Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/73

Rh The names of the successors of Asoka after Dasaratha as stated in different books vary, but the Purânas agree that the dynasty came to an end after a duration of either 133 or 137 years. Taking the accession of Chandragupta to have occurred in 325, the extinction of the Maurya line may be dated in  188. It seems plain that the later Mauryas were comparatively insigniﬁcant princes ruling a restricted territory, and that the empire governed for about ninety years with such distinction by Chandragupta, Bindusâra, and Asoka, crumbled to pieces when the strong arm of the third sovereign dropped the sceptre. The end is said to have come when Brihadratha, the last of the Maurya dynasty, was put to death by Pushya-mitra Sunga, his commander-in-chief, who usurped the throne. But, although the imperial dynasty became extinct within half a century after the death of Asoka, his descendants seem to have continued to be local chieftains in Magadha for some eight centuries, because Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim, tells us that shortly before his arrival, Pûrnavarman, Râjâ of Magadha, and the last descendant of Asoka, had piously restored the sacred Bodhi tree at Gayâ, which Sasanka, King of Bengal, had destroyed. These events happened soon after 600.