Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor (56 page)

17
Sir William Jones, ‘On the Gods of Greece, Italy and India’,
AR
, Vol. I, 1788.

18
Henry Colebrooke, ‘On the Sanscrit and Pracrit Languages’,
AR
, Vol. VII, 1804.

19
Captain Wilford, ‘Of the Kings of Magad’ha; their Chronology’,
AR
, Vol. IX, 1807.

20
John Harrington, ‘Introductory Remarks, Intended to Have Accompanied Captain Mahony’s Paper on Ceylon’,
AR
, Vol. VII, 1804.

21
William Chambers, ‘Some Account of the Sculptures and Ruins at Mavalipuram’,
AR
, Vol. I, 1788.

22
Charles Wilkins, ‘An Inscription Copied by Mr Wilmot from a Stone at Bood-dha-Gaya’,
AR
, Vol. I, 1788.

23
Quoted without source in Theon Wilkinson,
Two Monsoons
, 1976.

24
Jonathan Duncan, ‘An Account of the Discovery of Two Urns in the Vicinity of Benares’,
AR
, Vol. IV, 1795.

25
This happy phrase comes from one of Jones’s successors, George Turnour, in the introduction to his
An Epitome of the History of Ceylon, Compiled from Native Annals: and the First Twenty Chapters of the Mahawanso
, 1836.

Chapter 4. Enter Alexander

1
In chronological order: several chapters in the
Bibliotecha Historica
of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodoros Siculos, writing at the time of Julius Caesar;
Historiae Alexandri Magni
, written by the gladiator’s son Quintus Curtius Rufus (usually referred to as ‘Curtius’);
Anabasis
by Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon (‘Arrian’); a chapter on Alexander in
Bioi Paralleloi
or ‘Parallel Lives’ by Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (‘Plutarch’); and
Historiarum Philippicarum
by the fifth-century Roman historian Marcus Junianus Justinus (‘Justin’), drawing heavily on an earlier and now lost forty-four-volume work on Macedonian history written by his fellow Roman Trogus Pompeius.

2
Arrian,
Anabasis
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

3
Ibid.

4
Quintus Curtius Rufus,
Historiae Alexandri Magni
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

5
Plutarch,
Parallel Lives
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

6
Arrian,
Anabasis
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

7
Arrian,
Anabasis
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

8
Junianus Justinus,
Historiarum Philippicarum
. This translation from
Alexander the Great: Selections from Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius [Rufus]
, trans. by Pamela Mensch & James Romm, 2005.

9
It was Spitamenes who had delivered the rebel Bessos to Alexander, only to become a rebel in his turn. He had then been murdered by his wife, who had achieved some notoriety among the Macedonians by presenting herself at Alexander’s tent with her husband’s head.

10
Diodorus Siculos,
Library of World History
, Book XIX.

11
Appian,
History of Rome, The Syrian Wars
.

12
Junianus Justinus,
Historiarum Philippicarum
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

13
Plutarch,
Life of Alexander
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

14
Athenaios,
Deipnosophists
, quoted by J. W. McCrindle.

15
Junianus Justinus,
Historiarum Philippicarum
. This translation from
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin
, trans. by J. W. McCrindle, 1893.

16
Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
, Book VI.

17
Arrian,
Indica
, from
Anabasis of Alexander, together with the Indica
, trans. E. J. Chambers, 1893.

18
Sir William Jones, ‘The Tenth Anniversary Discourse, delivered 28 February 1793, by the President, on Asiatick History, Civil and Natural’,
AR
, Vol. IV, 1795.

19
Patna is actually 240 miles downstream of Benares and 85 miles upstream of Monghyr, but that tallies almost exactly with Al-Biruni’s proportion of 11: 3. Jones was, of course, unaware that Al-Biruni had shown in his
Al-Hind
that Pataliputra was located on the Ganges some 220 miles downstream of Benares and 60 miles upstream of Monghyr – which placed it fair and square at the modern town of Patna.

20
James Rennell’s case was set out in the introduction to his
Memoir and Map of Hindoostan
, 1788.

21
Sir William Jones, ‘The Tenth Anniversary Discourse, delivered 28 February 1793, by the President, on Asiatick History, Civil and Natural’,
AR
, Vol. IV, 1795.

22
Sir William Jones, ‘The Tenth Anniversary Discourse, delivered 28 February 1793, by the President, on Asiatick History, Civil and Natural’,
AR
, Vol. IV, 1795.

23
Captain Wilford, ‘Of the Kings of Magad’ha; their Chronology’,
AR
, Vol. IX, 1809.

Chapter 5. Furious Orientalists

1
Sir William Jones to Lord Cornwallis, Lord Teignmouth,
Memoir of the Life, Writings and Correspondence of Sir William Jones
, Vol. II, 1804.

2
Henry Colebrooke in a letter to his father, Sir T. E. Cokebrooke,
The Life of H. T. Colebrooke
, 1873.

3
This information came from Lieutenant M. Kittoe, contained in a letter published in James Prinsep, ‘Further Particulars of the Sarun and Tirhut
Laths, and Account of Two Bauddha Inscriptions Found, the One at Bakhra, in Tirhut, the Other at Sarnath, near Benares’,
JASB
, Vol. IV, 1835.

4
Henry Colebrooke, ‘Translation of One of the Inscriptions on the Pillar at Dehlee, Called the L
t of Feeroz
Shah’, AR
, Vol. VII, 1801.

