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JUNE, 1878.]
TEE THREE NEW EDICTS OF ASOKA.
149
Mr. Rhys Davids begins his essay by giving were respectively twenty and eighteen years old, a few facts which make the early use of the they came to Ceylon 12 years afterwards, and now prevalent Ceylonese era of the Nirvana, died.there, at the ages of sixty and fifty-nine, and the general acceptance of its initial date in the eighth and ninth years after Tissa. Hence 543 B.c., somewhat doubtfol. He shows that it may be concluded that Mahinda lived in Ceylon even modern inscriptions in Ceylon are not 27 years, eight of which were subsequent to Tissa. always dated in the era of Buddha, while the The reign of the latter must therefore have lasted oldest known in which that era occurs, belongs twenty, not forty years as stated in the chronito the twelfth century, and that the Chinese cles. Mr. Rhys Davids remarks that Turnour pilgrim Fa Hian, who visited Ceylon in 412 and his Pandits, who are apparently supported by A.D., speaks of a Ceylonese proclamation or a passage of the Dipavarsa, have got over the sermon in which the Nirvana was mentioned difficulty with Mahinda by explaining the figures as falling 1497 years earlier. Adverting, then, 60 and 59 to refer to Mahinda's and his to the fact that the elements of the calculation sister's spiritual ages, but that under this for the date of the Nirvana are contained in the supposition, too, there is a discrepancy of two Dipavarisa and in the Mahavarisa, he further years, as the correct number for Sanghamitta points out that its beginning in 543 B.C. de- would be 61 (12+ 40 + 9). Mr. Rhys Davids pends on three periods, viz. the period from next expresses & doubt regarding the correctDutthagamini, 161 B.C., down to the pre- negs of the period of 218 years stated to have sent time; the period from the coronation of elapsed between the Nirvana and Asoka's coroDevana mpiya Tissa, 236 B.C., to Dut-nation, because the number of kings and of patri. tha gå mini, 161 B.O.; and the period from archs or chiefs of the Buddhist church placed the Nirvana to Devånampiya Tissa, between the two events is too small for the ---the total of the three (236 + 146 + 161) being length of the period. Taking first into consi543. Accepting the period which begins with deration the list of the Magadha kings, who Datthagâmini as correct, he proceeds to an ex- fill the space between Buddha and Asoka, amination of the other two. Travelling over oft- he admits that it involves no absurdities. But trodden ground, he shows, with the help of the it appears suspicious to him, because a num. Greek notices of Chandragupta and of ber of kings are said to have murdered their A foka's inscriptions, that an error of more fathers, and because the years assigned to some than sixty years exists in the Ceylonese chrono- are multiples of 4 and 8, and finally because the logy of the oldest period of 236 years, as the Parâ nas have a shorter list. The list of the kings latter places Chandragupt a's accession in of Ceylon between 1 and 236 A.B., which he 381 B.C., and A sok a's in 325 B.C. Next, turn- takes up next, clearly shows traces of an undue ing to the second period of 146 years, he finds lengthening of the reigns, as only five kings are that the great number of years assigned to named, the last of whom, Mutasiva, must have Mutasiva and his nine sons likewise indi- reached the respectable age of 147 years. After cates the existence of a serious error, point this, Mr. Rhys Davids passes to the list of the which other scholars, too, have noticed, -and Theras or Buddhist patriarchs from 1 to 285 A.B. that the statements of the chronicles regarding He extracts the data regarding them from the Mahinda and Sanghamitt å show De Dipavainsa, and, reducing all the years given vânâ m-Piya Tissa's reign to have been there according to the reigns of the Ceylonese donbled. Mahinda and Sanghamitta were and Magadha kings to years of the Buddha era. ordained in the sixth year of Asoka, when they he arranges them in tabular form as below:
se at 1pa- Length of Age at Upa. Length of
Age at Date of Upa. Name. Date of Birth
Date of sampadá of sampade, A.B.
Member
Death. successor.
Death, A.B.
ship. Upali................. 44 Bef. B.
74
80 D&saka ............... 14 A.B.
50
80 Sonaka ...............
124 Siggava ........... 100
100 Ti888
158 Mahinda .............
285
60
II888.............
234
204
