 22 years. Subsequently to them, Nawanando reigned 22 years.” 
+ Wilson derives the chara from the Sanskrit dchdra, “ institute.’ I should 
prefer the local chdra, “ pasturage,” especially as the associate Bhaiya is in the 
Indian form of the classic Aryan, Bhrdta. 
{ Wilson’s “ Vishnu Purana,’ p. 467. See also note, p. 468, for various read- 
ings from Bhagavata, Vayu and Matsya Puranas. 
§ The Mudra Rakshasa, in Wilson’s “ Hindu Theatre,” vol. ii. p. 144, For 
other notices of the Nandas, see “ Asiatic Researches,” xx, 167 ; Rev. W. H. Mill, 
J. A. 8. B. iii. p. 343. Wilson’s “ Essays on Sanskrit Literature,” i. 174, 178; 
Burnouf, “TI. 359 and Lotus de la bonne loi,” p, 452; Max Miiller, “ Sanskrit — 
Literature,” 275. 