5
Hugh Murray, ‘Conquest of Mysore’,
Historical and Descriptive Account of British India
, Vol. II, 1843.

6
Letter to a Mr Ballantyne dated Penag, 24 October 1805, quoted by Robert Chambers,
Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen
, 1856.

7
Sir John Malcolm in an obituary published in the
Bombay Courier
, quoted by Chambers.

8
H. H. Wilson, ‘An Essay in the Hindu History of Cashmir’,
AR
, Vol. XV, 1825.

9
Francis Buchanan, ‘On the Religion and Literature of the Burmas’,
AR
, Vol. VI, 1800.

10
Buchanan in later years took the name of ‘Hamilton’, which had the effect of dispersing his achievements under three names: Buchanan, Hamilton and Buchanan-Hamilton.

11
Sir Charles D’Oyly,
Sketches of the NewRoad in a Journey from Calcutta to Gaya
, 1830.

12
Francis Buchanan, ‘Description of the Ruins of Buddha Gaya, by Dr Francis Buchanan Hamilton, Extracted from his Report of the Survey of South Bihar’,
Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society
, Vol II, 1830, and
Journal of Francis Buchanan (afterwards Hamilton) kept during the Survey of the Districts of Patna and Gaya in 1811–12
, Ed. H. V. Jackson, 1925.

13
Montgomery Martin,
The History, Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India
, Vol. I, 1838 (compiled from the papers of Francis Buchanan).

14
Colin Mackenzie in a letter to Sir Alexander Johnston in 1817, quoted by H. H. Wilson in his introduction to
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts and other Articles Illustrative of the Literature, History, Statistics, and Antiquities of the South of India; Collected by the Late Lieut.-Col. Colin Mackenzie, Surveyor General of India
, 1828.

15
See Richard Fynes, trans.,
The Lives of the Jain Elders
, 1998.

16
The story of Chandragupta’s last years as a Jain monk at Sravana Belgola in Mysore was summed up by a later Orientalist, Bernard Lewis Rice, when he came to write the
Gazetteer
of the princely state of Mysore in the 1890s: ‘Chandra Gupta continued to minister to the wants of this his guru to the last, and was the only witness of his death. According to tradition, Chandra Gupta survived for twelve years, which he spent in ascetic rites at the same place and died there … Not only is Bhadrabahu’s cave, in which he expired, pointed out on the hill at Sravana Belgola, but the hill itself is called Chandra-giri after Chandra Gupta; while on its summit, surrounded with temples, is the Chandra Gupta
basti
[temple], the oldest there, having its façade minutely sculptured
with ninety scenes from the lives of Bhadabahu and Chandra Gupta. Additional evidence is contained in the ancient rock inscriptions on the hill.’ B. Lewis Rice,
Mysore: a Gazetteer Compiled for Government
, Vol. I, 1897.

17
Colin Mackenzie, ‘Extracts from a Journal, dated Feb. 24
1797’, AR
, Vol. IX, 1809.

18
Colin Mackenzie, ‘The Ruins of Amravutty, Depauldina, and Durnacotta’,
Asiatic Journal
, May 1823.

19
Mackenzie Album (WD1061), India Office Library Prints and Drawings, British Library. See also Robert Knox,
Amaravati Sculptures at the British Museum
, 1994.

20
James Burgess, in a brief additional note at the back of
Notes on the Amaravati Stupa
, 1882.

21
The Chakravartin is defined in the Mandhata-avadana and Sudasasana sutra. See also I. Armelin,
Le Roi Détenteur de le Roue Solaire en Révolution (Carkravartin) selon le Brahmanisme et selon le Bouddhisme
, 1975. The Chakravartin king had about him seven treasures: the chakra wheel as the symbol of the Dharma, his queen, his wise councillor, his treasurer, his jewels, his horse and chariot and his elephant.

Chapter 6. The Long Shadow of Horace Hayman Wilson

1
Quoted in R. F. Young and G. P. V. Somaratna,
Vain Debates: the Buddhist-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth-Century Ceylon
, 1996.

2
Sir Alexander Johnston in a letter to the chairman of the Court of Directors of the EICo, dated 13 November 1826, reproduced in Edward Upham,
The Mahavansi, the Raja-Ratnacari and the Raja-vali, forming the Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon
, 1833.

3
‘Remarks furnished by Captain J. J. Chapman of the R.E. upon the Ancient City of Anarajapura or Anaradhepura, and the Hill Temple of Mehentale, in Ceylon’,
Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society
, Vol. III, 1834.

4
James Emerson Tennent,
Ceylon: an Account of the Island
, 1859. Tennent was Turnour’s Resident in Ceylon and, by his account, one of the few members of the Ceylon Civil Service who appreciated the nature and immensity of the task he had undertaken.

5
Drawings of Sanchi by John Henry Bagnold, accession nos. 07.001–022, Royal Asiatic Society.

6
Andrew Stirling,
An Account, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of Orissa Proper, or Cuttack
, 1822. This was afterwards reprinted under the same title in
AR
, Vol. XV, 1825.

7
A. K. Mitra, ‘A Bell-Capital from Bhuvanesvara’,
Indian Historical Quarterly
, 5, 1929; and Nirmalkar Basu, ‘Some Ancient Remains from Bhubaneswar’,
Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society
, 15, 1929.

8
Harry Falk, ‘Rajula-Mandagiri’,
A
okan Sites and Artefacts
, 2006.