1. The list begins, like the Sanskrit tradition, with the first generation; three interregnums presuppose four periods.
2. The whole fourfold divided chronology is one: three sections of historical recollections lie before the Kali age. Lassen is therefore wrong in saying that Megasthenes began with the Tretâ age. The progress of the gradual extension of the kingdom is organic.
3. The foundation of the whole tradition of the four periods of time are the genealogical registers of the old royal families, which must if possible be localized; of course with special reference to Magadha, which however begins late. As in Egypt, every branch tried somewhere to find its place; we must therefore throw away or mark all names not supported by the legend (that is, the Vedic traditions). The contemporary dynasties must be separated from those that follow each other.
4. Each period was divided from the preceding by an historical fact,—a dissolution followed by a subjugation or a popular government. The first is divided from the second by Herakles—Krishna. The third from the second by Râma, the extirpator of the heroes and royal races (great rising of the people). The fourth from the third by purely historical revolutions, caused or fostered by the Assyrian invasion.
5. The mythical expression for these periods is one thousand years.
6. The historical interregnums are 200, 300, 120.
7. As both are the same, therefore 3 × 1000 years vanish, and there remain but the 620.
8. Therefore Megasthenes' list:
| Megasthenes' list | 6402 |
| 3000 | |
| —— | |
| Kings from the first patriarch to Sandrakottus | 3402 years. |
| Interregnums | 620 |
| —— | |
| 4022 |
First Period.