Indian Antiquary Vol 07

SR No.: 032499
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1878.
The first glance at this table shows that the In the case of Dasaka, the date for his figures given there are intended to form a chain, spiritual age at Sonak a's upasampadá has not each link of which is closely connected with been given correctly in the text, which in one some of the others. The connexion is established passage reads forty years, and in the other in this wise, that the difference between the forty-five years. The correction can be made dates of each teacher's and his pupil's upasam- only with the help of the dates of Dâsak a's padá gives the age of the former at the latter own and Sonak a's upasampadd. The former is ceremony; that, further, the difference between placed in A gata satru 24 = Vijaya 16 = 16 the date of the upasampadd and of the death gives A.B., and the three periods agree exactly. The the length of the spiritual life; and that finally the date of Sonak a's upasampadá is given as having difference between the dates of the teacher's and taken place N agad a sa 10 and Pandu raja the pupil's death gives the length of the latter's 20. The former date corresponds with 58 A.B., chiefship of the Vinaya. But the most cursory and the latter, if it is taken to refer to completed inspection also shows that some of the figures years, with 59 A.R. For Vija ya ruled full thirty. given are corrupt and do not answer.
eight years; after his death came an interregnum In the case of U pâli the date of the upa sam- of one year, and then only followed Panduva sa's padá is not given, but may be calculated by de- abhisheka." The Depavarisa (XI. 10) says also ducting the length of time during which he was expressly that Någa då sa had completed Chief of the Vinaya after Buddha's death from twenty-one years when Pandu vasa died ; his spiritual age : 74-30 = 44. His spiritual age ekavísari Nágadáso Panduváso tadá gato. The at the upasampadá of D à sa k a, sixty years (col. text of the Diparansa does not seem to be corrupt 4), is given, and the correctness of the statement in the two passages which contain the equation can be controlled by the dates for his own and Någa dâ sa 10 = Pandu vâs a 20 (IV. 41 his pupil's upasampadd, the difference between and V. 78, 79). Still the date 58 A.B. is rewhich-41 B.B. and 16 A.B.-must, and does give quired for Sonaka's ordination, as he is said to exactly 60. The length of his spiritual life, which have died at the end of Nandas 6 = 124 A.B., is once given as full seventy-four years and as the and the difference between 58 and 124 A.B. seventy-fourth year, i.e. seventy-three years plus exactly agrees with the length of his spiritual an indefinite number of months, can be tested by life, or nearly sixty-six years. The discrepancy the figure given for his spiritual age at Sonaka's therefore, must be, either real and owing to a
pasampada and the difference between the date slip of the author, or it may have been caused by of the latter and the date of Upåli's death, which his using round numbers instead of exact together amount to 60 + 14=74. The discre- dates in his calculations. An author who talks pancy between the two statements which mention as loosely as the Ceylonese chroniclers do might both the seventy-fourth year and seventy-four perhaps say that at the close of Buddha 58 years, may be got over by assuming that he died Någadása had ruled ten years, and Paņduvâsa in his seventy-fourth year, but that his death took twenty, though in reality the former counted place towards the end of the year. As the author three or four months in excess of ten years, and of the Dipavansa nearly throughout uses round the latter seven or eight months less than twenty. figures, he found it more practical to substitute He further might assert that eleven years later, in his calculation seventy-four full instead of at the close of 69 A.B., ten years of N &gad & sa's seventy-three full years. This explanation reign had elapsed, and that Pandu vas a died applies also to the spiritual ages of Dâ'sa ka, after ruling thirty years. This explanation apSonak a, and Tissa. In the case of Sigga vapears to me the most likely. For it may be consiseventy-six complete years (chhasattati) are given dered certain that in very few cases only the everywhere. Hence it may be concluded that initial dates of the reigns of the Magadha kings his death occurred either exactly at the end of and of the Ceylon kings fell on the initial dates the seventy-sixth year or in the beginning of of the corresponding years of Buddha. It seems the seventy-seventh. The same remark holds also, from the case of the date of Siggava's good for Mahinda, whose age is always given ordination, which will be discussed below, that as sixty years. .
the chroniclers possessed more exact figures, but Dipavaniusa IX. 42, XI. 2, X. 6, and XI. 3-10.