: TTT TTT Shriram SatheThe Author * Born in 1920 at Wai, Satara District, Maharashtra, Shriram Sathe, after graduating in science from the Bombay University in 1942, decided to lead a life of strict celebacy in order to devote all his energies to the cause of the nation as a PRACHARAKA (full time organiser) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevaka Sangha (RSS). Apart from posses- sing intellectual acumen, Sri Sathe has an innate passion for details and this is responsible for the objectivity in him. His book ‘Apane Khel’ in Hindi, the first ever treatise of its kind on Indian games, is translated into all Indian languages. No wonder, his works-’Chatrapati Shivaji and ‘Hindu Vijaya Dundubhi’ are in Telugu, not in his mother tongue. Since 1982, Sri Sathe has actively associated himself with the Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Yojana (Institution for the collection of the factual data of the Indian history) sponsored by Sri Babasaheb Apte Smaraka Samiti. Accor- ding to the scheme of the Samiti, his first book ‘Search for the Year of Bharata War’ was published in May 1983, the second book ‘Is Sandrokottas Chandragupta Maurya?’ in March 1985 and the third Date of Bharata War - The Problem’ in January 1986. The latter two are translated into Telugu. The first editions of the first two books are sold out.Bharatiya itihasa Sankalana Samithi Some four years back, Ahmad Hasan Dani, the archaeologist of Pakis- tan, stated that Yagnyashalas are found in many pre-Harappan sites from Baluc- histan in the West upto Uttara Pradesh in the East and Gujrat in the South, indicating the existence of one culture in the whole of this tract in those days. The imagery received recently from the American satellite Landsat has revealed the path of the dried up Vedic Saraswati river from Shivalika mountains near Simla upta the Rann of Kutch. It also showed that the maximum width of the river was 12 k.m. in some places. Further researches have shaken the faith of historians in the chronology of the ancient indian history .as. taught at present ip the indian educational institu- tions. The chronology is based on the Aryan race theory and the separateness of the Indus Valiey culture. Both these hypotheses are now open to question Doubts are also being raised about the so-called Sheet Anchor of Indian history i.e. the date of the coro- nation of Chandragupta Maurya which was considered as the base date of Indian chronology by the Western Orien- talists. Bharatiya \tihasa Sankalana Sami- ti wants scholars to decide the chrono- logy of indian history for the last $000 years that can answer all the modern tests. The Samiti has decided to collect all the relevant historical material and furnish it to the scholars to aid their research. The Book In the nineteenth century A.D., Western Orientalists collected a number of dates of the Buddha ranging from Sth century B.C. to 25th century B.C The majority of the scholars arrived at ©.485 B.C. as the date of the Nirvana of the Buddha. But the Burmese follow 544 B.C. and Tibetans 835°B.C. Indian genealogies place him towards the end of the 18th century B.C. In the first Buddhist convention which took place in the year of his Nirvana, all his teachings were compiled but not the date. In the third Buddhist convention which had the patronage of the mighty Emperor Asoka, none see- med to have worried about the date. Dates seem to have been giver secon- dary importance in the method of Indian historiography, the primary object of which was to cultivate the minds of individuals in such a way that their behaviour in the society will be condu- cive to its happiness, prosperity and longevity. But now the scientific inventions during the past century and a half, have brought such a change in the world which had never been experienced for the past thousands of years. interming- ling of the individuals of different natio- nalities has increased tremendously. Now it is found difficult to tolerate different dates for an individual of the status of the Buddha. Unanimity about the date will be looked forward to, with great pleasure. In this book an effort is made to collect the data about the different dates of the Buddha and furnish the proofs both for and against. It may be useful for further researchDATES OF THE BUDDHA SHRIRAM SATHE PUBLISHED BY : BHARATIYA ITIHASA SANKALANA SAMITI HYDERABAD. 14/3 RT, LIGH, BARKATPURA, HYDERABAD-500 027.$RI BABASAHIB APTE SMARAKA SAMIT) 309, Shaniwar Peth, PUNE - 411 030 First Edition Phalgun Yugabda - 5088 March, 1987, Distributors SAHITYA NIKETAN, 3-4-862/1, Barkatpura, Hyderabad-500 C27 Koshoar - Price : Rs. 75-00 Printed at : SREE VENKATESHWARA POWER PRESS, New Bhoiguda, SECUNDERABAD-3.Thekchen Choeling Mcleod Ganj 176219 Kangra District Himachal Pradesh THE DALAI LAMA & FOREWORD For Buddhists, whatever particular tradition they follow, what is most significant about Lord Buddha is his teaching, for that is what can actu- ally be practised. While there is a@ general con- sensus on facts concerning him, suchas the length and pattern of his life and the Places associated with him, these are to some extent peripheral to this main theme. Nevertheless, Many pilgrims have greatly benefitted from the efforts of historians and archaeologists in positively identifying Buddhist holy sites. One feint over which there are markedly differing opinions concerns the dates of Lord Buddha’s life, though none effectively changes the essential impact of his teaching. However, in the wider context of world history and the in- terdependent development of human knowledge it would be helpful if an accepted convention could be agreed upon. To this end the present work is most welcome. The author compares the theories of various histurians and reviews evidence from Many sources, providing readers with an opportunity to gain a clearer perspective on the matter. jee, OPINION ABOUT THE BOOK History with ¢hronology is like a person without a Waokbone. A sciantific study of history requires a reasonably nithentic chronology. The most difficult part of Ancient Indian History is tu reconstruct an aggreeable framework of chronology. Thare are several problems in arriving at the dates of Indus Valley Civilisatison, Vedic literature, Epics, Megaliths, many personalities and literary works of ancient India. The date of Chandragupta Maurya as reconstructed by the Western scholars has become the bedrock of ancient Indian chronology. Dates of Gautama Buddha, Asoka and Gautamiputra Satakarni have been related to it. If this date of Chandragupta Maurya, fixed on the basis of Chandragupta Maurya — Sandrokottas identification and contemponeity with Alexander, is questioned, as some scholars do, the whole chronological framework for ancient dian history followed by the majority today will collapse. Sri Shriram Sathe, in his works including the present one ‘Dates of the Bnddha,’ is com nendably trying to educate the public on this problem. Indian tradition, as followed to this day, attaches much significance to the time of an event to the minutest detail. In ancient India also, it was so. Apart from literary data, in thousands of inscriptions relating to ancient Indian history dates are mentioned, Years of the reign of a king, the years of various eras, month, fortnight, tithi, week-day, nakshatra, yoga karana, lagna and many other details are found mentioned in the epigraphs, Indians in the ancient times did not ignore date and time. Perhaps no other nation attached so much im- Portance to the time of an event as ancient or medieval India. Obviously, the moderners have not with them all the data and techniques to read the details of ancient events. Horoscopes and Mahapurushalakshanas are essential for the study of the great personalities in Indian history and’ eulture. The study of the life of Gautama Buddha and Buddhist art stands testimony to this (Ajanta Cave No. Il, painting ofviii interpretation of Maya's dream). An investigation into the date of the Buddha is essential to understand his personality and greatness. am sure Sri Shriram Sathe’s ‘Dates of the ‘Buddha’ will make many turn to the study of a much taken-for—granted end therefore neglected aspect of ancient Indian history. M. Radhakrishna Sarma Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient History. Culture and Archaclogy, Osmania University, Hyderabad.INTRODUCTION In 1966 A.D., the 2600th anniversary of the Nirvana of the Buddhe was celebrated in many countries. All of them followed the Burmese date of the Nirvana, 544 B.C. and not ¢. 483 B.C., the date arrived at by the Western Orientalists of the 19th century A.D. and presently taught in the Indian educational institutions. The date of the Nirvana followed in Tibet is 835 B.C. The Western scholars, in the beginning of their Oriental studies had collected some thirty dates ranging from 5th century B.C. to 25th century B.C, The first convention of Buddhists took place just in the year of the Nirvana of the Buddha and was followed by two other conventions within three hundred years of his demise. The third one took place under the royal patronage of Emperor Asoka. But nowhere in the proceedings of these conventions the date of the Buddha is stated. It isnot possible that at the time of the first convention they did not know it. It is not also possible that the Buddhist Emperor Asoka could not have secured it if he had meant it. It seems that they did not feel it necessary to state the date. And the ignorance of the Buddhist missionari- es about the date hac not come in the way of, or hampered their religious propaganda. They were able to convert many, and even today, after thousands of years have passed since the time of the Buddha, the number of Buddhists is one of the ‘biggest amongst the followers of different faiths. But the times have changed now. During the past two or three centuries, the world has witnessdd Saummra rapid change as was Never experienced Over thousands of years in the past. The inventions relating to communications have made the world smalier. Within afew hours one can get any piece of infor- mation from any quarter.of the world. The scientific develop- ments have whetted the desire for extensive and exact knowledge and also inspired confidence in acquiring it. Buddhists in different countries are intermingling more often now. If ax consensus about the date of the Buddha canbe arrived at by them, chronologies of the ancient histories of those countries can be set right in relation at one another. Moreover, India is tha mother country of the Buddha. During the past hundred years or more, one finds many scholars from all over the world desiring to know the secret of the longevity of Hindu society. The individuals of this society are contented and happier than those in many other countries. The foreigners want to understand the reason for this. In its long past history, Hindu society has exparienced foreign attacks which were strong enough to destory other empires. But Bharat stood the challenge. It also enjoyed continuous prosperity for centuries together without ever losing its balance. And many upheavals took place. Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Yojana wants to collect all these data as to how Hindu society behaved in these varying and often trying circums- tances in different periods of history. All these data, chronologically arranged, will definitely prove as guidance Tor any society, Bharatiya or otherwise. Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Yojana wishes to collect alt such data which will ena3le the scholars to decide the chrono- logy of ancient Indian history from the beginning of Kaliyuga, @., for about past 5000 years. The date of the Buddha is an important date in this period. With this objective in mind, the Yojana, in the beginning, got published the book “Search for the Year of Bharat War." It contains the views of 120 scholars about tha date of Bharat War along with tabulated proofs which they have produced to support their date. It was experienced that some of these scholars, in their efforts to decide the date of the Bharat War, used asa base the date of coronation of Chandragupta Maurya, decided by the Western Orientalists asc. 320 B.C. and named by MaxMuller as the sheet anchor of Indian history. Hence the Sankalana Yojana got published ‘another book, “Is Sandrokottas Chandragupta Maurya?" Afterwards, the third book “Mahabharata War- Astronomical Verses” was published, wherein 148 verses outwt of one lekh veraee of the epic Mahabharata, with astronomical references to different events at the timeof the War. The Meanings of the verve are given in English-Hindi, English— Marathi and Telugu in 3 weparate books with Anvaya (prose ofdet) In all, And now the prosent book “Dates of the Buddha.’ The Gankalana Yojana rcquasts scholars to decide the date of the Buddha and hopes this book will be useful for them. M. N. PINGLEY Nagpur All India President Phaigun, Yu. 6088 Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Yojana.PREFACE At the outset, | wish to acknowledge the interest shown hy many readers in my previous books dealing with the ahronology of ancient Indian history. Tho first editions of each. of the firat two books nomely, “Search for the Year of Bharat War” and ‘ls Sandrokottas Chandragupta Maurya?”, were exhausted in a short time. Probably, it may be due to the approach that Is followed therein. Varied opinions and judge- manta of differant authors about a date or an identity are complied in short in those books, without a favour for or pre- judice@ agalnet any one opinion in the mind of the author. Such compllation lg useful to scholars in their research. They get all facets of the problem together and in short. In this book, a8 in the previous ones, an effort is made to. complla all the data for und against the different dates of the Buddha, Readers ahoutld plone note that my impressions about the problem are atated ina half portion of the first chapter and Inthe apilogus. Reatof the book gives the statements and fons of the authors, mostly in their own words, whose oan be found either in the taxt or inthe footnotes. My commante are very few therein. Readare will find some matter repeated from my earlier book ‘le Gandroknites Chandragupta Maurya?” it is but inevitable, Majority of the scholars, Western and Indian, follow: the date of the Buddha in the fifth century B.C. This date is. decided on the js of c. 320 B.C., the date of coronation of “‘Chandragupte Maurya, fixed by the Western scholars. Hence the rellability of the fifth century date of the Buddha is dependant on the voracity of this date of Chandragupta Maurya. Of course, {could have ‘asked the feaders'torefer to my-previous book but ‘all the cdpida of it are’ extiakétéd “atid ‘to “ask them ‘to-go in sseich for'bie would tie ‘doitig ihlustice to tfiem. Hence. some ‘Ot the Hatter te tepeaed Hetein. 5xiv Since | started thinking about this topic, Dr. J. R. Joshi of the Department of Sanskrit and Pali languages in the University of Poona has been of great help to me. We used to meet often to chalk out the line of action about the selection of books to be read and interviews to be taken. Sometimes he alone interviewed some scholars. His suggestions have been vary useful. «| am so much thankful to him. There are other scholars from Pune who gave me valuable guidance and helped me in securing books. Dr. K.P. Jog and Dr. P.P. Apte of Deccan College, Dr. Goswami of the Centre for the Advanced Studies in Sanskrit and Dr. Manjul of Bhandarkar Institute are a few to rame amongst them. My thanks to all of them. My heart felt gratitude is due to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the foreword he has given to this book. He was kind enough to grant me an interview on 13-1-87 at Nagaijunacagar, Nalgonda District, during his tour in South India, inspite of the heavy schedule of programmes and his temporary ill-health at that time. His foreword is eloquent and the readers can easily understand what pleasure | must have experienced during that * interview to find my views concurrent with his, | am very glad and grateful to him to receive his blessings in time. Or. M. Radhakrishna Sarma of Osmania University, Hyderabad, is Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. Being in the teaching profession, he is well versed with the problems of ancient indian chronology. | was very much delighted to receive his appreciation of the ‘book. My acknowledgements are due to him. Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Samiti, Hyderabad undertook the responsibility of publishing this book for which | am thank- ful to them, - 1am thankful to: my friend Sri N.C. Lakshminarayana of Sri Saraswati Book Depot; Hyderabad, who voluntarily undertook to helps print this book with hié careful proof-reading. 