Indian Antiquary Vol 15

SR No.: 032507
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 446
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 288

252
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1886.
ferable of the two; for, as General Cunning- killed, must have taken place at any rate after ham has pointed out," the total silence of that period; (c) on the concurrent testimony of Fa-hian regarding any of the magnificent build the Chinese accounts, which state that a life of ings at Nalanda, leads us to infer that they Vasubandhu, the twenty-first patriarch, was must all have been built after A.D. 410. This, written by Kumarajiva in A.D. 409, and that however, is a matter that we must look to a history of the patriarchs, including Simha," Mr. Beal to clear up, in his forthcoming trang- was translated in China in A.D. 472; and lation of the Life of Hinen Tsiang; and I have (d) on the fact that the twenty-eighth panoticed it in passing only because of the use triarch, Bodhidharma, was certainly alive in which, in his attempt to fix the date of Mihi- A.D. 520, as he arrived in China, from South rakula and Baraditya, Mr. Beal has made, as India, in that year; which, allowing one noted below, of the name of Buddhagapta, the hundred years for the four patriarchs between second of these kings.
him and Sinha, brought us again to A.D. 480, The dates that have been proposed for the period already arrived at on grounds (a) Mihirakula and Baladitya are (1) and (6). by the late Mr. Fergusson, A.D. 180 to 200; 1 The real date, however, of Mihirakala (2) by General Canningham," during the cen- and BalAditya, -with, of course, the margin tury from A.D.450 to 550; and (3) by Mr. Beal," of a few years either way,-is now fized with A.D. 420.-Mr. Fergasson based his date on certainty by the duplicate pillar inscription the opinion, which he then held but afterwards of Ya 68 dharman, from Mandasör, which abandoned, that the reign of Kanishka ended I publish at page 253ff. below. A.D. 21; coupled with the statement of the This inscription records that this powerful Rájataragini, that twelve reigns intervened king Ya 60 d har man had worship done to between Kanishka and Mihirakula.-General his feet by king Mihirakula," whose Cunningham's date was based partly on Fa- forehead was pained through being bent low hian's silence regarding Baláditya's sangha- down by the strength of his arm, in the act rama and the other buildings at NÅlanda ; and of compelling obeisance;" i.e. that he subjupartly on the similarity of the architectural gated Mihirakula. And, as another Mandasör style of BalAditya's temple with that of a inscription, published by me at page 222 ff. temple near the Bodhi-tree at Bôdh-Gaya, above, has already given us the date of Málavawhich, he had already shewn," must have Savat 589 (A.D. 532-33) expired, for Yaśdbeen built about A.D. 500.-And Mr. Beal dharman, we now know very closely the time based his date (a) upon hie erroneous identi- of the overthrow of Mihirakula's power in at fication of the Buddhagupta of Hiuen any rate Western and Central India. Tsiang's account with the Budhagapta of the As regards the beginning of his reign, we Eran inscription; which, coupled with his adop- have only to notice that Mihirakula's tion of the theory that the Gupta era com- Gwalior inscription is dated in his fifteenth menced A.D. 190, gave for Buddhagupta the year. Considering all that he did subsequently date of A.D. 349 to 368, and for his "grand- in Kasmir and Gandhara, it will be admitted Bon" Baláditya a period fifty years later; that this date must be very near the end of his (6)on the fact that, in Fa-Hian's time (A.D. Indian career. His fifteenth year, therefore, 399-414), Buddhism was still flourishing, and must fall somewhere about A.D. 532-33, the there were five hundred sarhgharamas in the recorded date of Yaśðdharman; and in all neighbourhood of the Swat river; whereas in probability a year or two before it. And we Hiuen Tsiang's time all the convents were shall probably be very near the mark indeed, ruined and desolate ; which shewed that Mihi. if we select A.D. 515 for the commencement rakula's persecution, during which Simha was of his career. at Archæol. Suru. Ind. Vol. I. p. 30.
" Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. I. p. 7f. » Jour. R. As. Soc., N. S., Vol. IV. pp. 98, 102, 116, See p. 251 above, note 33. 117; and Tree and Serpent Worship, second edition, * Seo page 245 above, note 5. What we require to
know is whether this account includes the death of » Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. I, p. 30.
Sithha and, if so, how A.D. 472 is arrived at for its Buddh. Rec, West. World, Vol. I. p. 119, note 1, translation. and p. 168, note 9.
P. 265.