________________
238
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1902.
From these independent and very closely concurrent testimonies of the BrAhmaņas, the Bauddhas, and the Jainas, the date of Chandragupta is thus conclusively and without doubt found to be 60 years before 820 or 816 B. O., to which latter date European scholars try to reduce it arbitrarily and without sufficient reason, from a so-called Greek synchronism, as recorded by Justin, Strabo, and other Greek authors, who, quoting the fragmentary and somewhat fabulous accounts of. Megasthenes, record of Sandracyptus or Sandracottus as once visiting Alexander the Great in his camp, and then defeating Seleucus Nicator in about 310 B. O., and expelling the Greeks from the Panjab, which Chandragupta is never proved to have visited
Aboka II. - The Maurya, the Sandracottus of the Greeks. That the age of Asoka II. annot be reduced by about 66 years is evident from the several dates, recorded in the different chronicles of the Jainas, the Brahmaņas, and the Bauddhas of the southern and northern schools. The Jainas record in the Parisietha-parvan, that Samprati, the disciple of Subastin (219 - 265 A, V. = 308 - 269 B. C.), ascended the throne of Patalipatra in 235 A. V., that is, 292 B. O., when Aboks 8rt died. Adding 37 years to 292 B. C., we get 829 B.O., exactly the year when Asôka usurped the throne. For the Di pavisa records that Abóka was crowned in 218 A, B., four years after his father died, that is, in 325 B. C. The Tibetans also says that Aboka ascended the throne in 234 A. B. Nirvana era, not l'arinirvêņa. Deducting 20 years from it, we get 214, precisely the date when Vinduskra died. According to the Buddhists, the period between the accession of Bimbisåra and the end of A ska's reign was really 811 years, not 375, as Professor Duncker calculates. Professor Duncker notes, in his History of Antiquity, that according to the Baddhists, the interval between Bimbisåra's accession and Asoka's death was 375 years; while according to the Vayu Purdņa it was 378 years, a difference of only 8 years. Bimbiskra ascended the throne in 603 B. C., 15 years before the attainment of Buddhahood by Siddharths at Uravilya, near Gayâ, in 109 Anjana Era = 588 B. C., and Aśoks died at the age of 82 in 251 A, B., that is, 292 B. C. The interval therefore amounts to exactly 311 years.
In 286 A. B., Devanupiya Tiggs was crowned king of Ceylon, when Asoka wag reigning in his 18th year, after 58 years of the reiga of Mutasiva, who became king in the 14th year of Chandragupta. These figures are further checked by the statement that Mahindra received initiation from Tissa Mögalipatra, then 66 years old from his upasan pada, and in the 6th year of Asoka's reign, and in the 48th of Mutasiva's. Calculating by adding up the reigns of the Magadha and Ceylon kings, and the duration of the patriarchato, in the way I did before in the cases of Kalabóka and Chandragupta, we find that the 6th year of Abbka's reign was 224 A. B. by the chronological equation of 63 of the Patricide dynasty + 100 of the Nandag + 61 of Mauryas = 224 of the Magadha kinga; = 106 up to end of the interregnum + 118 down to 48th year of Mutasiva = 224 of the Ceylon kings; = 16 + 44 + 89 + 60 + 65 = 224 pasaspada, daration of the Sthâviras.16 It will thus be seen that these chronological equations check one another; and the date of Asoka's coronation was 218 A, B, is therefore established beyond the possibility of a doubt.
In the face of the facts and figures, above mentioned, there cannot be any doubt that Aboka ascended the throne between 820 and 828 B. O. He cannot therefore be pushed forward by 66 or 70 years on the assumption that Sandracottus was Chandragupta, the first Maurya emperor ; and because Priyadarsi is said to have mentioned, in a few inscriptions, the so-called five contemporary kings of Greece. I doubt that the inscriptions, in which the YÔna Kings are mentioned, were ever published by Asoka II. They were most probably issued by
* See Rookhil'. Life of the Buddha, chapter on the "Listory of Bod-yul." 14 See Chronological Tablo above