1am alse “tha nkful to Messrs, Sri Venkateshwara Power Press, Secunderabad"vy for printing thw took fn tlm and with duo care Artist Gatyanarayanect teupathi has furniahe tthe drawing for the Var deaign aii Maaarn Navabharati Publications, Narayanguda, Wyderabad got itnoatly printed at Jyoth: Pross, Hyderabad. My tharke to then, Maga Purnia, Yu. 6088 ‘Kauahike,” Shriram Sathe 484/08, Mitramandal Colony, Puna 411 009.CONTENTS Chapter | Different Dates: Indian Historiography 1-11 Historicity of the Buddha accepted “4 Different dates of the Buddha 2 Commendable work by Western Scholars 5 Sheet Anchor 6 Buddha's date- A corollary of the Sheet Anchor 6 Buddha's date not recorded in the first Buddhist conventions 7 Indian literature does not give Buddha's date 7 Absence of date did not hinder religious propaganda 8 India’s aim in history writing ; culturing the mind 8 Aim fulfilled 9 India developed not only writers but reciters also 10 History writing in India was an organised effort 10 Chapter I > Source Material 12-47 No Concrete Proofs 12 Section | — Greek Classical Accounts 12-16 Fragments put in order by Schwanbeck 13 Opinions about the Classical Accounts 14 Relevant Portions 15 Section Il — Indian Genealogies 17-36 India Rich in Genealogies 17 Puranic Genealogy 17 H.H. Wilson‘s Opinion 18 Kaliyuga Rajavrittanta 18 Magadha dynasties 19 Verses refering to the Great Bear (Saptarshi Mandal) 19 Rajatarangini of Kalhana 22 Smith's opinion about Rajatarangini 24 Relevant verses from Rejatarangini 24 ‘Other Genealogies 27 Lists of Peethadhipatis of Shankara Peethas 28 Jyotirmatha at Badri 28xvi - Page Oherede Postha nt Dwareke 28 Waren! Kamakotty Prete 31 Gevordhana Paotha at Purl 33 Ghi Inger! Pantha 35 Geetypn Ill ~ Avoka‘s Inscriptions 36-39 Rook Rdicte 36 Minor Rook Edicts 36 Pillar Inscriptions 37 Qanaral Information 37 Relevant Portions 38. fisation IV — Ceylonese Chronicles 39-42 Dipavamaa 39 Mahavamea 40. Both end at the same point Ai Rolovant Verses at Section V — Other Sources 42-46 Buddha Varsha — Fleet 42 Taw Sein Ko 43 Canton Tradition 44 Inscription at Gaya 44 Fahien’s Answer 45 Abou Fazal Allami 45. Manimekhalai 45 Section VI — Buddhist Sanskrit Literature 46. Chapter Ill History of the Fixation of the Buddha’s date as c. 483 B.C. 48-97 Section | — Sheet Anchor 48-61 Sir William Jones 48 Discovery of the identity of Sandrokottas with Chandragupta Maurya 49 ladian Literature Depicts High Antiquity 50 Jones’ First Table 50 Another Table by Jones 51 Jones Unsatisfied with Indian Accounts 52 Refers Greek Classical Accounts 52 Wilford Supports 53 H.H. Wilson Amends 54xvili Page MaxMuller asserts ; Terms Identity as Sheet Anchor ba Turnour-Ceylonese literature a source superior to Indian 56 Edicts are the Inscriptions of Asoka of Mahavamsa -Turnour 59 Authors hip of the Edicts- James Princep’s Guesses + 60 Contemporary Yavana Kings 60 Section if — V. A. Smith, 61-70 All inscriptions Issued by one Sovereign 62 The Sovereign is ¢ Buddhist 64 Priyadarshi is Ascka Maurya 85 Asoka’s date from Synchranism of Yavana Kings of Asoka’s Edicts 67 Smith's Chronology of Ancient Indian History 68 Sheet Anchor ~ Exact Date Undecided 69 Section II! — Buddhavarsha 70-85 Sixty Years’ Difference 70 Explanations by Scholars 70 Turnour 70 Fleet , nW Oxford Frankfurter 74 V. Gopal Aiyer 15 P.C. Mukberji 76 Wilhelm Geiger 81 H.C. Raychaudhuri ‘ 83 MaxMuller 385 Section IV — Number 256 in Asoka’s lascription 85-97 Two Main Lines of Interpretations 87 J. F. Fleet 89 V, Gopal Aiyer 92 V.A. Smith and F.W. Thomas 94 Pandit Bhagawanlal Indraji 96 Kota Venkatachalam - 96 Triveda DS. ~ 96 Chapter 1V Objections to the Sheet Anchor and to the date c. 485 B.C. 98-127 Identity Challenged from its Inception till this Day 98 Kota Challenges Jones’ Knowledge of the Puranas 99Page Section | — Palibothra is not Pataliputra 100-106 Kota Venkatachalam 100 Surname of Palibothras - Kota 101 *Pandit Bhagavaddatta 102 Section Il — Sandrokottas is not Chandragupta Maurya 106-113 Kota Venkatachalam 106 M. Krishnamachariar 109 Section It] — Yavana Kings of the Edicts 113-127 Prof. D.R. Bhandarkar 113 Jyotirmaya Sen 115 Kota Venkatachalam 115 J.B. Bury’s History of Greece 124 Rhys Davids 125 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s History and Culture of tndia Vol. II 125 Triveda D.S. 126 Chapter V Buddha’‘s Date : Indian Genealogies 128-153 Section | — Traditional Chronology 128-145 Inference from the Age of Adi Shankaracharya 132 Inference from the Age of Kumarila Bhatta 134 Nepal Rajavamsavali 135 V. Tiruvenkatacharya — Astronomical Proof 135 A. Somayajulu 137 Swami Sakhyananda 138 Kanishka‘s date in Rajatarangini 139 Kalhana‘s Evidence 141 Manimekhalai 142 Were Buddha and Mahavira Contemporary ? 143 Ikshwaku Dynasty 145 Section Il — Objections to the Tradition 145-153 E.J. Rapson 145 Pargiter F.E. 149 H.C, Raychaudhari 150 Kota Venkatachalam 152XK Page Chapter VI The Buddhist Sanskrit Literature 154-159 Philosophy in Sanskrit, Propaganda in Vernacular 154 Chaitanya Literature 155 Pali not the language of whole India 156 Chinese translations from Faa i.e., Sanskrit 157 Vast Buddhist Sanskrit Literature 157 Sicred languages of Buddnism- More than one 168 Epilogue 161 Appendix 172 Bibliography ,173 Index 177CHAPTER 1 DIFFERENT DATES: INDIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY Buddhism, the religion of the Buddha, has got a sizable ‘umber of followers in the world. They are in majority in many Asian countries. All of them agree about eighty years’ span of his life but they widely differ about his date. Concrete proofs such as inscriptions, coins, buildings, ete., for his date, are not available. He belonged to a distant past, the dates of which period, the world over, are not properly established. Historicity of the Buddha accepted! : The historicity of the Buddha seems to have been accep- ted since long. It is fully evidenced by the epigraphic records dating from the oldest times. In the earliest Indian epigraphic records e.g. Piprava Vase Inscription (JRAS, 1906, p, 180.) and the inscriptions of Asoka, we find nothing regarding the Buddha which may be styled superhuman. The tradition that the Buddha was born in the village of Lumbini is fully confirmed by the famous Rummindei Pillar Inscription in which Asoka states that when he, had been annointed twenty years, he came in person and worshipped the spot, because the Buddha Sakya Muni was born here. He both caused a huge stone wall to be made and a stone pillar to be set up in order to show that the Blessed One was born here. He made the village of Lumbini free from Bali (religious cesses) and Athabhagiva (to contribute only one-eighth share in land revenue). It is on the basis of this epigraph that the site of the Buddha's birth-place has been determined with precision within the borders of Nepal, thirteen miles south-west of Nigliva, where another pillar of Asoka has been discovered. This iden- tification is further supported by Yuan Chang, who refers toa pillar set up by Asoka Raja in the Lumbini garden near the ativer of oil” now known as Teli’s river. 4. An Outline of Early Buddh by Ajay Mitra Shastri, Indologicak Book House, 31/10, Nepali Khapra, Kashi, 1965, pp. 1,3,10.2 a afew waarad aged naegah feagara sat aaarat TA TAIT aleaaTy | The next noteworthy event in the fife of the Buddha, as also in the history of the Buddhist Order, which is referred to in an inscription, was the dedication of the Jetvana monastery for the residence of the monks by Anathapindaka, 9 great banker of Shravasti who had to purchase the garden from prince Jeta for as many gold pieces as would be sufficient to cover the whole ground. ft is recorded in an inscription from Barhut appended to the scene representing the dedication (Barua and Sinha, p. 59; Cunningham, op. cit. pp. 84, 133). That tne clan to which the Buddha belonged was known: by the name Saxya is well testified by his clan-name Sakya- muni (The Sakya sage) found in numerous inscriptions. Different dates of the Buddha. In the beginning of tha nineteenth centyry, Western: Orientalists came across a number of the dates of the Buddha. A. critical notice of the subject by Prof. Wilson appeared in the ‘Oriental Magazine for 1825, which furnishes the following data: for the epoch’. B.C. 1) According to Padmakarpo, a lama of Bhutan, who wrote in the sixteenth century (made known by M. Csomo de Koros) 1858 2) Kathana, the author of Aa/atarangini 1332 3) Abu-Fazi 1366 4) A couplet from Chinese historians 1036. 5) De Guines researches 1027 6) Giorgi, ‘period of Buddha's death) 959 7) Bailly 103% 8) Sir William Jones 1027 8; Historic, Numismati of fats James Prircep, Edtid by Edward Thoma: House, Delvi. 1971, p, 164, and Palesographic: Indological Book.0) Bentley One occasion Another " 10) Jaatriy. trom a Mongol chronology, published by Pallaw 11) "Japanese Encyclopaedia, Birth of Buddha his death 12) Matonan-lin, a Chinese historian of 12th century 13) M. Klaproth 14) M. Remusat dates the death in 108s 1003 982 1022 980 102% 1027 978 16) Ths eras adopted at Lhasa and founded on the average of nine of the dates quoted by Padmakarpo, who himself rejects them These dates given by Wilson are quoted by Princep as. belonging to the elder Buddha and he gives another series a different dates of whom he calls the second Buddha, as follows: 16) Burmese epoch of Gotama’s death, as given by Crawfurd from a native chronological table 17) The Singhalese epoch of Buddha’s death and com- mencement of their ara, on the landing of Vijaya, according to Turnour (Cey/on Almanac for 1834). 18) The Siamese epoch (Oriental Magazine, 1825) The religion of the Buddha was introduced into Siam in 529 B.C. according to Finlayson. 19) The Nirvana of Sakya, according to the Rajaguru of Assam, occurred in the eighteenth year of Ajata- satru, and 196 years before Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander, which may agree thus, 348+ 196=—544 This date may further be reconciled with the other three dates quoted by Wilson in conj inction with them, namely. i) The Singhalese-619, it) The Peguan 638, and iii) The Chinese cited by Klaproth-638. 1. Ibid, p. 164, oat 542 sae 5aB.C. Then there are some more dates given by others. 20) Canton tradition! 485 21) Answer? by Fahien given to the monks of his first resting place after crossing the Indus 1950 22) The Epic Minimekhalai’. 1616 23) +D.S. Triveda*. according to the Puranic genea- logy 1793 28) Kota Venkatachalam® ” 1807 According to Max Muller®, from Tibetan books no less than fourteen dates have been collected (Csoma, Tibetan Grammar, pp.199-201). In this, leaving aside those given above, the remaining dates are as follows ° 2%) 2422 26} 2148 27) 2139 28) 2135 , 28) 1310 30) 1060 33) 884 32; 882 33). 880 34) 837 3) «762 36) 653 37) 576 Thus there are more than 35 dates so far collected by the scholars. May be, there are some more which we have not tome across. 9. "Tha Date of Lord Buddha, 1793 B.C." by Dr. D.S. Triveda; Bharatiya Widya, Bombay; Vol. VIF, p. 221. 2 did p. 226. 3. ibid, p, 233. 4, p. 238, 3 Ag» of Buddh, Milinds & Antiyoka and Yuga-Purana by Kota Venkata. ‘ehalam; Vijayawada, 1953; p. 14, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literatura by MaxMuller; The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Dethi, 1968; p, 232, * . »b ern Scholars Commendable work by Wi Weatern sobolara have donw commondable work in the fold of Oriantal atudian The Royal Asiatic Society was starteé i Caloutta in the your 1784 A.0., to study the history and anti- quitlea, the arts, sciences and literature of Asia. Most of the scholars like Sir William Jones, Pargiter, James Princeg, George Turnour otc., were inthe services of the East India Company which was started for trading with the East. But soon, tha conditions in India at that time created a desire in the minds of these traders to win India and rule it. This desire was whattad owing to their success in the battle of Plassey iz 1787, AD, Though the Britishers were very few in India, they wanted to conquor this country and rule its big population. For thla, thay wore roquirad to work hard. They had to execute the domastic responsibilities too. Apart from the anxieties and the hours of work on duty, they used to wander and study the above mentioned subjects. They used to work for so many man hours evoryday, The hard work put in by James Princep ahortoned his lifs to 39 years. Moreover, their work was systematic and thoy used to put down everything in writing. Thalr papere wore published in the journals of the Royal Asiatic Soolety. Similar inatitutions wore started in Britain aiso. These Journals had choulation throughout tho British Empire. Many wohotars atudiad and discussed thoae papers. Evidences for anc: against the propnaitions were put forth through written articles. The documentary proof of these discussions is available even today and canbe asd for further study. Tho East India Company financed the resvarchara and the journols for fifty years in the beginning. During the (ifty yoors, from 1790 AD. to 1840 AD. 0 very Interesting development took place in the field of Orientat scholarship. In 1793, Sir William Jones declared that he had solved the riddle of ancient Indian chronology by stating that Sandrokottas of Megasthenes, the Greek writer of 4th century B.C, is Chandragupta Maurya of the Indian Puranas. In 1826, Turnour first drew the attention of the scholars to the impor- tance of the Ceylonese Pali chronicles as source books for the6 sigory of Biiddhism. In the years 1837-38, James Princep, Bp comparison of many scattered inscriptions and coins, dis- raxered the key to the long lost alphabet or alphabets in which asoka’s edicts and a quantity of monuments, only less recent, #2 engraved. His articles appeared in the journals of The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Mr. Turnour, no sooner did he see tte proceedings of the society, than he sprang to the conclusion that these are the inscriptions of Asoka of the Mepavamsa, the @eytonese Chronicle. The chronology followed by a majority af the scholars is based on the observations of these three scholars. Sheet Anchor : Tne invasion of Iadia by Alexander of Macedonia lasted fam 327 B.C. upto 323. B,C, According to the Greeks of the ‘ame of Alexander, the name of the king of Prassi in India, gmonated after the invasion, was Sandrokottas. On the basis * gi the identity, proposed by Sir William Jones, of Sandrokottas wf the Greeks with Chandragupta Maurya of the Indian Puranas, the date of his coronation was taken to be c. 320B.C. This was called the sheet anchor of ancient Indian chronology and the chronology of ancient Indian history was prepared with ‘his year as the base year. Asoka of the edicts was the grand- am. of this Chandragupta Maurya and hence his date was q@cided as c. 265 B.C. which got further support when the @eek kings mentioned in Asoka‘s Edict No, XIII were identified mmongst the contemporary Greek kings. In the Ceylonese stronicie Mahavamsa, it is stated that the coronation of Asoka ook place 218 years after the Nirvana of the Buddha. This Meilitated to decide the date of the Buddha‘s Nirvana @se. 483 B.C. whichis given in the Indian educational auriculum and is being taught since the last 100 years and more. Many scholars take this as the decided date. Buddha's date—A corollary of the Sheet Anchor : But this date is a corotlary o' the date c. 320 B.C., the sate of coronation of Chandragupta Maurva which is based on the identity of Greeks’ Sandrokottas with Puranic Chandragupta Waurya. As there is no other proof for the date of coronation of7 “Chandragupta Maurya, those’ scholars who accept this idontity give their differant conjsctured dates for the coronation from 323 B.C. to 310 B.C. and hence their dates of the Buddha vary accordingly, There are other scholars who do not believe this identity and so state their dates of the Buddhabased on different sdurco matoriel. Different dates for the Buddha are current in different countries. It is evident that, inspite of the efforts of tho scholars for the last two centuries, they have not been able to to docide the date of the Buddha. Buddha's date not recorded in the first Buddhist conventions : Some acholars ventured to find out how the various datas evolvud in differant countries. They found that a few of thawa datas aro based on the so-called prophesies of the Buddha #.g. tho Buddha saying that his religion will reach a particular land after o particular number of years after his Nirvana. But different prophesies ara giving different dates and there are other dutes for which no prophesies are known to be there. This means that the missionarios who pioneered the Buddha religion in various countries, did not carry with thema definite known date of the Buddha. It 1s just povsible that the exact date was twwver recorded or if ‘racorded it was not cared for in the next generation when the first Buddhist convention took place after his death. {n that convention, his teachings were compiled and recorded, but not his date. Thera were further conventions and the records were revised and freshly prepared. Those records give the philosophy and the statements of the Buddha as to how his followers should behave. Those do not give his date. Indlan literature does not give Buddha’s date : 's there any date of the Buddha followed unanimously in india, the country of his birth, his motherland? Prolonged efforts of the modern scholars could not find the date of the Buddha in the inscriptions, coins and ancient Indian literature. They were able to find only his name inthe genealogical list of the Sun-clan given in the Indian Puranas. In the list, are “found the names of his father and arand-father also. But their8 reign periods are not mentioned there. The Indian Buddhist literature states the span of his life, but not the date. What is the reason? Can itbe that, for reasons, for which the Buddhism was expelled from India, the Buddhist literature was destroyed and hence the modern scholars could not get a date init ? This isnot possible because a few centuries after the Nirvana, Asoka, the Emperor of India, had become his ardent foNower, himself preached his religion, arranged a convention, prepared literature and sent missionaries abroad. His son was sent to Ceylon but the Ceylonese Buddhist literature does not contain Buddha‘s date. {t also does not give the date of the coronation of Asoka. {t simply states that he was coronated 218 years atter the Nitvana of the Buddha. This isin tune with the ancient Indian practice of history writing. Asoka did everything possible, spent most of his time, energy and money for the propagation of the Buddhist religion but never worried about the date of the Buddna and even his own date. The scholars participating in the first three Buddhist conventions, the third of which took place in the time of the Buddhist emperor Asoka, did not feel the necessity of recording the date of the Buddha, They also followed the ancient Indian method of historiagraphy, wherein the exact dates of the events are attached less importance. Absence of the date did not hinder religious propaganda : When, in India, the original compilers of the Buddhist teligious literature did not feel the necessity