Indian Antiquary Vol 46

SR No.: 032538
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 508
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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148
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1917
era, that is, in 527 B.0,22 as against 545 B.c.23 of the Pattavalis. Jinasena therefore places the rise of Kalki (527 B.C.,-1000 years) c. 473 A.D. As the Puranas give him a period of 25 years for his career of conquest,2 the end of his conquests and therefore of the ruling houses he extirpated, is to be dated, on the basis of the Jain datum, in (473 A.D. + 25) 498 A. D., which is exactly the date we get from the Puranis. It is most extraordinary that both the orthodox and the heterodox chronologiste marked the conquests of Kalki as the terminus of their chronologies.25
Jinasena's date for Kalki to be presumed as correct. I may point out that Jinasena was removed from Kalki only as much as we are from Akbar and Râşâ Pratáp. The event (498 A.D.) was only 286 years old in his time (784 A.D.). Therefore there is every presumption of correctness in favour of Jinasena's date for Kalki. The Jains of his time had reasons to remember him and his date, as the Rajputs of Mewâr of to-day have reasons to remember the date of Akbar. For they vall him the greatest persecutor of their religion since the time of the Mahavira.
Belief about Kalki's futurity. The Kalki-Purana, 26 in describing the life of Kalki, uses the past tense. The present Hindu belief that Kalkî is yet to come, is a recent development. Jayadeva (12th century) in his Gita-Govinda treated him as one already come and gone, like all the other avataras:
TYR -Tert. So does also the Bengali poet Chaydi Dåsa in the 14th century. Pandit Basanta Ranjan Ray Vidvad-vallabha of the Vangiya Sahitya Parishad gives me a quotation from an old manuscript of Kțishna-Karttana by Chandi Dâsa, in which he praises Krishna for having assumed Kalki's incarnation. The belief about the futurity of Kalki in Northern India seems to have been a growth later than the 14th century. In Orissa the belief appears for the first time; in the inscription of Maha-Siva- Gupta (Ep. Ind. xi. 191) which is placed about the 9th century A.c. it is to be found for the first time.
Decline of Gupta power and Kalki's date. The chronology given by Jinasena has one more noticeable feature. It places the Guptas immediately before Kalkî with a gap of 42 years :
Jarra igarren maifu af 4 11
द्विचत्वारिंशदेवातः कल्किराजस्थ राजता । "(The rule) of the Guptas is said by chronologists to be for 231 years; 42 years after this is the reign of King Kalki." So the Jaina chronology regards the Gupta power in Western India (the Jaina chronology is a chronology of Western India, of and about A anti) as having come to an end after 431 A.D. The blank represented by the 42 years is the period
22 The difference is due to the fact the period of 470 years, from the Nirvana up to Vikrama, which is regarded by the Palfdualis is coming down only to the birth of Vikrama which is 18 years before the beginning of the Vikrama era or Vikrama's coronation (58 B.C.), bas been taken by Jinasena as covering the whole period up to 58 B.C. He has missed the 18 years of pre-coronation years of Vikrame. Hence ho gets 521 B.c. instead of 545. The 546 B.C. reckoning is confirmed by the chronology cited by Jinasena himself. In the Paff dvali chronology from the Nirvana down to the coronation of Vikrama (58 B.c.) or the end of the Nahaväņa Gardabhin-Saks period plus 18 years (Vikrama's pre-coronation years), we get 488 years; and in Jinasena's, from the Nirudna to the end of the Gardabhin. Nabavina period, 487 yoars. (See App. A.) So in fact there is no difference between the two. The present Digambara Jains follow the date given by Jinasena.
23 (Ante, Vol. xx, p. 317; ante, Vol. II, p. 363 ; J.B. O.R.S. 1.35,36). 21 See infra. V&yu, 36.113.
25 Since this paper went to the press, Mr. Pathak's article on Gupta Era has appeared in the Bhandarkar Commemoration Volume (p. 195). He notices Gunabhadra's date of Kalkirja as follows: b. 473 A.C. coronation 503 A.O., d. 643 A.O. Gunabhadra flourished later than Jinasena. He seeks to bring dowh Kalki's dato by 30 years. The date given by Jinasena was according to his information really the date of Kalki's birth and not coronation.
26 Venkateśvara Press, Bombay, 1906. 21 Mr. Pathak's reading. Ante, Vol. XV, p. 141-2.