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Demise of Lord Buddha : A Controversy regarding date
Geeta Dutt
The great demise of Buddha has uptil now been a matter of serious discussion among the historians and scholars. J. Takaksu on the basis of dotted records of ancient sages has decided 486 B.C. the Nirvana date of Lord Buddha. William Geiger has taken 483 B.C. as the date of the demise. Fleet agrees with this point with a little difference as 12th October 483 B.C. was the actual date of passing away of Buddha. Wickram Singh ji too agreed with this view. Dr. G.C. Pandey has stated that Lord Buddha was born in Lumbinivana at Kapilvastu the capital of Sakyas in the year 563 B.C. Now by taking into consideration the total life span of 80 years of Buddha the nirvana date will come to 483 B.C. The tradition of Kashmir and India provides 100 years of time gap between the death date of Buddha and the Coronation of King Ashoka which comes to 364 B.C. Prof. Kera has taken 259 B.C. as the initial date of Ashoka in that case taking the gap of 100 years the nirvana date will come to 359 B.C. the Gandhar traditional places 400 years from the death of Buddha to Kanishka in this case if the rule of Kanishka be taken about 144 A.D. the nirvana date of Buddha would come to 544 B.C. The Ceylonese tradition places the Coronation of Ashoka just after 218 years after the demise of Buddha.
The statement of Sung - Yuri fixes Kanishka only 300 years after the death of Buddha. In the Chinese text there is