to record ths date of the Buddha, how could the missionaries who went abroad to propagate his faith, have the knowledge of his date? They did not know the date exactly and when asked in those countries about his date, they might have told what they felt the date to be. Different missionaries gave the different dates. This only cen be the reason for so many dates of the Buddha in different places. Moreover, the ignorance about this date did not come in their way of propagating the religion. They could win coun- tries after countries to theic faith. India’s aim in history writing ; culturing the mind ;a fodlu’a cla tn hi tory writing? euttucing tho mind j The Eplos the Ramayaia and tha Mahabarata and the Puranad, ara the history hooky af the Hindus. The Mahabharata wan oumpowed by Vyasa just after the Mahabharata War was over, There ate n hundrud thousand verses in it, but nowhere gia finda the date of the War. Dates are absent also in the taatot the anctent Indian historic literature because the dates of the events hadno place in the (dian method of historiography. But this history, without the dates of the events, had a vary Important place in Hindu ethics. lt was composed with 2 definite object, Ancient Hindu Rishi-Munis wanted the history booka to impress the minds of the individuals in such a way as thay would davalop a balanced approach and achieve the four Puruaharthas Dharmo, Arths, Kama and Moksha in their life-time. aahderrageiar orga tare a feaT gaya seres elaalae Tata 1 Their deep and long experience had convinced them that the behaviour of individuals of such a balanced mental frame in ociaty crantas progparity, happiness and longevity in it. The agers bad @ conviction that the dates of the events and even the names of tha authacs were not nocesaary to mould the minds of the Individuals au wore the anacdotes of history and the morals declvad from tham, That is why one finds a number of side- atorlas introduced in the main story of tho Bharata War. tt is nota defect, but an useful choractoristic of the epic. That is the Indian way of hintary writing which had a groat value for the society. Alm fulfitied : Vt is ganoraity agraed by the modern scholars that the pre- sently available rocenstona of the Epics and the Puranas were compiled around the beginning of the Christian era. Though two thousand years have passed since thea and though there has been a vast change in tha circumstances, those recensions are stil} found to be very useful and effective in cultivating the mental set-up of the Hindus. Mahatma Gandhi had the Rama- rojya a his ideal. Today, during the 38 years of Indian inde- pendence, the Indian mind is found favouring the democratic10 set-up in this part of the motherland while military regimes flourish in those parts of former India which were separated from Mother India not only physically, but culturally also. When one sees the influence these epics have over the minds of the Indians even to this day, one can safely assert that the ancient sages did achieve their objective. India developed not only writers but reciters also : The ancient Hindu seers were not satistied with mere compiling of the history books. They wanted the written matter to reach each and every person, literate or illiterate, and produce the desired effect in him, Reciters or Sutas were intended for the task. india is a vast country having a large population, speaking a number of languages and so the number of reciters Tequired, also wes very large. Moreover, these reciters would be required to narrate the history time and again every year and like “this for thousands of years. Hence generations and generations of Sutas were trained to narrate skifully and effectively in various languages of this vast country. Like the Vyasas, meaning by the word the compilers or arrangers of history, these Sutas considered it their sacred duty and life-mission, to be wandering minstrels all their life whatever be the odds they were required to face. When one sees that generation after generation of Vyasas and Sutas were continually brought up in this country for thousands of years, one can easily understand the impor- tance attached by the seers to the art of writing and reciting history. History writing in India was an organised effort : The longevity of the Hindu society is a result of the ceaseless and consolidated efforts of Hindu Rishis and Munis, who were scholars, well versed in their sciences and arts, every Ounce of whose energy was spent for the well being of the mankind and who were honoured by the rulers and the ruled both, not only of the Hindus but by all those who came in contact with them. Such Hindu Rishis and Munis had the practice of conferring together from time to time, to Prepare the guide-lines for the behaviour of each individual and society as a whole and1 these were callad Smritis. They also used to compile historic literature in order to create the required mental outlook in every individual. The Naimisharanya conference of such scholars is said to have continued for twelve years. The history books of the Hindus were prepared by the collective efforts of a number “of such scholars spread over many years. Whatever may be the reasons for the absence of the dates in ancient Indian history, the scholars who wanted to decide the date of the Buddha have not so far been able to find his date therein, Because of their approach towards history, Indians in the past do not seem to have applied their energies in this direction. The efforts to decide Buddha's date were started by the Western Indologists. Now many others are in the field and whatever is done in the past two centuries is recorded. An attempt has been made in this book to Present a pictute of this question on the basis of these records.CHAPTER Il SOURCE MATERIAL No Concrete Proofs : When the concrete written proof in the contemporary Indian literature could not be available the scholars have tried to decide the date of the Buddha on the basis of the references given in the Indian and foreign literature. Western Indologists. ihe pioneers in the field, wanted to decide the chronology of ancient Indian history. The date of the Buddha was one amongst the dates of many other events required for chronology. In their efforts, they first decided the date of the coronation of Chandragupta Maurya, the Magadha emperor, with his capital at Pataliputra, in Bihar and called it the sheet anchor of indian history. Further, they arrived at the date of the Buddha on the basis of this date of Chandragupta Maurya. There is no concrete: Proof to decide the date of this Chandragupta. The famous historian V A. Smith! says : “Unfortunately no monuments have been discovered whicte can be referred to with certainty to the period of Chandra gupta Maurya.” The decision of the sheet anchor is based, not on the concrete proofs but on the conjectures of some scholars and has been opposed since its inception. In order to understand the- history of the efforts done to arrive at the date of the Buddha, one has to study asto howthe sheet anchor was decided. Accordingly, in this chapter, while giving the source materiat used by different scholars to arrive at their date of the Buddha, it is felt necessary that the source material used to arrive at the decision of the sheet anchor should also be included. Section |—Greek Classical Accounts The Greek writers of the time of Alexander have given the name of the Indian emperor, coronated after Alexander's invasion as Sandrokottas. The writings of these writers are: 1. Early History of India, Part | by V-A, Smith; p. 142.13 called Greek Classical Accounts. These include the writings ‘of tha Greeks and the Romans of the times previous to Alexander and upto about five centuries later. Skylax, Milletus, Hecha- tius, Herodottus and Ktesius' are among those whose writings go prior to Alexander. No one among them ever visited #ndia and the authority of their accounts is net known. None of their original books are available. Nearchus, Onesicritos, Aristobulus, Kalisthenes? and others are contemporary to Alexander and are said to have written their memoirs relating vo India. But all these works are lost. Subsequent to these writers were Deimachos, Patrocles and Megasthenes’. ‘Megasthenes is said to have been sent to Sandrokottas as an ambassador. He had written a book called ‘/ndika’ about India and the Indian society. It was not available after a period of ‘wo or three centuries to Strabo and Arrian and what we have at presont ore mere quotations from it, Later writers mentioned in the Groek Accounts were Strabo‘ and Diodorus® of the 1st century B.C., Pliny® and Plutarch’ of the 1st century A.D., Arrian® and Ptolemi® of the 2nd century A.D. and ‘Philostratus'’ of the 3rd century A.D. No complete works of any of the previous writers were available to any of these later writers and they derived their information from the fragments ‘of the works which were available to them. ‘Fragments put in order by Schwanbeck: Thus, the residual papers of the lost books and whatever was left in the public memory in about five centuries after Alexander, form the crux of the Classical Accounts, which were tackled for the first time in the recent history by Schwanbeck after more than seventeen centuries. With great industry and learning, this German scholar put the available fragments in order in his book ‘Indika* published in 1846 A.D. Afterwards, based Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian by J. WW. Mac- _, Crindle, Calcutta, 1826, pp. 3,4, 2. ibid, p.6. 3. ibid, pp. 5, 6. 4. Classical Accounts of India by R. C. Mujumdar, 1960, p 93, *®. ibid, p. 162. 6. ibid, p. 337. 7. ibid, p. 194. 8 ibid, p. 8. 9. Ibid, p. 361, 10. ibid, p. 383,14 on this book, MacCrindle wrote his books, “Ancient India as: describ2d by Megasthenes and Arrian’ in 1877 A.D. and ‘The: Invansion of India by Alexander the Great’ in 1893 A.D. Recen tly Dr. Mujumdar, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of History in Dacca University, published his book ‘Classical Accounts of India’ in 1960 A.D. “ Opinions about the Classical Accounts : What do the classical writers themselves say about these. accounts’ ? According to Schwanbeck, the encient writers. are wont to reckon Megasthenes amongst those who are given to lying end least worthy of credit. Strabo, unequivo- cally stated, “Generally speaking men who have hitherto written on the affairs of India were a set of liars." Impressions. of Schwanbeck are recorded by MacCrindle? that Megas- thenes exercised a powerful influence on the whole sphere of Latin and Greek scientific knowledge. Dr. R.C. Mujumdar? an authority on ancient india, records his experienced judgement thus : “A perusal of the different accounts which have: reached: us, raises great doubts whether they are all derived from common reliable source. When the study of Indology was in its infancy. one could not be expected to be very critical of the sources of the first rate importance, then available to him. Schwanbeck’s reconstruction of. Megasthenes's ‘/ndika’ was, therefore, accepted with- out criticism, and this mental attitude, by sheer inertia, has persisted amongst the students of ancient Indian history even today. But the progress of Indological studies has rendered it necessary to subject many of the old. accepted notions to a searching criticism and among. these should be included the genuineness of the ‘/ndika’ of Magasthenes, On the whole, time has come now, when we should make a reassessment.” 1. MacCrindle op, cit. pp. 7-9. 2. ibid, pp. 26, 27. e 3. op, cit pp. XX-XXII15 ' Thus, we know the impressions of the Greek and Roman (writers contemporary to Alexander, then, the impressions of ‘Schwanbeck in the nineteenth century when the Western Indologists were very hungry for some concrete proofs at the beginning of their Indological studies and lastly of the great historian Dr. R.C. Mujumdar, in the latter half of the twentieth century, when the Indological studies were more than 200 years old and much research was done in many fields. It is from such Classical Accounts of the Greeks that Sir William Jones took the reference of the Indian king Sandrokottas of Palibothra. Relevant Portions : The following portions from the accounts are used by the scholars. (1) Alexander obtained from Phegus a description of the country beyond the Indus, First came a desert w! h it would take twelve days to transverse; beyond this was ariver called Ganges which had a width of 32 stadia and greater depth than any other Indian river; beyond this again. were situated the dominions of the nations of Praisioi and Gangaridai, whose king Xandrammes had an army of 20,000 horses, 2,00,000 infantry, 2000 chariots and 4000 ¢lephants trained and equipped for war, (2) In another place, the name of Xandrammes is given as Agrammes?. (3) Palibothra was situated where the streams of Eran- noboas and the Ganges unite. (4) The situation of Palibothra is given as 425 miles from the confluence of Jomanes and Ganges and 738 miles from the mouth of the Ganges where it meets the seat. (5) The people in whose country this city—Palibothra is situated, is the most distinguished in all India and is called 14, °R. C, Mujumdar, op, cit. p:172. 3. ‘ibid, p. 128. 2, MacCrindle op. cit. pp. 209, 210. 4. ibid, p. 130.16 Pragsi. The king in addition to his family name must adopt the surname Palibothras, as Sandrokottas for instance did, to whom Megasthenes was sent as an embassy*. (6) About Sandrokottas, it is said that he was the greatest among the Indian kings and he was the king of Prassi whose capital was Palibothra®. (7) Sandrokottas killed the previous king and became king himself®. {8) With the help of a big army, Sandrokottas had con- quered the whole of India‘. (9) Megasthenes and Deimachos were sent by Seleu- kas Nikator on an embassy, the former to king Sandrokottas— also referred to as Androkottas— at Palibothra and the other to his son Amitrochades also referred to as Sandrocyptus®. (10) Seleukas Nikator had given his daughter in marriage $0 Sandrokottas®. . (11) He (Heracles) was the founder also of no small number of cities, the most renowned and greatest of which was Palibothra’. (12) But the Prassi surpasses in power ...... their capital being Palibothra, a very large and wealthy city, after which some call the people itself Patibothri ...... nay even the whole tract along the Ganges*. (13) The river Jomanes flows through the Palibothri into the Ganges between the towns Methara and Carisoboras * > ibid. p. 66. ibid, pp. 4, 12. Eerly History of india by V. A. Smith, Oxtord, 1924, p. 124, . MacCrindle ap. cit. p. & ibid, p. 7. arsha ke Grihat (ti Part | by Pondit Bhagawaddetta, p.290. . ibid, p, 290, ibid, p. 290. SPNerren17 Section I! — lodian Genealogies india Rich in Genealogies : Indian nation can. be taken as the richest in the world regarding the available genealogical lists. It never believed in one%tate and one religion for whole of the land, since the beginning of its life as anation. From the hoary past till the present times, Indian society is controlled and guided, not.by the state but by the eternal laws called Dharma... One finds, all the time, innumerable states spread throughout the length and breadth of this land, .which preferred and liked to be controlled and guided by those eternal laws: Few.of these states, like Lichchavis, Yodheyas, etc., used to have a democratic set-up but all the rest i.e., most of the Indian states were ruled by kings, cand used to maintain their genealogical lists. Many.of these jists used to be intact and up-to-date because it. was regarded as the duty of the kings and administrators to hear or read the history everyday for some time. ' : “ Indian nation also believed that there aré a number of paths, and each of these is self-sufficient, for an individual to achieve salvation or Moksha. This belief has givenrise to anum- “ber of religions or sects, and all of those are guided by the -eternal laws. The lists of the succession of the heads of these different sects are maintained, e.g. in the five Peethas establish- ed by Adi Shankaracharya, one gets the lists of the successive “Shankaracharyas of those Peethas, along with the working period of each Shankaracharya. “ ‘Puranic Genealogy + A number of genealogies of different kingdoms: in India, are available inthe Puranas. Some of those begin at least a hundred generations prior to the Mahabharata War. The’ informa- tion from the ancient days upto the: Mahabharata. War is not “required for the date of the Buddha, Chandragupta Maurya or Chandragupta Gupta but that after the War,.is very useful. The genealogical tists of the Suryavamsha or Ikshwaku dynasty of Ayodhya and Chandravamsha of Hastinapur,are available for 1504 years ‘fram:.the.;Mahabharata War. .Accarding, to, the epic18 Mahabharata, Sri Krishna expired 36 years after the War! and the Bhagavata Purana states that Kaliyuga started on the day on which Sri Krishna left this world?. About the counting of Kaliyuga, all Hindu almanacs throughout India are unanimous and State that the running year of the Kaliyuga is 5088 in January, 1987. There is no difference of opinion about this. The names Shuddhodana, the father of Gotam Buddha, and Buddha himself are found in the thirty names of the kings of Ikshwaku dynasty who reigned after the Mahabharata War. The reign periods of the Ikshwaku kings ste not given in the Puranas. Individual feign periods of otily the Magadha kings are avaitabte there. HM. Wilson:s Opinion : : There are eighteen main Puranas, out of whidh Vishnu, Vayu, Bhavishya, Matsya and Bhagavata, give thess ganeatoyies. ‘in greater detail. The Bolen Professor HH. Wilson states : “After the date of the Great War (Mahabhgrata War), the Vishnu Purana, in common with other Puranas, which Contain similar lists, soecifies kings and dynasties With greater precision and offers chronological particulars to which, on the score of probability there ‘is nothing to object. {ntruth, their general accuracy has been incontro- vertibiv established. Inscriptions on columns of stories or rocks or coins, deciphered only of late years, thréugh the extracrdinary ingenuity and perseveranta of Mr. James Princep, have verified the names of the races ahd'the titles of princes, the Gupta and the Andhra rajas. in the Puranas.” Kaliyugaraja Vrittanta‘ : Though there is accuracy m some fespects in the Puranas, still one tinds different versions in the different Puranas regarding Mausel Parvan, 16-3-18, (2. Bhagewata Purana, 13-2-33. “S$. Vidi Purana by'H. H. Wiisen, p. tx. H. The Plot in Inaten ‘Thronttogy by kote Verkatedhalam, Vijapewsds, 1983, p. 38.19 the succession of the kings and their reign periods. In some places a single king is stated to have reigned for thousands of years. Because there are some accurate statements and also difference in the versions in the Puranas, an attempt was made centuries back. inthe form of the ‘Kaliyugaraja Vrittanta’ to study criti- cally the accounts of the dynasties of Kali era given in the Purartas, to detect and amend the errors due to ignorant seri bes, misreadings and misinterpretations and to evolve an authoritative and valid account of the dynasties and the kings, based on the maximum agreement amorgst the varying texts of the different Puranas. \n this Sanskrit treatise, a connected and consistent account of the history of India down to the eighth century A. D. has been given in detail based on the genealogical lists of the Puranas and in agreement with the references in themto the movement of the Great Bear (Saptarshi Mandala). Totalling the reign periods of the successive kings of each dynesty of Magadha, the reign periods of the successive Magadha dynasties. given in the Kaliyugaraja Vrittanta ig as follows : Magadha dynasties, Barhadratha Dynasty 14006 years. Pradyota ” 138, Shishunaga 360 ,, Nanda . 