________________
860
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1891.
with one another. That change having once been made, and the lower terminal dates (565 A. V. of the Vth period, and 683 A. V. of the VIth period) being unalterable, it was further necessary to change the duration of the Vth period from 99 to 97, in order to harmonize the whole chronology. The question may be asked, why should the first change have been made in the duration and terminal date of the IIIrd period, instead of in the IVth period. For, Subhadra's accession having been fixed in the year 468 A. V., it must at once have been found to be incompatible with the Gâthâs, the calculation from which must have shown that 466 A. V. was the real date of his accession. The nearest remedy, it would seem, was to change, in the IVth period, the date 466 A. V. to 468 A. V. and the duration of 123 years to 125. Why this was not done, is not apparent, except on the supposition that the Gâthâ which gave the date 466 A. V. was at that time already mutilated; and that the date of the IVth period being missing, recourse was had to altering the date of the next preceding (i. e., the IIIrd) period.
This is, however, not the only discrepancy between the later and the older traditions. It has been shown that the calculation from the later tradition places the accession of Vikrama in 488 A. V., that is, in the 18th year of Vikrama's life. But the Gâthâs 18 and 19 seem to show clearly that he ascended the throne in his 24th year, i. e., in 494 A. V.
Accepting the statements of the Gâthâs to be correct, the real synchronisms would stand thus:-Vikrama was born in 470 A. V. and ascended the throne in 494 A. V. Subhadra succeeded to the pontificate in 466 A. V., and Bhadrabâhu II. in 490 A. V. Accordingly the accession of the latter was 24 years later than that of Sabhadra (herein both traditions agree); but it was 20-years after Vikrama's birth (not 22, as the later tradition says); and it was four years before Vikrama's accession (not 4 years after it, as the later tradition says); further, Vikrama's birth was 4 years after Subhadra's accession (not 2 years, as the later tradition says).
The most important point herein is, that Bhadrabahu II.'s accession really took place 4 years before Vikrama, because this affects the whole of the dates of the patțâvali proper. All those dates must be set back for exactly eight years.
Or, if those dates are correct, the date of either the birth or the accession of Vikrama must be placed eight years earlier.
In the former alternative, we have the year 494 A. V. for the accession of Vikrama, which would make the nirvana of Mahavira to fall in (494+57) 551 B. C. In the latter alternative, we should have the year 462 A. V. for the birth and (462 +24) 486 A. V. for the accession of Vikrama, and accordingly (486 + 57 =) 543 B. C. for the nirvana of Mahavira, that is, the very year given for Buddha's nirvána by the chronology of Ceylon. But as the year 470 A. V. is such a prominently fixed date in the Digambara tradition for the birth of Vikrama, 68 it seems preferable to ante-date the accession of Vikrama by eight years and to place it in (494-8) 486 A. V. This would place Mahivira's nirvana, again, in 543 B. C., but would put Vikrama's accession in the 16th year of his life. The question is, whether Gâthâs 18 and 19 admit his accession in that year. It appears to me possible to interpret the second line of Gâthâ 18 to mean, that Vikrama was at child's play up to his eighth and wandered about up to his sixteenth year. He then ascended the throne at 16, and followed the Brahmanic religion for 15 and the Jain religion for 40 years. The advantage of this view is that it fully agrees with the older tradition of the Crâthâs, and only corrects two of the synchronisms of the later tradition. In any case, the coincidence of the years of Mahavira's and Baddha's nirvána is a curious result.
2. On the history of Vikrama. Gåthâs 18 and 19, which refer to the history of Vikrama, are in a somewhat corrupt state. The reading rasapana makes no sense. I conjecture it to stand for panarasa (or pannarasa), "fifteen." The meaning of the verses I take to be, that Vikrama was born in 470 A. V., that he lived 8 years at home and then wandered about for
Also in the Svetambara tradition, where, however, it is the date of Vikrama's accession.
