DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

176 SlSUNACA KINGS [6.7
the coinage problem, by ascribing the coins (in order) to the names in the
king-lists. The trouble with this is the unsatisfactory nature of the records.
The brahmin, Jain, and Buddhist documents give different names for
the same king, or different lists. The Buddhist Hinayana and Mahayana
traditions also differ among themselves. In general, as would be expected
from the relative importance of the three sects, the Pali Buddhist annals,
though unsatisfactory, seem to agree best with the coinage. In any case,
the names should be taken as conjecturally assigned to the coins. The
puranas call the whole Magadhan dynasty (from Bimbisara down)
Siaunaga, The name means among other things ‘ earthworm’, a mark
not to be found on the coins. The - naga termination of the name has
passed without comment; at this early period, it is certainly not in the
vedic Aryan tradition, hence might show tribal -connections, just like
the Matangas in Kosala. The Buddhists know nothing of
Fig. 22. Punch-marks of Sisunaga (?).
Sisunaga as Bimbisara’s father, but the fifth in line after the parricide
Ajatasatru was removed by the people, whose revolt put on the throne
an omatya (governor) named Susuraiga, the Pali form of Sisunaga. This
is reflected by restruck coins with a dynastic mark of a pup (sisu). The
puppy reappears on top of five arches which represent a mountain in
almost all heraldry, and might also be ‘heaven’ here. There are several
other such animal or tree marks on ‘arches’, obviously
clan-marks (“ totems”), marks of descent; the dynasty would be
‘ descendants of sisu’. The Mauryans have once a peacock on arches,
their name moriya meaning ‘ of the peacock’. The general Mauryan
imperial mark of the crescent-on-arches tallies with the puranic ascription
of the Mauryans to the lunar race and is found on the Sohgaura copper
plate (fig. 34). A Sisunaga king whose name (from his personal seal of