100 ., Maurya ” 316, Shunga - 300 Kanva ” 85 Andhra ” 506, Gupta ” 245 The descendants of the Gupta emperors survive as rulers. of small territories paying homage to Imperial Ujjain (Panwar Emperors) till A.D. 762 and then the Magadha Kingdom will pass into the hands of the Pala Kings according to the Kaliyuga- raja Vrittanta. Verses referring to the Great Bear (Saptarshi mandala): This treatise (K.R V.), moreover, reconciles these dates with the movements of the Great Bear. {t has been accepted as20 authority andused as the basis of “Age of Shankara’ by Sri T.S. Narayana Sastri, of “The Age of the ‘‘Mahabarata. War" by Sri Nadimpalli Jagannatha Rao and of “The History of Classical Sanskrit Literature’ by Dr. M. Krishnamacharyulu. Some verses referring to the Great Bear in K.A.V. are as. follows : " areal maga: Bre qfafest ae | aan & afacater wre veer qIe: I Meaning: In the time of Yudhishthira. the Great Bear was in Magha for a hundred years. By the time of Nanda (Mahapadma) it will be in Shravana. Explanation: Shravana is the 15thstar in the reverse direction (the direction of the retrograde movement of the Great Bear) from Magha. So the interval between the times of- . Yudhishthira and Nanda (Mahapadma) is 1500 years. This is the period specified in the Puranas. safaasa tart afasata ad aan: | APAUSATEARMATAT FUT: | Meaning : By.the time of the beginning of the rule of the Andhras (royal dynasty of Magadha) the Great Bear will. reach the 24th star century from Magha and remain therein for ahundred years. This statement is also found in all the Puranas. naraifadany arasaer Tafita: | ana aged J ta Sar aay II Meaning: It should be known that from the birth of Parikshita to the coronation of Mahapadma Nanda (the time: elapsed) is 1500 years. Comment: This statement is also found in all the Puranas and there is nothing in this verse which can be: attributed to any conjacture or inference on the part of the author.21 AP AUSA THAT ATAAETIPTTAT weat TVBATASAY THT: TAT: TAAT: AL Meaning: Those who know (authoritative elders), say that, the interval between the coronation of (Mahapadma) Nanda to the commencement of the Andhra Empire (Imperial dynasty of Magadha) is 800 years. Comment: This statement is also found in all the Puranas. But the figure in the Puranas is 836 while the author of this treatise (K R.V.) gives the figure as 800. Further, he tacks on the remaining 36 years to the period of duration of Andhra dynasty so that instead of 460 years mentioned in all the Puranas for it, we have to assign 496 years for it. But in view of the need to bring the account into conformity with the reference to the movement of the Great Sear, he adds another ten vears and assigns 506 years to the Andhra imperial dynasty of Magadha. As the beginning of the rule of the Andhra kings is ‘stated to commence in the baginning ot the 24th century after the Mahabharata War, i.e., after 2301 years, he deducts 36 years from the total 2336 years of the figures 1500 and 836 years given in the Puranas for the two parts of the period and adds the same together with 10 years to the time of duration of the Andhra dynasty and assigns to it the figure 506. Bal grade, meat F WATT Fa: aan aaaararat Use cat afasy'a 1 Meaning: By the time of the Great Bear reaches Punar- vasu again (in the next cycle) the empire will pass from the: Imperial Gupta dynasty to others. Comment: Punarvasu will be the fifteenth star from Shravana in the reverse direction of the Great Bear. From Magha, Punarvasu, in the second cycle, is the 31st star and the end of the Gupta dynasty according to the Puranic account is. 3056 years after the Mahabharata War i.e., Kali 3020. B.C. 82.22 qatar sat & J stealer gatzar: | qceat wag Use gar qe afasafs 11 Meaning : Again when the Great Bear enters Purvabha- ‘dra, the kingdom of the Guptas (part of Magadha) passes on to the Pala kings. Comment: Purvabhadra is the 40th ster from Magha (continuing the count into the 2nd cycle in retrograde direction). So the end of the Gupta dynasty of Magadha is assigned to 3900 years after the Mahabharata War, i.e., A.D. 763 (3900- 3137). The historians of Bengal have recorded that Gopala + of Pala kings ruled in Vanga from 3864 to 3909 Kali (762 to 807 ‘A. D.), Eleven kings ruled in Ujjain after King Bhoja and during the last years of the second of them, 733 to 763 A. D. Magadha ‘was conquered by Pala Kings in 762 A. D. Rajatarangini of Kalhana: Rejatarangini is the history of Kashmir Written by XKalhana in 1178 A.D. In the verse 1.52 he says : Mearic® agian ceases asa ! warcaivafes ore age ofeacatr: |} In the Secular Era or Loukikabda 24 years (i.e. 4224 th year Of Loukikabda) will be equal to 1070 Shalivahana Era i. e. 1148 A.D Kalhana remedied the errors and rewrote : qaag waraeg war wat frageate | wiormaae dyey Afaad sat Tn ase ged aNd aqear cHadtayi | aafanreaaaiat aerate gia nen aed feafed cemafenrqartaci® | warart vafes aaara wT: lon23 When | sey that | am writing the history written by my ancients, the readers should not disregard my work, without comprehending my motive expressed herein(1.8). The Pandits living in those times, wrote the lives of their contemporary monarchs, on the basis of first-hand knowledge, having practically seen and personally known, they wrote them in separate volumes and made their exit from this world. But later chroniclers compiled them and in doing so added some information which they gathered from hearsay and informa" taiks(1.9). In doing so, there is no dexterity nor intellect. Therefore... in writing this ancient history, my main purpose is to remedy such errore end correct those contradicticns with the help of old’ records, gift-deeds and inscriptions that are at my disposal. (1.10), Tha author says that he writes the history written by his. predecessors. So the events mentioned in Rajatarangin have an authenticity based on the records of the ancients who were alive at ths time of the respective monarchs and they are not the Idl> fanoy of Kalhana. Assuch in.this boo’ sre not visi- tte, the safe shelters of the modern writers of histary, namely the stock’ phrases like, It is possible, it is probable, it may be taken as grarted, or we Mey guess or'cbnjeéture or surmise and so on. He did not trangress the limits of information, foynd in the writings of his predecessors, nor did harejact those inci- dents on the store of myth and fiction. In case there are any doubts he took great pains to verify and clear the information from other sources, like the records of the eleven ancient chroniclers, and one of Nilamuni dnd the grants and inscriptions Of the old kings. In this way, Kathana sifted the evidence available at his: disposal, with great care, caution and patience and arrived at cortécr historical material for his Aajatarangiri. Further, Kalhana mentions, Suvrata dbridged and conden- se@ the datalted ancient histories for easy refarénee and wrote ahistory, namely, The language being concise: and difficult, this book was nof within the cdhiprétertstot of the.24 readers. Another scholar, Kshemendra wrote a history, “Nripavah"’; though this is free from language faults, it does Not give us correct cli histories and as such it cannot be accep- ted as accurate history, Moreover, Kalhana expresses as follows: aM at GaghaeaTa Rar: | AA HRN aa MBA || RT. 1.14 aed84 Gaaraisiacsigmaa: | saleagg: amegaa UNGISIT Wqaay: WR. 7. 1.15 My doubts and suspicions were set at rest, when I perused the records of Eleven chroniciers and the Purana (history) of Nilamuni : the edicts and the inscriptions. of. : the » ancient monarchs together with their recorded Praises and eulogies and other Shastras (Sciences) helped a great.deal.in clearing my doubts. ” Smith‘s opinion about Rajatarangini : > Mr,;V. A. Smith! has the following to say on Kalhana’s work. “The Sanskrit book which comes nearest to the European notion of a regular history is the Ra/atarangini of Kalhana, @ metrical chronicle of Kashmir, written in the twelfth century by the son of a minister of the Raja." ‘Relevant verses from Rajatarangini: The following verses are relevant for our purpose : aasmareaarmagearafaantaa: | gmgersfrenteneraetta wear: | At. 1.168 a fagreea faraiat teat gengzem a: | waeaifageeatt eel: afaatag: 1 R.T. 1.169 vs @ qearangaar aft qeaeqar aq: | wenorifs tatq wademiz aft ttt 70 “0 by VA. Smith, It Edition, 18:25 Sst UsTae Fat sry: HeeleVsTA | asaara ta dtarat sasafsadaara yy rR 7. 1.171 . mar Tage: aaafages TheAae : | aferadl Sarat ad seat TT MR. T. 1.172 alfaacaea aaisfenaal qHRAUSAaT | aa ararsa: aay Tse eae TM |] R. T. 1.173 Rajatarangini Vol. ll, taranga 8, verse 6 reads ga aatsa genraregeenifaat gat: | The above verses give us the following information: The three kings, namely Hushka, Jushka and Kanishka:ruled:Kashmir. They have got three cities built under their names respectively. In Jushkapura, Jushka had a vihara erected and had Jayasvamipura built. Though they were born in Turushka family,)jthey were kings of a benevolent nature. So they,have mitts built for the benefit of the monks who observed Vedic duties religious rites, and constructed chaityas for the use ‘of Buddhist recluses and Bhikkus In Sushkaletra and other places. During the period of their reigns Buddhists flourished in the kingdom of Kashmir (168 to 171 Shlokas). At the time of their rule in Kashmir, a person by name ‘Lokadhatu Buddha’ was propagating his religion and 150 years elapesd trom the expiry of Buddha, otherwise called ‘Shakya Simha,’ (172) ae whe A Kahatriya king Bodhisatva term:d Nagarjuna came.to Kashmir and resided for six days in the forest.(1.173). Tha trond of th: above shlokas reveals that Hushka, Jush- ka and Kanishka lived at the same time. The : sixth Shloka, n 8th Toranga of Vol. II, clearly declares that the three’ Kings born in Turushka family by:name Hushka, Jushka-ard’ KarheRka*rei gned co:evelly or'at the sams period. Hsnce we’ mast: cons cthat tha thre were contemporaries.26 The following verses are also discussed by scholars. are arverasaardata famfgar: | Salat ae Tat Hredeat TaPRT 1 R.T. 49 senfaradeqat ania aera qaqa | . PATHTSBS : to aTeas afzafsaara | RT. 50 arg sy aay outta qe 1 womag avinaray Feqesar : | R.T.51 The ignorant say that the Bharata War took place at the end of Dvaparayuga, but some speak that this is false. So | fix the date (49). If the periods of the several kings of Kashmir are summed up and the total is deducted from the Kaliyuga calcula- tion, we arrive at the age of Bharata Kings, without remainder (50). Kuru Pandavas ruled after 653 years lapsed in Kali Era (51). And the following verses also. ATT Ha TaaTezaheg Prafrafnsg |? aeart afetrmtta asa facia: 11 R.T.55 (ueraaaT — afeaart: at asa? ea: ga aT fasiz: ) araRAN, TAI: Tals edt qfafest aaa 1 vefentafega : apareaea UTE oR. T. 56 One hundred years is the period of passage of the Saptar- shi Mandala from one ster to another. Its movement was decide by the Samhitakaras as following, and | take it as my authority here (1.55). When the circle of the Seven sages resided in the century of Magha asterism, Yudhishthira or Dharmarja, the eldest son of the Pandavas was the ruling sovereign. If we add 2526 years tothe Saka Kala prevalent. we get the commencement of that monarch’s time (Swargarohana), ie., of Yudhichthira Kala Era or Saptarshi Era or Loukikabda (1.56). Kalhana has not only detected and corrected the errors in @ number of history books about Kashmir which were available to27 him at his time also had tested the veracity of the facts with the help of inscriptions, coins and else included those in his Raja- tarangini. While the author of Kaliyugaraja Vrittanta had only detected and corrected the information available in the Puranas. Other Genealogies : Longer than the genealogy of Kashmiris the available genealogy of Nepal. According to Kota Venkatachalam, the first known king of Gopal dynasty of Nepal was Bhuktamanatha Gupta who reigned in Nepal from 4159 B.C. to 4071 B.C. Kota has given a continuous chronology of Nepal since then upto 1768 A.D.t Then there is Trigarta Rajavamshavali. General Cunning- ham could get at the dynastic list of the Trigarta Royal dynasty (Vide p. 150, 1872-73 of the Archaeological Report published by Cunningham in 1875). The list was published in the District Gazetteers of the Kangadaand Jullandhar districts. in 1919 A.D., another such list was discovered in the village of Jwalamukhi by Sri Bhagavaddatta, author of the treatise ‘Vedika Vangmaya ka Itihasa’ and the president of the ‘Vaidika Anusondhana Samstha.’ Along with the dynastic list, he was able to procure another important document. According to that, the first king of this list was Bhumichandra and the list is conti- nuous from him to Meghachandra, the 451st king of the list. With « little break, the list continues up to 464th king Harishchandra, 468th kings, in the list is Ramachandra who had doteatad Sikandar Lodi of Dolhi many times but had fought along with hia aon Ibrahim Lodi against the Mogul Babar in the battle ‘of Panipat in 1626 AD4 The Nepal and Trigurta genealogies have not proved, so far to be useful to decide the date of the Buddha but these and similar other lists of ancient kings may, in future, prove useful when the contemporaneity of some of the kings of the different states comes to light 1, Chronology of Nepal History Reconstructed by Kota Venkstechalcm, Vijayawada, 1963, p. 76. 2. Chronology of Ancient Hindu History Part It by Kota Venkatachalam, Vij yawada, 1957, p. 190.28 Lists of the Peethadhipatis of Shankara Peethas : Jyotirmatha at Badri! The list is available from 1500 A.D. Name Duration A.D. 1. Bal Krishna 57 1500-1557. 2. Haribrahma 1 1557-1558. 3. Harismarna 8 1558-1566. 4, Vrindabana 2 1566-1568, 5. Anantanarayana 1 1568-1569. 6. Bhavananda 14 1569-1583. 7. Krishnanda 10 1583-1593. 8. Harinarayana 8 1593-1601. 9. Brahmananda 20 1601-1621. 10. Devanada 15 1621-1636. 11, Raghunatha 25 1636-1661. 12. Purnadeva 26 1661-1687. 13. Krishnadeva 9 1687.1696. 14, Shivananda 7 1696-1703. 15. Balakrishna 14 1793-1717. 16. Narayana Upendra 33 1717-1750. 17. Harishchandra 13 1750-1763. 18. Sadananda 10 1763-1773. 19. Keshava 8 1773-1781. 20. Narayanatirtha 42 1781-1823. 21. Ramakrishna 10 1823-1833 Sharada Peetha at Dwaraka?. 8 Cc. 1, Brahmaswarupa 42 491- 449. 2. Chitsukhacharya 24 449- 425, 3. Sarvajnyana 59 425- 366. 4, Brahmanandatirtha 49 366- 317. 5. Swarupabhijnana 67 317- 250. 6. Mangalmurti 52 250- 198, 7. Bhaskara 23 198- 175. = 1, The Age of Shankara by Udayavir Shastri, Sanyasashrama, Gaziahad, 1981, pp. 44, 46, 2. ibid, pp. 33-35,29 Namo Duration Prajnana - 43 Brahmajyotsna 32 Anandavirbhava 52 , Kalanidhitirtha 73 Chidvilasa 37 Vibhutyananda 35 Sphurtinilayapada 49 Varatantupada 56 Yogarudha 101 Vijayadindima 34 Vidyatirtha 43 Chichhaktidaishika 46 Vijnyaneshwaratirtha 28 Ritambara 61 Amareshwarguru 36 Sarvatomukhatirtha 61 Anandaishika 52 Samadhirasika 78 Narainashrama 37 Baikunthashrama 49 Vikramashrama 26 Nrisinhashrama 49 Tryambakashrama 5 Vishnavashrama 36 Keshavashrama 59 Chidamberashrama 23 Padmanabhashrama 26 Mahadevashrama 71 Sachhidanandashrama 23 Vidyashankarashrama 58 Abhinavachhidanandashrama 28 Shashishekharashrama 33 Vasudevashrama 36 Purushottamashrama 32 Janardanashrama 14 Hariharashrama 3 B.C, 175. 132. 133- 100. 100. 48. 48- 26. 25- 62. 62- 97. 97- 146. 146- 202. 202- 303. 303- 337. 337- 380. 380- 426. 424- 454. 454-515. 515- 551. 551-612. 612- 664. 664- 742. 742- 779. 776- 828. 828- 854. 854- 903. 903- 908. 908- 994. 994-1003. 1003-1026. 1052-1052. 1042-1127. 1127-1150. 1180-1208. 1208-1236. 1236-1269. 1269-1305. 1305-1337. 1337-1351. 1351-1354.Name Bhavashrama Brahmashrama Vamanashrama Sarajnashrama Pradyumnashrema Govindashrama Chidashrama Vishveshwarashrama Damodarashiama Mahadevashrama Aniruddhashrama Achyutashrama Madhavashrema Anantashrama Vishvarupashrama Chidghanashrama Nrisimhashiama Manoharashrama 30 Duration 10 16 17 36 6 28 53 32 7 1 9 4 36 51 5 5 9 Prakashananda Sarawati 34 Vishuddhashrama Vamanendrashrama Keshavashrama Madhusudanashrama Hayagrivashrama Prakashashrama Hayagrivananda Saraswati 11 Shridharashrama Damodarashrama Keshavashrema Rajeshwara Shankarashr Madhavatirtha Shantyanarda Saraswati Chandrashekhasashrama ama 28 18 10 20 Abninavasachhidanandatirtha Present Acharya A.D. 1354-1364. 