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DECEMBER, 1908.)
THE DATE OF BUDDHA.
843
In a Book Edict of his thirteenth year and Asoka always counts his years from the time of his coronation), Aboka says that he wade war with Kalinga in his ninth year and that, as remorse came upon him in consequence of the immense destruction caused during the war, he resolved thenceforth to give up military conquests, and he then proceeds to say:
"And this is the chiefest conquest in His Majesty's opinion, the conquest by the Law of Piety, this also is that effected by His Majesty both in bis own dominions and in all the neighbouring realms as far as six hundred yojanas- even to where the Yavana King nained Antigoka dwells, and, beyond that Antiyoka, to where dwell the four Kings severally named Turamaye, Antikina, Makit, and Alikasandare, and in the south, the Kings of the Cholas and Pandyas and of Simhala."
The Yavana Kings have thus been correctly identified: Antiyoka with Antiochus (Theos), who ascended the Syrian throne in 261 B. O. and died about 246 B. C.; and the farther Kings Turamaye, Antikina, Maka and Alikasandare, respectively, with Ptolemy (Philadelphus, King of Egypt from B.O. 285 to 347), Antigonas (Gonatas, King of Macedonia from B.C. 278 to 242), Magas (King of Cyrene who died in 258 B. C.), and Alexander (King of Epirus from B. C. 272 to 258). It is thus evident that the missionarios, sent by Asoka to these kingdoms between the ninth and the thirteenth year of his reign, raached them between B. O. 261 and 258, the dates, respectively, of the accession of Antiochus Theos and of the death of Magay, King of Cyrene. As the missionaries might most probably have reached the Greek Kingdoms about a year after the conquest of Kalinga, we may safely infer that the tenth regnal year of Asoka corresponded with B, C. 200 or 259, or, in other words, that his coronation was celebrated abont the year 269 B. O. And As, according to the Chronicles, the coronation was in the fourth year after his accession to the throne and the reign lasted for over 37 years after the coronation, we may regard Asoka's reign to have extended from about B. C. 278 to 281.
We have next to determine the date of Chandragupta. The Ceylonese Chronicles tell us that Chandragupta reigned for twenty-four years, and that his son Bindaskra reigned before Asoka for a period of twenty-eight years. The P ayu Purd na gives the same period for Chandragupta, but assigus a period of twenty-five years for Bindusara, which may be incorrect, as the total of the periods of the individual reigns of this dynasty fall short of the total period given for the whole dynasty by about four years. Following the chronology of the Ceylonese Chronicles, the evidence of which, in this case at any rato, there is not much reason seriously to doubt, we get 273 plus 52, or 325 B. O., for the beginning of the Maurya Era, dating from Chandragapta's accession to the throne of Magadha.
We have now to see if there is anything in the Greek sooounts of this period of Indian History to militate against the correctness of the above date. In speaking of the report brought to Alexander that the Gangaritans and Præsians (i.e., of the Prâchi or Magadha Kingdom) were prepared to meet with a huge army the attack of the Greeks, in consequence of which Alexander was made to retrace his steps, Plutarch, who lived about the beginning of the Christian Era, says (Life of Alexander, 72) "For Androcottus, who not long after reigned in those parts with an army of 600,000 men, subdued all India .. Androcottus, then a youth, saw Alexander there and is said often afterwards to have been heard to say that he missed but little of making himself master of these countries; their king who then reigned, was so hated and despised for the viciousness of his life and the meanness of his extraction."
We may infer from this extract that Androcottus, or Chandragupta, was at the time sufficiently influential and mature to be able to meet Alexander in the Panjab, and that the time was then favourable for the overthrow of the Magadhan King, as Chandragupta himself found soon after, when he supplanted the Nanda Dynasty.
