Numismatic, sculptural, and archaeological evidence supplements research on Ashoka. Ashoka's name appears in the lists of Mauryan kings in the various Puranas, but these texts do not provide further details about him, as their Brahmanical authors were not patronised by the Mauryans. Other texts, such as the "Arthashastra" and "Indica of Megasthenes", which provide general information about the Maurya period, can also be used to make inferences about Ashoka's reign. However, the "Arthashastra" is a normative text that focuses on an ideal rather than a historical state, and its dating to the Mauryan period is a subject of debate. The "Indica" is a lost work, and only parts of it survive in form of paraphrases in later writings.