1364-1379, 1379-1396, 1396-1432, 1432-1438. 1438-1466, 1466-1519. 1519-1551. 1551-1558. 1558-1559. 1559-1568. 1668-1572. 1572-1608. 1608-1659. 1659-1664. 1664-1669. 1669-1678. 4678-1704. 1704-1738. 1738-1742. 1742-1774 41774-1781. 4781-1791. 1791-1805. 1805-1806. 1806-1817. 1817-1857. 1857-1871. 1871-1878. 1878-1908. 1900-1915. 1915-1925. 1925-1945. 1945,Kanchi Kamakothi Peatha'. Name Shankaracharya Sureshwaracharya Sarvajnatmana Satyahbodha Jnananda Shuddhananda Ananjnana Nogaons 8. Kaivalyananda 9. Kripashankara 10. Sureshwara 11. Chidghana 12. Chandrashekhera 13. Sachhidghana 14. Vidyaghana 15. Gangadhara 16. Ujjwaleshwara 17. Sadashive 18. Surendra 19. Vidyaghana 20. Mukshankara 21. Chandrachuda 22. Paripurnabodha 23. Sachchitsukha 24, Chitsukha 26. Sachchidanandaghana 26. Pajnaghana 27. Chiivilasa 28. Mahadeva 29. Purnabodha 30. Bodha 31. Brahmanandaghana 32. Chidanandaghana 33. Sachchidananda 1.” ibid, pp. 38-40 31 Duration B.C. 482.476. 476-406, 406-364. 364-268. 268-205. 205-124. 124. 55. A.D. 65- 28. 28- 69. 69-127. 127-172. 172-235. 235-272. 272-317. 317-329, 329-367. 367-375. 375-385. 385-398. 398-437,, 437-447, 447-481, 481-512. 512-527. 527-548. 548-564, 564-577. 577-601. 601-618. 618-655. 655-668, 668-672. 672-692.32 Name Chandrashekhara Chitsukha Chitsukhananda Vidyaghana Abhinavashanker 3 Sachchidvilasa Mahadeva Gangadhara Brahmanandaghana Anandaghana Purnabodha Paramashiva Bodha Chandrashekhara Advaitanandabodha Mahadeva Chandrachuda Vidyatirtha Shankarananda Purnananda Sadashiva Mahadeva Chandrachuda Sarvejia Sadashivabodha Paramashiva Atmabodha Bodha Adwayatmaprakasha Mahadeva Chandrashekhara Mahadeva Chandrashexhara Mahadeva Chandrashekhara Mahadeva Duration 18 27 21 30 52 33 42 35. 28 36 26 21 37 68 34 47 50 88 32 8) 9 17 16 47 52 54 412 42 37 34 37 40 V7 7 days A.D. 692-710. 710-737 737-768, 758-788. 788-840, 840-873. 873-915. 915-950. 950-978. 978-1014. 1014-1040, 1040-1061, 1061 1098, 1098-1166. 1166-1200. ,1 200-4247. 1247-1237. 1297-1385. 1385-1417, 1417-1498. 1498 1507. 1507-1524. 4524-1539. 1539-1586. 1586-1638. 1638-1692. 1692-1704. 1704-1746. 1746-1783. 1783-1814. 1814-1851. 4851-1891. 1891-1908. Chandrashekharencra Saraswati Present Acharya33 @ovardhana Peethe at Puri! : Duration of the Acharyas is not available. the Aoharyas are as Follows : 1, Padmapada 4. Shulapani 2. Narayana 4, Vidyaranya 8, Vamadova @. Padmanabha 7. Jagannadha @, Madhureshwara ®. Govinda 10, Abridhara 11. Madhavanande 42, Krishnebrahmenanda 19, Ramanenda 14. Vageashware 16, Parameshwera 16. Gop 17, Janardana 10, Jnananande 18. Brihadaranya 20. Mahadeva 21. Parabrahmananda 22. Ramanande 29, Gadanhiva a4. 25. Bodhanande 26. Ramakrishna 27. Chitbodhatme 28. Tatvakshare 29. Shankara 30. Vasudeva 31. Hayagreeva 32. Smriteeshwara 33. Vidyananda 34. Mukundananda 47 Ibid, pp. 4743. The names of Hiranyagarbha Nityananda Shivananda Yogeshwara Sudarshana Vyomakesha Damodara Yogananda Golakesha Krishnananda Devananda Chandrachuda Halayudha, Sidhya Sevya Tarakatma Bodhayana Shridhara Narayana Sadashiva Jayakrishna Virupaksha(kshya) Vidyaranya Vishveshwera Vibodheshwara Maheshwara Madhusudana Raghuttama Ramachandra Yogindra Maheshwera Omkara Narayana Jagannath Shridhara’: *108. 106, Ramachandra Tamraksha Ugreshwara Udayanenda Sankarshana Janardana Akhandatma Damadara Shivananda Vinyadhara Gadadhara Vamana Shankara Neelakantha Ramakristina Raghuttema Damodara Gopata Mrityurjaya Govinda Vasudeva Gangadhara Sadashiva Vamadeva Upamanyu Hayagriva Heri Raghuttama Pundatikaksha Parashankaratirtha Vedagarva Voedantabheskara Visnanatma Shivananda Maheshwara Ramakrishna Veishadhwaje Shudhabodha 34 107. 108. 409. 110, 111. 112. 113. 114 118. 116 117. 118. 419. 120. 124. 122. 423. 124, 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 138. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. Someshwara Gopadeva Shambhutiitha Bhrigu Keshavananda Vidyananda Vedananda Bodhanands Vrishadhwaja Shudhabodha Janardhana Gopadeva Hariharananda Gopala Krishnananda ‘Madhavananda Madhusudaria Govinda Raghuttama”’ Vamadeva Hrishikesha Damodara Gopalananda Govinda Raghuttama Ramachancra Govinda Raghuttema Ramakriahna Madhusudena Damodara Raghuttama Shiva Lokanatha Oamodara Madhusudana BharatHerteteta 'Nifahjandéva.35 The present Acharya of Govardhana Peetha is the 144th in succession. The reason for this larger number there being that the Acharyas appointed there are mostly those who are initiated into Sanyasa after Grihasthashrama. The present Acharya was kind enough to supply an up-to-date list of the Acharyas of that Matha. However, the duration of headship in each case is not mentioned in the list. Shringeri Peetha! : This list is based on the miscellaneous materia! available at Shringeri Matha. The Guruvanshakavyam, Shrimadjjagadguru Shankera Matha Vimarsha, Kashi me Kumbhaghonamatha_ Visha- yak Vivad, etc , are worth being mentioned here. Name Duration AD. 1. First Shankaracharya - 684- 712 2. Sureshwaracharya 61 FQ 773, 3. Nityabodhaghanacharya 75 773- 849 4. Jnanaghanacharya 62 843- 910 5. Jnanottamacharya 43 910- 953 6. Jnanagiryacharya 85 953-1038 7. Simhagiryacharya 60 1038-1098 8. Ishwaratirtha 48 1098-1146 9° Narasimhatirtha 82 11:46-1.228 10. Vidyashankaratirtha 105 1228-1333 11. Bharatikrishnatirtha 47 1333-1380 12. Vidyaranya 6 1380-1386 13, Chandra Shekhara Bharati 3 1388-1389 14, Norasimhabharati 19 13°9-1408 16, Purushottamabharati 40 1408-1448 16. Shankeranandabharati & 1448-1454 17, Chandrashekhara Bharati 10 1454-1464 18. Narasimhabharati 16 1464-1479 19, Purushottama Bharati 38 1479-1517 20. Ramachandra Bharati 43 1517-1560 21. Narasimhabharati 13 1560-573 22. Nerasimhabharati 3 1573-1576 of, Ibid, pp, 69-60,36 Name Duration A.D. 23. Narasimhabharati 23 1576-1599 24, Abhinarasimha Bharati 23 1599-1622 25. Sachchidananda Bharati 11 1622-1633 26. Narasinhabharati 42 1663-1705. 27. Sachchidananda Bharati 36 1705-1741 28. Abhinavasachchidananda Bharati 26 1741-1767 29. Abinavanarsinha Bharati 3 1767-1770 30. Sachchidananda Bharati 44 1770-1814 31. Abinavasachidananda Bharati 3 1814-1817 32. Narsimhabharati 62 1817-1879. 33. Sachchidanandashivabhi- navanarsinhabharati 33 1879-1912 34, Chandrashekhara Bharati 42 1912-1954 35. Abhinavavidyatirtha Present Acharya 1954- All the lists of the Acharyas of the different Peethas are: taken from the book ‘The Age of Shankara‘ by Udayavir Shastri, Gaziabad. > Section ill: Asoka‘s Inscriptions. Rock Edicts : These records are all engraved on stone. They have been inscribed either on racks or pillras or in caves. The Rock Inscri- ptions are again, of two kinds: namely The Fourteen Rock Edicts, because they together form a set of fourteen different inscriptions following a serial order and have been found. all on the confines of his empire, in seven different localities. These localities are : 1) Shanbazgarhi, near Peshawar in the Punjab 2) Mansera in Hazara district of the Punjab, 3) Kalsi in Dehara- dun district. 4) Dhauli in Cuttaka district, Orissa. 5) Jugada in Ganjam district. Orissa 6) Girnar in Gujarath and 7) Sopara in Thana District, Maharashtra. Minor Rock Edicts : These consist of two different records, They are inscribed together only in three copies found in Siddhapura in Mysore. The Siddhapura copies contain two edicts, namely, variant of.37 the edict found in different forms at Bairat, Rupnath and Sah and a second peculiar to Siddhapura. In places like Balrat in Rejasthan, Rupnath in Jabbalapur district of Madhya Pradesh and Sahasram in Shabad district of Bengal, edict | only has been engraved. Pillar Inscriptions : Asoka’s Pillar Inscriptions, also, may be distinguished in two classes : 1) The Seven Pillar Edicts and 2) Minor Pillar lascriptions. The former of these constitute a group and are engraved on six pillars at (i) Delhi-Topra near Ambala {ii) Dathi-Meerat on the ridge at Delhi, removed from Meerat, (iii) Allahabad, in the fort, (iv) Lauria-Araraj in Muzaffarpur in Bengal, (v) Lauria-Nandangarh in Champaran distric:, Brhar and (vi) Ramapurva ni Ramapurva district. Minor Pillar’ Inscriptions are four different epigraphs at 1) Nigali Sagar in Nepalese Tarai, 2) Rummindsi again in Nopa- lese Tarai, 3) Allahabad and 4) Sanchi. The cave inscriptions of Asoka are, ofcours2, those engra- ved in caves in the Barabur hills of Bihar, as three dadications. General Information : There are altogether no less than 33 different inscriptions that throw light on a number of points connected with Asoka, his administration, his religious faith, his missionary operations and 40 on. The subject matter of all the inscriptions, except the brief dedications, is one and the same, the proclamation and enforce: ment of the system of morals or laws of piety, which had commended itself to the king’s conscience. In a word, all the adicts are sermons. The Shahbazgarhi and Mansera versions are in Kheraoshti and all the rest in Brahmi character. A peculiar formula occurs at the opening of the edicts as ‘Thus sayeth His Majesty’ which is used alike in the Fourteen Rock Edicts, the Minor Rock Edicts and the Seven Pillar Edicts. Another pacu- larity is that thay are found on or about the frontiers of his kingdom. There is, however, this difference, whereas the Fourteen Rock Edicts seemed to be engraved in the capltala of the outlying provinces, the Minor Rock Edicts are generally found:38 at places which separate his territory from those of his neigh- ‘bours, independant or semi independant. The name of Asoka is ‘mentioned clearly in the very first line in the sixth copy of the ‘Minor Rock Edict | which was discovered at Maski in 1915, in Raichur cistrict of Karnataka. ‘Relevant Portions : Many scholars have used the following portions from these inscriptions in their effort to arrive at the date of the Buddha. ‘Rock Edict Il: ada fafaateg tarifeae faaatad um carafe TAZ aa Aer usr araga Saag avait afaaat Daaar F ar fa aa aifamea arid ustat: ada earafnae faaefadt wal & Pais sar aqafaaler a aghaler a All over the dominions of Devanampriya Priyadarsi and tike-wise in the territories of the frontier peoples, namely the ‘Chodas, Pandyas, the Satyaputras, the Keralaputrgs as far as Tamraparni and also in the territories of the Yona king named Antiyoka as well as in the territories of all the other feudatories of this Antiyoka~everywhere king Devanampriya Priyadarsi has instituted two kinds of medical ireatment-one for men and the ‘other for animals. ‘Rock Edict V : air Fat (1) dered fefeewtatmara & anf ait (a) aerar wamag a (g) ar (wan) ana ashes ongaT a These (GAH EsT) are occupied with all sects in establish- ing Dharma, in promoting Dharma and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to Dharma among the Yonas, Kambojas, Gandnaras, Rashtrikas, Petenikas and whatever other borderers. Rock Edict XIil: Rae fray ara Hag: mart cease nase a ary cae fee a afer39 And there is no country where these two classes (viz, the Brahmanas and the Sramanas), do not exist except among the Yonas and there is no place and there is no country where- men ere not attached to some sect. (a1) afsoe ga aag a eras ot aaa ae wary Ne a yiafer a ama ge uafeaatig aa eat (#3) (a) er uftg aaa tarfirze amiqater aqaat And this (conquest) has been repeatedly won by Devanam- priya both here and among all borderers even as far as at (the distance of) six hundred yojanas where the Yona king nam- ed Antiyoka (is ruling), and beyond this Antiyoka (where) four kings (are ruling), viz., Turamaya, Antikini, Maka and Alika- sunddara, and towards the south (where) the-Chodas and Pand- yes as far as Tamraparni. Likewise, here in the king's territory among the Yonas and Kambojas, among tne Nabhakas and Nehitis,. among the Bhcjas ard Pitinikas, among the Andhras and. Pulidas—everywhere {people) are confirming to. Davanampriya’s. instructions in Dharma. Minor Rock Edict I: ama maa faqe (7) £68 (This) proclemation was issued [by (me) after | had spent: the night (in prayer), 256. @geara (Sahasram) lines 6,7 aay mat faqaa se a cearafes aa faze fe 255 Rupnath lines 5, 6 sgt arr we 266 wat faaar a (fa) Brahmagiri, tine 8 wa a wa (4) ate (at) T (Fr) & azar 268 ‘Secton IV — Ceylonese Chronicles Dipavemse : Third Buddhist Gangiti (Conference) took place at the time of the Magadhe king Asoka. Thereafter, sis sen Mahindra went:40 to Ceylon as a Buddhist missionary. He brought with him the religious books Pitakattaya and Attakatha i.e., dissertations and commentaries. He propagated orally the Pitakattaya in Pati and the Attakatha in Singhalese together with his own Attaka- tha. His inspiced disciples and successors continued to propa- gate them arally till the age of inspiration passed away, which 100k place in Ceylon, in the reign of Wattagamini, between B.C. 104 and B.C, 76. They were then embodied into books, the text in Pali and the commentaries in Singhalese, adding to it ahe history of the island from its legendary beginning onwards. These canonical books were sptead in various monasteries in the island. In the fourth century A.D., using the books in the 4wo monasteries in Anuradhapura, someone collected such of hese Pali verses as referred to the history of Ceylon and piecing them together with other verses prepared a consecutive natrative. He called this poem, thus constructed, the Dipa- vémsa, the Island Chronicte. In it, we get the same episode iepeated in different verses because the information and the verses were taken not from one commentary only, but from several ones. The language of the Dipavamsa was called by Rhys Davids to be atrocious Pali. Added to this the work wes suoplanted in Ceylon by the much better written book called ‘the Mahavamsa and was completely lost there. The present text has been restored in the excellent edition by Prof, Aldenberg from manuscript all of which are derived from a single copy that had been preserved. ° ° ‘Mahayamse : Shortly after the Dipavamsa was composed, between 410 A.D. and 432 AO, the celebrated Buddhaghosha, a person ‘som Bihar, came. over to Ceylon and rewrote in Pali the old Singhalese commentaries. A generation afterwards, Maha- namo wiote the great work, the Mahavamsa. He was no histo- rian and had, besides the material used by his predecessors, only popular legends, to work on. But he was a literary artist and his ‘book is really an epic poem of remarkable merit with the nationel idol Dushtagamini as its hero. What he says about other kings. and of-Asoka:emongst them; is only by way 0} introduction or of-epilogue;%@ the-main story- z : ue41 Both end at the same point: Both the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa finish their records at the same point, viz., with the death of the king Mahasena, The coincidence is, of course, but a consequence of the two works being derived from the same source. The reign of the very king was a fatal time to the Mahavihara monastery of Anuracha- pura. Ahostils party succeeded in obtaining king Mahasena‘s sanction for destreying the Mahavihara. During the period of nine years; the monastery remained deserted by its former inhabitants; afterwards after a long and ecclesiastical struggle, it was constructed. Relevant Verses : One of the dates which evidently forms the corner stone of the whole system by which the date of the Buddha is decided is the number 218 for the consecration of Asoka!, The Dipa- vamsa 6.1, says & acai 4 atarfa agarea aeanft + arag ofifaaa afafadt fraceaat ‘218 years after the Sambudda had passed into the Nirvana, Piyadassano Asoka was consecrated., and the Mahavamsa 5.21 says taafaenrnay Tear Gu aearfeaTa agareng reatirny Gay fraTlaay ‘After the Nirvana of the conqueror and before his (Asoka’s) consecration, there were 218 years; this shouldbe known, Thatisto say, that after a lapse of 218 years. i.e. somutime in the year 219 after the Buddha‘s death, the consec- tation took place. “ Mahavamsa gives the reign of Bindusara as 28 years. 1. Mahavamaa or tho Great Chronicle of CeylsA=T by Wilhom Q@eiger, Oxford University Press, 1912f pf diate English xxdiis ts42 According to the Southern Buddhist tradition, the second Buddhist council was held in Vesali itself under the king Kala- soka and the third under Dhammasoka 1n Pataliputra. Dipavamsa 17.78' + 2 aaa a aearfs after 7 aazat weqa ofefana afafadt Zarafaat Observe that the formula used is the same asin 6.1 for dating Asoka’s abhiseka..,......The date 236 also is to be found in the Nikaya-samgraha, ed, Wickramasinghe p. 10-3, and it results in Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa as the sum total of the reigns of all the kings from Vijaya to Devanampiyatissa. Dipavamsa 15.71 says that Mahinda came to Ceylon 236 rs, after the Nirvana?: & aeaaar fa otra a aca Tar afer ara maa Hafaeafe araay As to the chronological relation between Bimbisara and the Buddhs, more precise statements are furnished by Dip. 3 56 and Mah, 2.28 foll. According to these, the two mat for the first time when the Buddha was 35 and Bimbisara 30 years of age; this was the year 15. of Bimbisara’s reign. After that Bimbisara teigned yet another 37 years. He was succeeded by Ajatasatru. Eight years after his accession, the Buddha cied, Section V — Other Sources Buddha Varsha — Fleet’ : Certain statements in the Suluvamsa (the continuation of Mahavamsa) along with Ceylonese, Burmese and Siamese Chronology of the present day, show the existence of a reckoning from the 14th century A.D. knownas Buddhavarsha, which would place the death of the Buddha in B.C.544. This reckoning does noi figure in the Dipavamia or the Mahavamsa. |n tha 1. ibid, p. xx! 2. Ibid. pp. xxxii. 