Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/67

Rh of avariciousness made against the first Nanda by the Puranic writer, and the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang also refers to the Nanda raja as the reputed possessor of great wealth.

By putting all the hints together we may conclude with tolerable certainty that the Nanda family was



really of base origin, that it acquired power by the assassination of the legitimate king, and that it retained possession of the throne for two generations only. The great military power of the usurpers, as attested by Greek testimony, was the result of the conquests effected by Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, and presumably continued by their successors; but the limits of the Nanda dominions cannot be defined, nor can the dates