Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study

SR No.: 022804
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nagaraj Muni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 804
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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tencies, the chronological beliefs of the Mahavamsa such as "Buddha's death in the 8th year of Ajatas atru's reign (222), "Asoka's coronation (anointment) 218 years after Buddha's Nirvana" contradict not only Tripitakas and more genuine literary works, but also run counter to the fundamental historical facts.
Dr. Vinsent Smith had long ago warned the historians against the over-estimation of the value of the Ceylonese chronicles (223). Dr. H.C. Raychaudhuri has also maintained that these Ceylonese legends cannot be made basis of the historical conceptions (224). Dr, Shanti Lal Shah has already found out the reason of the discrepancy which is found in the Ceylonese chronicles, and which he terms as a deliberated perversion(225). He writes (226): "The peculiarity of the Buddhist tradition (The Ceylonese tradition) is that it confines itself firstly to the history of the Hinayana Buddhism and secondly to the history of its development in Ceylon, since Buddhism although originating in India, had found its development in Ceylon. Because of this territorial limitation, which has been a great factor for the preservation of the history of Ceylon, the account of this tradition about Ceylon is much more perfect than that about India. One who is acquainted with the scheme and content of the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa will hardly fail to notice that the account of the North Indian kings in these two books is only occasional and of minor importance. This conclusion is absolutely borne out by the typical construction of the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa (227)".
In spite of all these inconsistencies, in the most of the approaches made up to now to fix the date of Buddha's Nirvana, the Ceylonese chronology has been accepted as the main basis. This seems to be the main reason responsible for the discrepancy created between the chronology of Buddha and the genuine life-events of Buddha.
The Chronology of Buddhaiddha
In such a condition, when the chronology of Buddha itself is dubious and uncertain, in order to compute the period of contemporaneity of Mahāvira and Buddha, the life-events depicted in the Agamas and the Tripitakas,