3. ‘The Origin of the Budshavarshs, the Ceylonese Reckoning from the Daath of Buddha’ by J. F. Fizet, JRAS, 1909, pp. 323-345.43 Suluvamsa, it is found first in Chapter 90, verses 108,109 which say ‘It should be understood by anyone who is looking for gui- dance, that at his fourth year there had passed 1894 years since the death of the Sage." The earliest known instance of the use of this reckoning with the term Buddhavarsha, ‘the year of Buddha’ attached to it, in a record framed at the time of the date given in it, is found in an inscription at Polonnaruwa, which gives the exact date of the annointment of Sahasamalla (No. 126, A.D. 1200-2, in Turnour’s list of kings of Ceyion) namely, at 1743 years, 3 months, and 27 days of the Buddhavarsha, on Wednesday, the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of the month Binara (Bhadra- pada). The given details, Bhadrapaca Shukla 12, Wednesday, are correct for Wednesday, 23rd August A.D. 1200. Sowe have the date of the annointment of Sahasamatla as a definite fixed point in the later chronology. Further, this result shows, whatever may be the case now when the reckoning was set on going it was made to run from an initial point in B.C, 544-543. Taw Sein Ko! At pages 256-7 of the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXIII, 1894, 4 have aiscussed about the Burmese Eras and the mode of reckon- ing them. There are three eras, namely the era or Religion, which began in B.C. 644, the Saka era which began in A.D. 78, and the Chinese ara, now current, which began in AD. 638. The Sake ara wan establishad in its own second year after wiping out 622 years of the era of Religion andthe Chinese era was established alter 560 yeors of the Saka era. There appears to be strong evidence to show that the era of Religion or the Nirvana era, which began in B.C. 544, was known to the Burmese long before the twelfth century A.D. When they recognised the Chinese era, the year was reckoned in its equivalent to Ano Buddhee, In Burma. it is customary in all important documents to record dates in Ano Bucdhae as well as in Sakaraj, the one acting as a salutary check of the other. ‘Buddhist Era in Burma’ by Taw Sein Ko, JRAS, 1911, p. 212,44 Canton Tradition’ : There is a tradition handed down from teachers to the pupils that after the Buddha’s Nirvana, Yiu-po-li (Upali) collec- ted the Vinaya Pitaka. Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of that year (after the death of the Buddha, when he had received the tsz-tsz self throwing of restraint i.e. Pravarana or {nvitation, he worshipped the manuscript of the Vinaya Pitaka. Thus, he did every year in the same way. This was handed over from the teacher to the disciple. In the 490th year A.D., there were 975 dots in all, one dot representing one yeer. No more dots were added after the seventh year of the pei-Mei period i.e.. after 490 A.0., for want of holy men who entered the path. Inscription at Gaya* : An inscription was found in a temple of tha Sun which stands on the west side of a neat masonary tank called Dakshina- Manasa, near the Vishnu Pada at Gaya. !t is in Sanskrit verse aad engraved on a smooth black stone in 25 lines, each 17" in length, and in letters resembling the old Bengali alphabet of the twelfth century A.D. The last line of it reads, “The cAief of the scribes, the handsome Indradandin wrote it and by the lovely engraver Rama it was cut in letters. Bhagavata having died in the year 1813, in the dark half of the month Kartika, the first day, Wednesday. “ The efeventh shloka reads, ‘’on the Buddha religion having suffered degradation, he (king) re-established. it by bowing hereto, and baseaching Chinda king, who was. like fndra, and also the renowned Asoxecnstla, who was a crest jewel of the kings of the mountains of Sapadalaksha.* ‘There is an inscription of this Asokachalla on a metal trin- dent at Gopeshwar in Gadhwal, of which a copy was publishad by Princep in 1836. There is another inscription found at Buddha Gaya by Mr. Hathorne in 1835, lying near the Mahabuddha temple of Sahanapala wha was a treasure and a dependant of prince 4. Dr. D S, Triv p 22%. 2. ‘An Inscription at Gaya dated in the yegr 1813 of Buddha's Nirvana with Two Others of the Same Period’ by Bhagawantal tndraji, 1A, Vol. X, 1881, pp, 341-47.45 Dasharatha, the younger brother of king Asokachalla, king of kings, lord of the Khasa kings of Sapadalaksha (Shivalika) mountain; dated inthe expired reign of the illustrious Lakshmana- sen samvat 74, on the twelfth day of the dark half of Vaishakha, Thursday. (The initial epoch of Lakshmanasena‘s era, stilt occasionally used in Tirhut is A.D. 1106). Fahien‘s Answer! : When Fahien was asked, by the monks of his first resting place after crossing the Indus, whether it could be known the day when the Buddha first went to the East i.e. went to China. After crossing the Indus he replied, ‘When | asked the people of those countries about it, thay all said that it had been handed down from their fathers from the old that, after the setting up of the image of Maitreya Bodhisatva, there were Shramanas of india who crossed the river, carrying with them the Sutras and books of Discipline. Now the image was set up rather more than 300 years after the Nirvana of the Buddha, which may be referr- edtoin the reign of king Ping of the Chow dynasty, whose reign lasted from B.C. 750 To B.C.729. Abou Fazal Allami?: Abou Fazal Allami, the conscientious writer of the Ain- i-Akbari, in giving an account of the Buddhists and their philo- sophy, says “From the date of his death to the present time, which is the fortieth year of the Divine Era, 2962 year have elapsed. Since the Terikh.i-Illahi, or the Divine Era was a solar year, a modification of the Persian year and Akbar was enthroned at Kalanour on tha 2/3 Ruhi ll, 963 A.H. (14-2-1556 A.D.) and 25 days from the enthronement was counted as a part of the year, the Divina yaar 40 is equivalent to A.D. 1595 (1555449). Manimekhalai® : The Manimekhalsi, an epic ascribed to Sattan—the grain merchant of Madurai—gives a date, but in a confused maniier, of 1. Dr. D, S. Triveda, op, cit. p. 226. 2. ibid, p. 227. 3. ibid, p. 233,46 ‘the Buddha. Manimekhalai, the heroine of the poem, went by the name of Lakshmi in her previous birth and was the wife of prin- .ce Rahula, Manimekhalai is the Tantric goddess of the Hinayana Buddhists like the Tara of the Mahayana Buddhists. She is essentially a sea-goddess mentioned in the Mejanaka Jataka and Sankha Jataka, and protects the devotees from sea-storms. By means of her worship of the Buddha-seat she had learnt about her previous birth, From apond in front of the Buddha's seat a ‘begging bow! named Amritsurabhi appears every year on the day (of the full noon) in the season of the early sun in the month of Rasabha, in the 14th asterism, the day on which the Buddha ‘was born, Aravana Adigal, a venerable monk, says to Manimekhalai, dhat Dharma is not known to the people in this world, But within the circuit of this universe, Devas understand it, and of their request the Deva will come down to this world from the - Tusit Heaven in the year 1616. Then everybody in this world will feel impelled to practice the doctrine of mercy, This epic belongs to the Sangam age which is regarded as the Augustan age of Tamil literature. Section VI — Buddhist Sanskrit Literature The widely spread sect of the Sarvastivadis, which belonged to the Hinayana and which is indicated by its desig- nation of positivists, possessed a canon of its own and a rich literature in Sanskrit. Of this Sanskrit canon, na complete copy is to be found. We know it only from larger or smaller frag- ments of its Udana-vatga. Dharmapada Ekottaragama and Medh- yamagema which have been discovered from the xylographs and manuscripts recovered from Eastern Turkistan by Stein, Grun- ‘wedel and Le Coq, 2s well as from quotations in other Buddhist Sanskrit texts like the Mahavastu, Divyavadana and Lalitavistara ard finally from Chinese and Tibetan translations. The literature of central Asian discoveries has already assumed great proportions’, 7. The Literary Histcry of Sanskrit Buddhism by J. K. Neriman, 1972 pp. §. 6.47 There are however, many, Jatakas and Avadanas in the Mahavastu which have nothing corresponding to them in Pali. Many of the narratives bear the impress of a Brahmanic or Pura- nic character...... And, although the Mahavastu belongs to the Hinayana and has contacts with much which may or actually does occur in the Pali texts of the Theravadis, it embodies a good deal which makes an approach to the Mahayana.........Tne nature of the composition of the Mahavastu entails the difficulty that the period when it was composed is very hard to deter- mine. Many circumstances point to a high antiquity, for instance, the fact that it belongs to the Lokottaravada schcol and its language. That the work is entirely written in mixed’ Sanskrit while in the Mahayana texts, this dialect alternates with Sanskrit, is a mark of its greater antiquity.! The Mahavastu describes itself as a work belonging to- Hinayana, although it has assimilated some of the Mahayana: features. The La/itavistara on the contrary is regarded as one of the most sacred Mahayana texts, as a Vaipulya Sutra. It is: a textbook of voluminous contents and gives the usual desig- nation of a Mahayana Sutra and yet originally the work em>odied' adescriptive life of the Buddha for the Sarvastivadi school: attached to the Hinayana,? Since the time of Pischel, who deciphered the first pages. of the xylograph of the Samyuktagama, the ramnants of the Buddhist canonical literature in Sanskrit which have been placed’ before the public, out of the Vinaya and Dharma of the Buddhist Sanskrit canon, by Sylvain Levi, Finot and de la Vallee Poussin, is only small portion of the salvage. Of the Udana- vatga, which seems to have been unquestionably the most favourite Sanskrit Buddhist work, 500 leaves are preserved in the Berlin collection alone, out of the fragments and leaves. belonging to some 100 manuscripts so that the text is almost completely restor2d. Pischel recognised that these vestiges. belong to the canon of the school of the Sarvastivadis, lost in. the original Sanskrit. He already noticed that the Sanskrit texts were not translations from the Pali canon, whichis the: only canon preserved intact to us.> 16, 16, 17. 2. ibid, p. 19. 3, ibid p, 239:.CHAPTER Il HISTORY OF THE FIXATION OF THE BUDDHA’S DATE AS C. 483 B.C. Section |— Sheet Anchor As already said, the fixation of the Buddha's date is done lin the process of deciding the chronology of ancient Indian history. In this process, the dates of Chandragupta Maurya and his son Asoka were decided first and the decision of the date of the Buddha was arrived at on the basis of these fixed dates. ‘Naturally the strength of the Buddha's date depends on the veracity of those dates. Hence while studying the history of | the fixation of the date of the Buddha it is necessary to under- stand on: what grounds those are decided and how much itis possible to rely on those. Sir William Jones: Western scholars started studying the Indian History and jiterature since the time they came in contact with India. The foundations of the Indian historical research were laid down by Sir William Jones. He was the founder and president of the Royal Asiatic Society established in Bengal in 1784 A.D., the aim of which was to study the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences and literature of Asia. He was inthe judicial service of the East India Company. He was a man of remarkable intel- lectual power and had travelled widely in Northern India, Kashmir and Western Asia. He had procured in Kashmir a text of the history of Bactria known as Dabistan Document.' He has identified ard published that the kings of Bactria, mentioned in the documert as having ruled in Bactria from atime 6000 years before the invasion of Alexander, were Indian kings who were 153 in number. So, ha knew that there was the record of the history of Bactria and it extended to many thousands of years before his time. When he was transferred to Calcutta as the Chief Justice, he started studying the ancient Indian history which is described only inthe Sanskrit Epics and the Puranas. 1. ‘The Plotin Indian Chronology, by Kota, p. 11.49 It was he who suggested for the first time that Chandragupta Maurya of the Indian Puranic accounts was no other than the very Sandrokottas of the Greek Classical Accounts. Discovery of the identity of Sandrokottas with Chandra- gupta Maurya : Inhis discourse on 28-2-1793, Jones referred to the so called discovery by him, of the identity of Chandragupta with Sandrokottas. As he is the pioneer in the subject it is worthwhile giving the full text regarding this issue of his speech, “ The jurisprudence of the Hindus and the Arabs being my field which | have chosen for my peculiar toil, you cannot expect that | should enlarge your collection of historical knowledge; but | may be able to offer you some occasional tribute; and | cannot help mentioning a discovery which accident threw in my way, though my proofs must be reserved for an essay which | have destined for the fourth volume of your transactions. To fix the situation of that Palibothra (for there may have been several of the name) which was visited and described by Megasthenes, had always appeared a very difficult problem for though it could not have been Prayaga, whare no ancient metropolis ever stood, nor Canya‘ubja, which has no epithet at all resembling the word used by the Grenks: nor Gaur, otherwise called Laxshmanavati, which ‘all knew to be a town comparatively modern, yet we could not confidently decide that it was Pataliputra, though names and most circumstances nearly correspond, because that renowned capital oxtended from the confluence of tne Sone and the Ganges to the site of Patna, while Palibothra stood at the junction of the Ganges and Erannoboas, which the accurate M.D*‘Anville had pronounced to be the Yamuna; but this only difficulty was removed, when | found in a classical Sanskrit book nearly 2000 years old, that Hiranyabahu or golden-armed, which the Greeks changed to Erannoboas, or the river with 1, Asiatil ches, Vol IV, The Tenth Anniversary Diszourse p. 10.50 lovely murmur, was in fact another name of the Sone itself though Megasthenes from ignorance or inattention, has named them separately. This discovery fed to another, of greater moment: for Chandrgupta, who from: a military adventurer, became, like the Sandrokottas, the ‘sovereign of Upper Hindusthan, actually fixed the seat of his empire at Pataliputra, where he received ambassadors from foreign princes; and was no other than that very Sandrokottas who concluded a treaty with Seleukas Nikator so that we have solved another problem, to which we before alluded, and may in round numbers consider the three and twelve hundred years Oefore Christ, as twa certain epochs, between Rama, who conquered Silan, a few centuries after the flood, and Vicramaditya, who died at Ujjaini fiftyseven years before the beginning. of our era.“ Indian Literature Depicts High Antiquity : Prior to coming to this conclusion, Sir William Jones had studied strenuously the ancient Indian literature. He learnt from his Sanskrit guide Pandit Radhakant that according to the Bhagavata Purana, the Hindu concept of creation goes into high antiquity; the last of the seven Manus, the Vaivaswata Manu, started tens of thousands of years ago and the Maha- bherata War, the landmark in Indian history, was fought more than 3000 years befora Christ. Kaliyuga began 36 years after the War. Onwards from the commencement of the Kaliyuga, the Puranas contain the accounts of the various kingdoms that flourished from time to time and successive dynasties that ruled and fell during the course of 35 centuries, Jones’ First Table : In January, 1788 Jones published from the Bhagavata Purana the dynastic list of the kings that ruled over Magadha (Biliary from the time of the Mahabharata War. The account adopted by him is as foliows!. 1. The Works af Sie William Jones (in 13 Vols ) Vol. IV, by Lord Teignmouth, pp. 36-40,51 Name of the dynasty Duration From B. C. to B. C. 1. Barhadratha 20 kings 1000 years 3101-2100 2. Pradyota 5 kings 138 2100-1962 3. Shishunaga 10 kings 360 ,, 1962-1602 4. Nanda 1 king 100 ,, 1602-1502 5. Maurya 10 kings 137 1502-1365 6. Shunga 10 kings 112 4, 1365-1253 7. Kanva 4 kings 345 1253- 908 8. Andhra 32 kings 456 ,, 908- 452 Another Table by Jones : This is the chronology of the Magadhan dynasties given in the Puranas according to Jones but his mind was not ready to believe the antiquity. Then he took a different starting ‘point and fixed another table. His paper! was based on a work entitled Puranarthaprakasha which was composed shortly before the time at which he was writing, by Pandit Radhakant Sharman and which seems to have been based in its turn chiefly on Bhagavata Purana. \n the first place, he brought forward a verse given to him from a book entitled Bhagavatamitra, com- posed by ‘a learned Goswami’ which purported to fix the Kaliyuga 1002 expired as the date of the manifestation of the ‘Buddha, With this, he coupled an assertion in the same book that, two years before that date there occurred the revolution whith placed on the throne, Pradyota, the first king in the third dynasty before the Mauryas. He also considered that the figures put forward by tha Puranas were excessive both for relgna and gonorations and adjusting those according to his own estimate, and taking os the starting point, B. C. 1027, for the date of the Buddha os fixed by the Chinese authorities as interpreted by De Gelgnes, he submitted a revised scheme which placed Pradyota in B. C. 10297. Abhimanyu son of Arjuna 2029 B. C. Pradyota 1029, Buddha 1027. Nanda 699 Vikramaditya 56 7. History of Classical Sanckrit Literature by M. K. Chariar, 1937, p. xcii. 2, Lord Teignmouth, op. cit. p. 42.52 Jones Unsatisfied with Indian Accounts : Jones was not satisfied with this table also. He says!. “Thus we have given a sketch of the Indian history through the longest period fairly assignable to it, and have traced the foundation of the Indian empire above 3800 years from the Present time; but on a subject in itself so obscure and so much. clouded by the fictions of the Brahmins, who, to aggrandise themselves, have designedly raised their antiquity beyond the truth, we must be satisfied with probable conjecture and just reasoning from the best attainable data.’ Not satisfied with the chronology available in the Puranas, Jones searched for the Greek Classical Accounts. The menta- lity of these Western scholars is very well explained by James Princep. He says,? “As long as the study of the Indian antiquities confines itself to the illustration of the Indian history, it must be Confessed that it possesses little attraction for the general student, who is apt to regard the labour expended On the disentanglement of perplexing and contradictory mazes of fictions, as leading only to tie substitution of vague and dry probabilities for potential, albeit extrava- gant, fable. Butthe moment any name or event turns Out in the course of such speculation, offering a rational connection with the histories of Greece and Rome- a Collusion between the fortunes of the Eastern and the Western heros—forthwith a speedy and spreading interest is excited, which cannot be satisfied untif the subject is thoroughly sifted by the examination of all the ancient works, Western and Eastern, that can throw concurrent light on the matter at issue. Such was the engrossing interest which attended the identification of Sandrokottas with Chandragupta, in the days of Jones.” Refers Greek Classical Accounts : Jones had picked up two names from the Greek Classical Accounts, One was of the Indian king Sandrokottas and 1.” ibid. pp. 42-48, 2, Edward Thomas op. cit. p. 12.53 another of his capital Palibothra. He found phonetic similarity of these two names with Chandragupta and Pataliputra respec- tively. No other proof he could procure except the phonetic similarity. The only difficulty facing him was that Pataliputra was not situated at the confluence of the Ganges end Yamuna. But when he found that Erannoboas can be another name of Sone and as Pataliputra was situated near the confluence of Sone and Ganges, he declared that Sandrokottas was Chandragupta:. Now there are two Chandraguptas in the Indisn genealogical. lists ‘one of the Maurya dynasty and another of the Gupta dynasty. Jones has given no reasons why he accepted Maurya’ Chandra- gupta and not Gupta Chandragupta. He says that as per the description of Megasthenes, Sandrokottas must be Chandragupta Maurya. In his discourse on 28-2-1793, he barely stated his dis- covery, adding that’his procfs must be reserved for a subsequent essay’ but he died on 27-4-1794:before that’essay could appeer. In the same discourse (28-2-1793), he had mentioned his authorities for the statement that Chandraguptachetame the sovereign of Uoper Hindusthar, with his .capital.et }Patatiputia; “A most beautiful poem by Somadeva, comprising a long chain of instructive and agreeable stories, begins with the famed tevolu- tion at Pataliputra by the murder of the king Nanda with his eight sons and the usurpation by Chandragupta; and the ‘same revolution is the subject of the tragedy in a Sanskrit drama entitlyd “The Coronation of Chandra.“ Wilford Supports : Tha thuma was taken immediatoly by Col. Wilford. He enteraod Into along and fanciful disquisition on Palibothra and rejacted Sir Willlam’s identitication of it with Pataliputra but he accapted thu Iuantification of Sandrokott4s with Chandra- gupta in the following words! : “Sir William’ Jones from a poem written by Somadeva and a tragedy called the Coronation of Chardra or Chandragupta discovered that he really, was the Indian king mbhtioned by the historians of Alexander under.the name of. Sandrokottas.. - These Poems, l neve, not béen Dennen Trae pala 7. Asiatic Researches, Vol V, v. 262.54 able to procure but | have found another dramatic piece entitled Mudta-Rachasa, which is divided into two parts, viz., coronation of Chandragupta and reconciliation with Rakshasa and that the author of the drama was Ananta who resided on the banks of Godavari.” As a matter of fact, the drama as it is before us, begins only after the coronation, deals with the reconciliation and ‘was composed by Vishakhadatta (son of Maharaja Prithu and grandson of Vateshwaradatta) who did not live near Godavari, H.H. Wilson Amends : Wilson further amended the incorrect authorities relied ‘on by Jones and said,1 “By Jones’ a beautiful poem by Somadeva was doubtless meant the large collection of the tales by Somabhatta, the Brihatkatha.” Wilson also remarked about Wilford's account that it does not appear that Col. Wilford had investigated the drama himself, for he continues to quote Mudra Rakshasa for various reasons which it does not contain. MaxMuller asserts; Terms Identity as Sheet Anchor: Prof. Lassen attempted to further corroborate Jones’ view and MaxMuller?, too boldly finalised the identity in 1859. He says, “We learn from the classical writers like Justin, Arrian and others that in Alexander's time there was on the Ganges a powerful king Xandrammes, and that soon after Alexander's invansion, anew empire was founded there by Sandrokottas or Sandocyptus. These accounts of the classical writers contain a number of distinct state- ments which would leave very little doubt as to the king whom they referred. Indian historians, it is true, are generally vagus and so much given to exaggeration, that ee 1, Theatre of Hindus, Vol Il. H.H. Wileon’s proface to Mudrarakshasa, 2. MaxMuller op. cit. pp. 3-8,55 their kings are ail very much alike, either all black or al? bright. But nevertheless, if there was such a king of Prassi, a usurper, residing at Pataliputra, called Sandro- cyptus, it is hardly possible that he should not be recognised in the historical traditions of India. The name of Chandragupta, and the resemblance of this name with the name of Sandrokottas or Sandrocyptus was first, 1 believe, pointed by Jones and though other scholars and particularly M. Troyer, in his edition of Rajatarangini have raised objactions, we shall see that the evidence in favour of the identity of Chandragupta and Sandro- cyptus is such as to admit of no reasonable doubt.” Prof. M. Troyer, in 1859, disputed this identification in his introduction to the translation of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini and communicated his views to Prof. MaxMuller but there was no reply from the Professor to M. Troyer. MaxMuller passes over the apparent differences in the details between the Greek statements on the one hand and the Puranic and Buddhist versions on the other, quite summarily, declaring that the Buddhist fables are invented to exalt, and the Brahmanic fables to lower Chandragupta’s descent. Lastly, with respect to chronology, the Brahmanic is altogether ignored, and the Buddhist is reduced to its proper limits, that is, pulled down to fit in with the Greek chronology. He knew the great power he wielded amangst the Orientalists and boldly declared this supposed synchronism as the sheet anchor of Indian history and, Indeed, the whole of the ancient history of India has been constructed on this basis. On the b: of this synchronism, Jones had given, for the first time, 320 B.C. as the probable date of the coronation of Chandragupta Maurya which wes further used by Turnour, James Princep and V. A. Smith in their studies and writings Turnour was an official in the newly acquired Kandyan province (Ceylon), which had been formed on a convention which guaranteed their ancient laws. This led him to study the Singhalese tongue. The works he referred to, for the intor- mation he sought, though they contained much that was56 valuable regarding the institutions and the history of the jand, all professed to derive their authority from Pali sources, Ia furthar pursuit of the objacts. he had in view, he undertook the study of Pali. The want of dictionaries, to assist in under- standing the meaning of the words and tarms in a language $0 copious and refined as the Pali is, was a great drawback and the absence of Pali instructors in the island, who possessed an ailequate knowledge of English, to supply the plate of the dictionaries, left him dependant on his own knowledge of Singhalese, in rendering their vernacular explanations in English. The translation of Maihivamsa, however, has been made hastily, at intervals of leisure, snatched from official occu- pation, and each chapter was hurried to the press as it was. conpleted'. On studying the Ceylonese chronicles, Turnour falt these to be superior to the historic literature of the Hindus. ‘urnour: Ceylonese literature, a source superior to Indian: “IT should say* that there does not now exist an authen tic; connected and chronologically correct Hindu history. The absence of that history proceeds, not from the original defici- ency of historical data, nor their destruction by the ravages of the war. but the systematic perversion of these data, adopted to work out the monstrous scheme (about time like the four yugas) upon which the Hindu faith is based.” “It is an important point? connected with the Buddhistic creed, which (as far as | am aware) has not been noticed by any other writer that the ancient history, as well as the scheme of religion of the Buddhist, are both represented to have been exclusively developed by revelation. Between the manifestation of one Buddha and the advent of his successor, two periods are represented to intervene; the first is called the Buddhantaro or Buddhotpado, being tha interval between the manifestation of one Buddha and the epoch when his religion becomes extinct. The aga in which we now live is the Buddhotoado of Gotame. His religion was destined 10 endure 5000 years of which 2380 have now (A.D. 1837) passed away since his death, and 2620 1, The Mahavamsa, Vol. | by George Turnour, Ceylon, 1837, p. Iii. 2, ibid, p. xix, 3. bid, pp. xxiii-xxv I.57 are yet to come, The secondis Abuddhotpado or the time between the epochs when thé religion revealed by one Buddha becomes extinct and another Buddha appears and revives, by revelation, the doctrines of the Buddhist faith. During that period, not only does the religion of the preceding Buddha. become extinct, but the recollection and record of all preceding events are also lost."’ “By this fortunate fiction, a limitation has been pres- cribed to the mystification in which the Buddhistical creed has involved all the historical data, contained in its literature, anterior to the advent of Gotama. While in Hindu literature there appears to be no such limitation; in as much as Prof. Wilson, in his analysis of the Puranas, from which (excepting, Rajatarangini) the Hindu historical data are chiefly obtained, proves that those works are, comparatively, of modern date “The distinguishing characteristics, then, between the Hindu and the Buddhistica! historical data appear to consist in these particulars: that the mystification of Hindu data is protracted to a period so modern that no part of them is authentic, in reference to chronology; and that their fabulous character is exposed by every gleam of light thrown on Asiatic history by tne hi 5 of other countries, and more especially by the writers who flourished, respectively, at the periods of, and shortly after, the Macedon‘an and Mahomedan conquests. While the mystification of the Buddhistica! data ceased a century atleast prior to B.C. 588, when prince Siddhartho attained Buddhahood, in the character of Gotamo.”” “According to the Buddhistical creed, therefore, all remote historical data, whathar sacred or profana. anterior to'Gotama's advent, are based on his revelations. They are involved in absurdity as unbounded as the mystification in which the Hindu. literature is enveloped.’’ Turnour is convinced that the histovica! data after the Buddha, given in the Ceylonese chronicles is factual and can be bslieved. Of course, he knows that there is ample exaggeration and extravagance in the legends given therein. But he says that similar mystification is found in Greek history also. He58 says : ‘As an illustration! of the grounds on which | suggest that there is no such glaring disparity in extravagance between the mythology and legends of the East and the West, as should necessarily prescribe the condemnation and rejection of the former; | extract, (p. Ixxiv. Justinus L. XV. C4,) Seleucus’ ‘mother Laodice who had been married to Antiochus, a distin- guished officer in the generals of Philip, dreamed that she had been compressed in the embraces of Apollo, that she had become pregnant, had received from the God as the price of +her favours, aring set with a gem, upon which an anchor was engraven, and that she had been ordered to bestow the gift upon the son whom she should bring forth. What rendered this dream remarkable was that on the fo!lowing day, there was found on the bed a ring with the aforesaid impression, and that there was a figure of an anchor on the thigh of Seleucus from the very birth of the infant. Wherefore, when Seleucus was ‘proceeding with Alexander the Great, upon the Persian expedi- tion, Leodice, having made him acquainted with his origin, presented the ring to him.’ > About the authenticity of the Ceylonese records in Pali ‘Turnour says? that Pali is synonymous with Magadhi, the language of the land in which Buddhism, as promulgated by Shakya or Gotamo, had its origin; and that it was, at that period ‘no inferior provincial dialect, but a highly refined and a classi- cal language. Although there can be no doubt as to the belief enter- tained by Buddhists in Ceylon, that these scriptures were perpetuated orally for 453 years before they were reduced to writing being found on superstitious impostures, originating perhaps in the priesthood denying to all but their own order, access to these scriptures, yet there is no reasonable ground for questioning the authenticity of the history thus obtained, of the origin, recognition and revisions of these Pali scriptures. The chronicles were not indefinite, but dealt with dates. They contained a complete list of kings, not only onwards from 1, ibid, ps xix. 2. ibid, p. Ivii,59 the regions of mythology to the days of Gotema Buddha, but from those days onwards, without intermission, to the dates at which they could be adjusted, in the sixteenth and following centuries, with European history. Turnour, then, gave to the world a chronological history of Buddhism, which included, of course, a definite date assigned to Asoka. Turnour’s researches were fuily ventilated in his articles contributed to the Ceylon Almanac in 1833 and 1834 and to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1836 and 1837 and in the introduction to his text and translation of the Mahavamsa, published in 1837. Edicts are the Inscriptions of Asoka of the Mahavamsa — Turnour : In the years 1837 and 1838, after continuous efforts for 7-3 years, the indefatigable genius of James Princep, by coniparison of many scattered inscriptions and coins, discovered the key to the long lost alphabets, in which Asoka's edicts and: a quantity of monuments only less ancient, are engraved. Mr. Turnour no sooner saw the articles of Princep, in the proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal than he sprang, with a confidence, which further inquiry justified, to the conclusion, that these were inscriptions of Asoka of the Mahavamsa, The evidently vast extent of his rule, the name of Magadha itself, the humane tone of his proclamations, were enough to invite the identification. The statement that he had not always he'd the same view, but had formerly been regardiess. of the life of animals, that his conversion occurred some years alter his enthronement, and other such coincidences, made it almost a certainty. But when it was further disclosed that ‘in ‘one of the edicts were mentioned certain Greek kings, Ptolemi, Magas and others, whose date approximately coincided with that which the Pali Mahavamsa ascribed to Asoka and further still, that Asoka was said in the chronicles, to have been the grandson of Chandragupta, while Greek -history placed in the same place and date a Sandroxottas (an almost exact transli-60 teration of the same name) it could be easily accepted thet Asoka and Priyadarsi denote one person only,1 To arrive at his conclusions, the proofs which Turnour could find are already staied in the information about Dipa- vamasa and Mahavamsa in the source material. Authorship of the Edicts — James Princep’s Guesses : Facsimile impressions of Asoka‘s edicts were being studied for years together by James Princep. These were the commands of some Priyadarshi or Devanam Priyadarshi or Devanam Priyadarshi Raja. Till the life time of Princep, name of Asoka was nct found anywhere in the inscriptions. Hultzsch says? : “In the beginning, Princep ascribed these edicts to Devanampriyatissa of Ceylon. The discovery of the Nagarjuni Hill cave - inscriptions of Dashalata Devanampiya, whom he at Gnce identified with Dasharatha, the grandson of the Mourya king Asoka (id., p. 676 ff.), and the fact thé Turnour had found Piyadasana or Piyadasi used as surname of Asoka in the Dipavemsa, induced Princep to abandon his original view and to identify Devanampriya Priyadarsin with Asoka himself (id., p. 790 ff.). Contemporary Yavana Kings : . “In February 1838, Princep published the text and trans- tation of the second Rock-Edict. He found in the Girner version of it (1.3) the words Antiyaka Yona-raja, and in the Dhauli version (1.1) Amtiyoke nama Yona-laja and identified the Yona Antiyaka or Antiyoka with Antiyochus II of Syria... In,March 1838, he discovered in the Girnar Edict XIII (1.8),ithe names of Turamaya, Amtikona and Maga, whom he most. ingeniously. identified with Ptolemi Il Philodelphos of Egypt, »Antigonus Gonates of Macedonia (7) and Magas of Cyrene, Atithe samo" time he modified his earlier theory, and now seferred the name Antiyoka to Antiochus | or Il of Syria, prefetably the former. The Mahavamsa Tika by S.V. Sohoni, 1971,.p. xi. 2. "Dete of Asoka’ by E. Hultzsch, JRAS, 1914" pp. 943-61,61 On the Girnar rock, the name of the fifth king who was men- tioned after Maga is lost. The Shahbazgarhi version calls him Alikasundara. Mr. Norris recognised that this name corres- ponds to the Greek Alexander and suggested hesitatingly that Alexander of Epirus, the son of