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before his real time. The dates given by the modern European scholars for his birth and death are 557 and 477 B. C. respectively. General Alexander Cunningham has treated this question very elaborately and minutely in the preface to the first volume (Inscriptions of Asoka) of his Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Cunningham starts by examining critically the date 544 B, C. given by the Pali texts of Ceylon and Burmah of Buddha's death, and shows by various argu. ments that there is a mistake of 66 years in this counting, and thus brings down the date of his Nirvana from B. c. 544 to B. O, 478. Cunningham's first argument is based on Chandra Gupta's date 'of accession. The Pâli chronicles assigned for the accession of Chandra Gupta 162 A, B. (i. 0. 162 years after the death of Buddha) that is in (5444162) 382 B. C. Now the date of Chandra Gupta has been determined by proofs independent of the Pâli texts. He has been identified by Sir William Jones Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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