Sophagasenus - Differing Opinions On The Antecedents and Ancestry of Sophagasenos

Differing Opinions On The Antecedents and Ancestry of Sophagasenos

Many scholars have rejected the hypothesis propounded by Dr Thomas’s and followed by several later scholars. Dr V. A. Smith does not accept Sophagasenus connection with Virasena or with the Maurya rulers of Pataliputra. Sophagasenus is not identified with the name of any known Indian king. The detailed lists of Maurya successors in numerous Puranas do not mention any king named Virasena or Subhagasena. We are really inclined to doubt F. M. Thomas's theory that Subhagasena was successor of Virasena until we equate the latter with Vrishasena of Asokavadana. But as we have seen above, there is absolutely no equation or equivalence between Vrishasena of Divyavadana/Asokavadana and king Virasena of Taranatha (restored as Surasena of Manjusrimulakalpa). Thus, Dr Thomas's hypothesis does not seem to hold. Dr Romila Thapar is strongly against the view that Subhagasena was a Maurya king. Dr Thapar calls Subhagasena an obscure Indian ruler. Scholars like M. M. Austin, Max Cary, and others, also write that the identity of Subhagasena is uncertain . It is admitted that the antecedents and ancestors of that Subhagasena are not known. H. G. Rawilson also opines that the identity of Subhagasena is uncertain. According to Cambridge History of India, Indian history knows no ruler of corresponding name, and it has therefore been conjectured that Sophagasenus was some local ruler who had taken advantage of the decay of the Maurya empire to establish his own in the country west of Indus. John Ma also calls Sophagasenos a local dynast, otherwise unknown from any of Indian sources. It was also conjectured at one time that Subhagasena was a title for Jalauka, son of great Asoka who had died in 231 BC. But Jalaukla himself is a misty personality. We do not know who the Sophagasenus was. "After Asoka's death, the interest of his successors, west of Indus must have disappeared because when later on (~206 BC), Antiochus III, 6th successor of Seleucus entered the Indus valley, he was resisted not by Mauryas but by a local ruler named Subhagasena..." . One quite agrees with Dr Thapar, Dr Rawilson and other scholars as quoted above that the ancestry of Sophagasenus is unclear and uncertain and in no can it be linked to Maurya rulers of Magadha on the basis of flimsy and unreliable evidence of Taranatha who is a careless and untrustworthy writer of comparatively recent times.