Pysrhus might be meant by It, This identification-was endorsed by Westergard, Lassen and Senart. But Prof. Beloch thinks that Alexander of Korinth, the son of Cratarus, has a better claim. “The mention of these five contemporaries in the inscrip- tions of Devanam Priyadarshi confirms ina general way, the correctness of Princep’s identification of the latter with Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, whose approximate time we know from the Greek and Roman records. “Antiochus | Soter of Syria reigned in B.C. 280-261, his. son Antiochus II Theos in B.C. 261-246, Ptolemi Il Philadelphos of Egypt in B C. 285-247, Antigonus Gonates of Macedonia in B.C. 272-238, Magas of Cyrene inc. B.C. 300-c 250, Alexander of Epirus in B.C. 272-c. 285 and Alexander of Corinth in B.C. 252-c. 244." Smith believed in the sheet anchor date c. 320 B.C. but has proved the date of Asoka without relying on it. For this, he made use of the names of the Yavana kings in Asoka’s edicts. The date thus proved by Him is the same as that derived on the basis of the sheet anchor. Though he did not believe in that interval of 218 years between the Buddha ard Asoka, his inde- pendent proof for the date of Asoka, lent support to those who believed the interval, used this date of Asoka and decided the Buddha's date. Moreover, Smith's arguments in this case are very important and hence those are given hereunder. Section II—V.A. Smith’ For nearly 70 years, the Piyadasi class of inscriptions has been studied and discussed by eminent scholars. Before these invaluable records can be fully and confidently utilised for the elucidation of the dark places in Indian history, two preliminary "Authorship of Piyadasi Insoriptiors’ by Vincent Smith, JRAS, 1901, p 481.62 problems must be definitely solved. These problems are, firstly, were all the Piyadasi inscriptions issued by one sove- eign, or by two or more sovereigns ? and secondly, who was Piyadasi ? All Inscriptions {ssued by one Sovereign’ : The great majority of inscriptions were written in the Magadh: dialect familiar to the officials of Pataliputra, the capital of the empire. The inscriptions at remote positions, Girnar and Shahbazgarhi (with Mansera), which were doubtless ‘promulgated respectively under the immediate orders of the viceroys stationed at Ujjain and Taxile, exhibit variations of spellings and dialect which are plainly local. The Rupanath and Siddapura Minor Edicts present variations intermediate between the eastern and the western versions of the Fourteen Rock Edicts, and these minor edicts also were issued probably from a provincial secretariat; but there is no ground for alleging that the orthography and language of any one grqup of inscriptions belong to an appreciably earlier or later period than those of the other groups. Tne inference of unity of authorship is supported by the ‘occurrence of the peculiar formula at the opening of the Edicts- “Thus Saith His Majesty” -which is used alike in the Fourteen Rock Edicts, the Seven Pillar Edicts and the Minor Rock Edicts. This formula which was apparently imitated from the practice of the Persian monarch Darius, son of Hystaspes, is in India, peculiar to the Piyadasi inscriptions, If the Devanampiya of the Minor Rock Ecicts were distinct from the Davanampiya Piyadasi Raja of the Fourteen Rock Edicts, Seven Pillar Edicts and Tarai Pillar Edicts, it is unlikely that this mode of address would have been used by the author of the Minor Rock Edicts. An examination of the substantive contents of the Edicts fully confirm the conclusion deduced from the material, alphabet, ‘orthography and janguage of the documents and formulas of the royal title and address to the subjects used therein. 1, ibid, pp. 420, 491, 494~§63 The three classes of edicts are found over a vast space extending from Mysore on the South to the Himalayas in the North and from the Bay of Bengal on the East to the Arabian Sea: on the West. The empire was truly large as King Piyadasi observes. The remark that the edicts would be found to occur in verious recenssions, abbreviated, of medium length, or expanded, is admicaply illustrated by the set of Minor Rock Edicts. The abbreviated recenssion is found at Bairat, the medium forms at Rupnath and Sanasram, and the expanded form at Siddapura in triplicate. The repetitions of phrases and sentiments, which King, Piyadasi so naively mentions as a characteristic of his. compositions, is apparent in every paragraph of the two principal. tots of edicts and is also found in the Minor Rock Edicts. The testimony of the Sixth Pillar Edict is absolutely conclusive as to the unity of authorship of the Fourteen Rock Edicts and the Seven Pillar Edicts. Rock Edict No. !V professes to- have been composed in the thirteenth year of the reign. The Sixth Pillar Edict, dating from the twenty-seventh year, expressly rrentions the fact that the king had in his thirteenth year, ordered religious edicts to be writtens to promote the welfare and happiness of his people and the growth of the principles of TelIgiON.......006 Thy subject matter of all tha inscriptions, except the: brief dedications, is one and the same, the proclamation and enforcement of that system of morals, or Law of Piety, which had commended itself to the king’s conscience. All the royal. institutions and commands are directed to one sole end, the establishment of the kinadom of righteousness, as he conceived: tighteousness. In 4 word, all the edicts are sermons. Buhler had rightly observed that we possess many hundreds of inscrip- tions issued by Indian kings, but among them not one sermon, save only those of King Piyadasi. No other Indian monarch has- tried by means of official proclamations to convert his subjects. to a particular creed, and to maintain them in the practice of virtue and morality. It is very difficult to believe that two or64 more nearly contemporary kings using the same name or titles adopted this extraordinary and unprecedented practice. The awkwardness of expressions, the individuality of style, and the passionate earnestness of exhortation leave no doubt in my mind that these unique sermons are in the main the personal composition of @ single author, the Emperor Piya- dasi himself. The Sovereign is a Buddhist! + The doubts felt by several scholars on the subject of the unity of authorship of the inscriptions were largely based on doubts concerning the religion of the sovereign who issued them. Although the teachings of the two principal series of inscrip- tions, the Fourteen Rack Edicts ad the Seven Pillar Edicts, is apparently more Buddhistic than anything else, there is little that is distinctively Buddhist in the documents, and it has been found possible to argue that their author was not a Buddhist. But even the Fourteen Rock Edicts themselves contain evidence of their Buddhist origin. The elephant carved on the relief on the rock over the Dhauli text, the figure of an elephant engraved on the Kalsi rock, and labelled Gajatame, ‘the most excellent elephant”, and the legend below the Girnar text, va sveto hasti sarvelokadukhaharo nama, “that white elephant giving happiness to all worlds", which evidently referred to an engraving now Jost, are all. clearly symbols of Gautama Buddha, whose mother, according to a well-known legend, dreamt on the night of his conceptionthat @ white elephant entered her side. Sundry words aad turns of phrases also are clearly Buddhistic. The memorial inscriptions of the Tarai pillars prove that Piyadasi was an ardent Buddhist in the fifteeath year of his reign when he enlarged the stupa of Konakamana Buddha, and jn the twenty-first year of his reign, when he personally ‘did reverence to the birth place of Gautama Buddha and to the stupa of Konakamana. “T. ibid, pp, 482-93.65 With these preofs of Buddhism of Piyadasi available, no hesitation need now be felt in identifying the Piyadasi of the Fourteen Rock Edicts with the author of the Bhabra Edict. The notion that the author of any of the Piyadasi inscrip- tions was a Jainis now obsolete and untenable. The fact that the cave inscriptions express donations made by king Piyadasi to Vaishnava Ajivikas is no objection against the kings’ Buddhism. The edicts contain numerous declarations of the monarch’s complete tolerance of all Indian sects, and of his readiness to adopt the policy of concurrent endowment. The absence from the principal edicts of any overt decla- ration of faith in Buddhism is adequately explained by the observation of Prot. Kern that such a ceclaration would have been out of place in proclamations addressed to the people at large without distinction of sect, and devoted to the enforce- ment of practical duties of morality and piety on persons of all shades of opinion. To sum up, all the inscriptions which purport to have been \ssued by Roja Piyadasi ere fully, and in my Judgement con- Clusively, proved to fave been issued by, and under the personal diraction of, a single Buddhist emperor of India, whose full titles were expressed in the formula Devanampiya Piyagasi Raja, ‘Hla Sacred Majesty King Piyadasi.’ Priyadarshl is. Asoka Maurya‘ More than sixty years ago, when the question of identifica- tlon of Plyadasi with Asoka Maurya was first mooted, Turnour pointed out that the identification is expressly made by the ancient Ceylonese chronicle known as Dipavamsa, which was probably composed in the fourth century A.D. Whatever be the value of the Ceylonese tradition as evidence for the facts and chronology of Asoka’s reign, the language of the Dipavamsa is conclusive evidence to prove that in the fourth century A.D. the names of Asoka and Piyadasi 1) ‘The Identity of iysdasi with Asoka Maurya and Some Connected Problems’ by V.A smith JRAS, 1901, pp. 628431, 833.66 were as a matter of fact identical. If no evidence as to the identity of Asoke and Piyadasi existed other than the testimony of the Dipavamsa, that testimony alone would suffice to establish 3 prima facie case for the identity and throw the burden of proof on the party denying it. Hiuen-Tsiang describes the great stone pillar at Lumbini Garden, crowned by the figure of a horse, which was erected by Asoka Raja. That pillar still exists and bears an inscription mentioning the horse statue, now lost, and stating that the monu- ment was erected'by Piyadasi Raja. The identity of the existing pillar with that seenby Hiuen Tsiang being beyond all question, the necessary inference is that Asoka Raja and Piyadasi Raja were identical, A double synchronism of Indian and Greek kings, while giving a firm foundation for the chrofiology of ‘the history of ancient India, incidentally serves also as cogent evidence of ‘the identity of Asoka Maurya with Piyadasi of the inscriptions. The Brahmsnics) Puranas, the Ceylonese chronicles and the Jain books all agree in representing Asoka, the emperor of Indi’, as. being a member of the Maurya clan, son of Bindysara, the grand- son of Chandragupta. This evidence is confirmed by the only Indian inscription which mentions either Asoka or Chandragupta by name, that is to say, the famous inscription recorded by Rudradaman at Girnar in A.D. 150. That inscription stetes that the canals appertaining to the Girnar lake were constructed by the governor appointed by Asoka Maurya, the embankments of the lake having been formed in the time of Chandragupte Maurya. The inscription theretore, proves that the Asoka who was the sovereign of Gujarat tong before A.D. 150 was a Maurya who reigned subsequently to Chandragupta, who also was & sovereign of Gujarat. The Asoka and Chandragupte of the inscription must therefore be the Maurya kings bearing those names who are celebrated by a gfeat mass of ancient tradition as Emperors of India. Accepting as trua the statement that Chandragupta and his son Bindusara reignad collectively for a period of 49 years, and also accepting, for the reasons above stated, the year B.C. 321'as the date of the accession of Chandragupta, the accession67 ‘of Chandragupta’s grandgon, Asoka must have taken place in the year B.C, 272 (321-49). Asoka’s date from Synchrnoism of Yavana Kings of Asoka’s Edicts'. I shall now proceed to show that the same year, B.C. 272, is obtained as the date of the accession of Asoka from the synchronism of Piyadasi with Magas of Cyrone and the Greek kings mentioned in the Thirteenth Rock Edict. In as much as the names Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus and Alexander were borne by many of the successors of Alexander the Great, no one of these four names is in itself sufficient to establish a synchronism between the Greek and the Indian sovereigns. The only decisive name is that of Magas ‘of Cyrene, who is the only king of that name, and is admitted by all authorities to have died in B.C. 258. Magas was the half-brother of Ptolemi Philadelphus, king of Egypt, who died in B.C. 246, and who must be the Ptolemi referred to in the inscription as a contemporary of Magas. The Antiochus of the inscription can only be Antiochus Theos, king of Syria, who married the daughter of Ptolemi Philadelphus, and was murdered in B.C. 246 or 247. The Antigonus of the inscription cannot be any other than Antigonus Gonatas, who was either fighting for or in occupetion of the throne of Macedonia from B.C. 283 to 239. His rival and contemporary, Alexander, son of Pyrrhus, xing of Epirus (B.C. 272 to circa B.C. 258), is clearly the Alexander mentioned in the inscription. The death of Magas having occurred at some time in the year B. C. 258, and that of Alexander of Epirus at about the same time or a little earlier, the date of the edict cannot possibly be much later. When the fact is remembered that the Hellenistic kingdoms of Africa and Asia were in frequent and easy communication with the Indian empire, it is certain that only a very moderate interval can have elapsed between the deaths of Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus and the communication of those events to the Emperor of India. The deaths of these two kings must have been known to the Emperor 1, ibid, pp. 834-37.68 of India in the year B.C. 256 at the very latest, and the Thirteenth Rock Edict, consequently, cannot be assigned a later date. The edict is dated in the thirteenth year from the corona- tion of the Emperor Piyadasi, which event, therefore, cannot be placed later than 268B C. (258+ 12). But considering. the facilities for communication, the date B.C, 257 for the edict is more probable. The coronation of Piyadasi must then be placed in the year B.C. 269. The language of the inscriptions proves that the coronation was not coincident with the accession of Piyadasi, and. if it is assumed that the Ceylonese chroniclers have preserved a genuine tradition in alloting three complete years as the interval between the accession and the coronation, the latter event must be assigned to the year B.C. 272. Universal tradition, supported by the Rudradaman inscrip- tion, describes Asoka Maurya as Emperor of Indi Both the contents: and distribution of the Piyadasi inscriptions prove beyond the possibility of dispute that Piyadasi was the Emperor of India. The proof is complete that both Asoka and Piyadasi succeeded to the supreme power in India in about the year B.C. 272. In as much as it is impossible that there could Have been two emperors of India at the same time, as such Asoka Maurya and Piyadasi must be identical. The Puranas know only of one Asoka, the Maurya, whose fullname is given as Asokavardhana; and this Asoka is the only king of that name in early times known to Nepalese, Kashmiri, Tibetan and Chinese traditions or mentioned in an inscription, The only Asoka known to authentic history is AsoOkavardhana Priyadarshin, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya. Smith’s Chronology of Ancient Indian History? : Smith, on the basis of these dates of Chandragupta. Maurya and Asoka, calculated the exact dates of the different dynasties that ruled over Magadha before and after the Mauryas. He was able to invoke the aid of numismatics in addition to epigraphy. He could interpret the eras, particularly the Gupta 1. Early History of indi A. Smith, Oxford, 1924, pp, 46-48.69 era of the inscriptions and the legends on the coins and dis- cover a confirmation Gf the earlier opinions. He could not however get over, as if by compunction, the need to follow the Puranas in the enumeration of the kings and the dynasties. He took the dynasties and the succession of the kings as they were, he did not call them fictitious. He had objection to the jong periods of years that these Puranas some times assigned to particular kings and dynasties. They were improbable and fancifu! and so on their face, unreliable. So he set out te shift the intervals of time and adjust the dates on a rational basis, a basis that would quite convince the modern mind of a reason- able probability. Accordingly, where the Puranas have different readings, the shortest number of years is adopted, and where Puranas give a long period to any reign, it is reduced to twenty years as the average ascertainable in royal histories elsewhere, where the Puranas give only brief terms, that is adopted as correct. The result of these reductions is as follows: Dynasty Duration in Duration given Puranas by Smith (1) Nandas 100 45 (2) Mauryas 316 137 (3) Shungas 300 112 (4) Kanvas 85 45 (5) Andhras 506 289 (6) Guptas 245 149 These deductions and inferences of V.A. Smith have come to stay. Sheet Anchor — Exact Date Undecided : The date of coronation of Chandragupta Maurya is not exactly decided. It falls between B.C, 323, the date of the death of Alexander and B.C. 310, the date of the defeat of Seleukes Nikator by Sandrokottas. The total of the reign periods of Bindusara and Chandragupta, father and grandfather of Asoka is 56. Hence the date of the coronation of Asoka will fall somewhere between 267 and 254BC. The interval bétween the death of ‘the Buddha andthe coronation of Asoka, according to the Ceylonese chronicles is 218 years. So the death of the Budcha will be in between 485 and 472 B.C. The