Indian Antiquary Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 92

78
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1874.
of its correctness, in the Introduction to his Dharma- A soka. Here we have (1) the edition and translation of the Mahávanso | improbability of two successive councils being (Ceylon, 1837), been pretty generally accepted held by kings of the same name; (2) neither by scholars as the real date of that event. And the Buddhistic nor the non-Buddhistic books yet the first maintainers of this view, as Turn- of the North know anything of two Asokas; our and Lassen, admit that in this calcnlation (3) the name Kala- Asoka, the chronolothere is an error of 60 years in reference to Kinggical Asoka, is suspicious; (4) the Mahávanso Chandragupta, the Sandrakoptos of the is at variance with itself, for in chapter V. 218 Greeks, whose date we know with certainty years are said to have elapsed between the from classical sources. How any value conld Nirvana and the inauguration of Asoka, which be attached to a calculation which is thus shown took place four years after his accession; whilst to be erroneous as regards the end of the 4th at the end of the same chapter we are told that century B.c. would be inexplicable, were it not the third council took place in the 17th year that the dates adopted by the other Buddhists of Asoka's reign. The third council would (the Tibetans, Chinese, and Japanese) were less thus, according to the Mahåvanso, have been probable. The Cingalese chronology stands held in the 235th year after the Nirvana, favourably contrasted with their more extra- though on p. 22 of the same work it is said to vagant estimates. But, as Dr. Kern remarks, have occurred 218 years after that event, which there is a great difference between relative is, indeed, the ordinary assumption. or comparative value and absolute credibility. The Northern Buddhists know only of two And even this comparative value of the Cin- councils down to Asoka's time, one immediately galese chronology must undergo some deduc- after Buddha's death, and the second 110 years tion, as, though the later Buddhists of the later, ander A soka. A third council is placed North place Buddha far too early, yet their by them under Kanishka, more than 400 older books contain other data, consisting of a years after the Nirvana. In this chronology Dr. determination of the time of the first two coun- Kern finds nothing improbable or suspicious : cils and of Asoka's reign. And the question on the contrary, the correct determination of is, whether, with the help of these data, the age the distance in time between Aboka and Kanishof Buddha may not be fixed with more proba- ka forms a strong argument in favour of the bility than it can be by following the Cingalese credibility of this particular Northern tradition. books. This problem can only be completely In order to justify its rejection, an extraorsolved when the entire literature of the Northern dinary degree of credibility must be assigned Buddhists shall have become accessible to us in to the Cingalese books, to which they cannot the original languages.
justly lay claim. For in addition to the speciProf. Kern thinks that in so far as the books men already given, as Dr. Kern goes on to say, of the Northern and Southern Buddhists are almost every page of the Mahdvrneo offers yet known to us, the latter are in many respects evidence that it is not a pure sourop of inforundoubtedly the more trustworthy. But, as we mation for the earlier history of Buddhism. have already seen, by the miscalculation of 60 He then proceeds to adduce various instances years, they are not to be implicitly depended of this untrustworthiness, in the shape of exagupon. Anything, therefore, that they contain gerated numbers, miscalculation, contradictory, which is improbable in itself and is not con- improbable, and absurd statements, and confirmed from other quarters, may reasonably be cludes that a work of which the chronology regarded as open to doubt. One of these doubt abounds with inconsistencies, and which conful points is the account which they give of the tains a loosely connected narrative mixed up three Councils, one of which is unknown to the with all sorts of absurdities, must be undeseryNorthern Buddhists. According to the Cin- ing of reliance. The chronology of the Southgalese, the first council was held immediately ern Buddhists, where we can control it, is after the Master's (Buddha's) death; the second unsatisfactory. To assume that it is correct, exactly 100 years later, under a king called where we have no means of controlling it, can Kala- Asoka; and the third 118, or 135, only be the result of extraordinary prejudice. years after the second, under King A soka or! After introducing some remarks on the Pali