________________
Demise of Lord Buddha: A Controversy regarding date 431
a reference that after the death of King Pin - Tou - Sha (Bindusar) to A-Yuk (Ashoka) killed all his brothers leaving only one who comes of the same mother. After four years, he crowned himself. It was 218 years after the demise of Buddha that Ashoka took the sole command of the land of Jambudvipa.
Evidence of the dotted record of Canton
A historical record, under the name "A dotted record of many Sages" was recovered in 534 A.D. by an ascetic Chan - P- Isiu from a monk called Kung -- Tu during his visit to the temple on the mount Lu. The tradition goes regarding the record that after the Buddha's death, venerable Upali collected the Vinaya Pitaka. Then on the 15th day of the 7th month of that year when he had received the TSZ (self throwing off restraint; the festival held at the termination of the Buddhist vassa), he worshiped the manuscript of Vinaya Pitaka with flowers and incense, and added one dot at the beginning of Vinaya Pitaka thus he did every year in the same way. When Upali was going to enter nirvana, (447 B.C. taken from S.B.E. vol. 10 part 1, 8.xliv) he handed it over to disciple Dasaka (397 B.C.) in this way it passed on to Sonaka (353 B.C.) from Sonaka to Siggava (300 B.C.), from Siggava to Mogalliputtatissa (233 B.C.) from Mogalliputtatissa to Chandvagga to the teacher of Sanghbbadra. This teacher brought this manuscript of Vinava Pitaka to Kwang or Canton. When he was embarking homeward he handed the Vinaya Pitaka to his disciple, Sanghbbadra. In A.D. 490 after venerating the Vinaya Pitaka he added one dot. It is said that in 490 A.D. there were 975 dots and every dot represented one year, thus this would give the year 485 B.C. as the year in which Upali wrote the manuscript immediately after the demise of Lord Buddha (Indian Antiquary; May 1884 vol xiii, p. 149). Regarding this evidence few objections have been raised by various scholars. Firstly it is not possible to accept with certainty that Upali wrote a manuscript.
