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JUNE, 1914.)
THE DATE OF MAHAVIRA
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some petty ruler in Western India during the period between the downfall of the Maurya einpire and the beginning of the Vikrama era. Just the same may be said concerning Balamitra and Bhânumitra, although they are mentioned elsewhere. For in the somewhat confused legend of Kalakâcârya, edited by Professor Jacobi in Z.D.M.G. 34, 247 sq., we read on p. 268 sq. that these princes, who were the nephews of Kalaka, ruled in Bharukaccha (Bharoch) and were friendly disposed towards the Jain Church. As this Kalaka played according to the legend the somewhat despicable trick of calling the Sakas into India to destroy his enemy king Gardabhilla of Ujjayini, this would place the two princes a short before the time of Vikrama. Without trying to entangle the very confusing facts told about Kalaka or rather the different Kalakasof which there seem to have been at least three1-I point only to the statement that there existed one Kalaka, who was the 23rd sthavira after Mahâvîra and is said in the supplement to the Kalpadrumalo to have lived 376 years after the Nirvana, i.e., 151 B. C. counting from 527 B. C. The pat!ávali of the Tapagaccha 20 says that this Kalaka died 376 or 386 years after Mahavira, i.e. 151 or 141 B. c.; and this would fit fairly well with the time assigned in the versus memorialee to Balamitra and Bhânumitra, as they are supposed to have reigned together during 60 years or between 174-173-114-113 B. o. However, I attach just as little importance to this coincidence as to the whole chronological statement of these verses.
In the same legend concerning Kalaka the history of Gardabhilla and the Sakas is told at full length. There may be really some historical foundation for the stories told concerning this invasion of India by Scythian rulers before Vikrama, rulers stated to have been brought in by a second Kalaka living 453 years after Mahavira, i. e., 74 B. c. or just in the year of Gardabhilla's accession to the throne 17 years before Vikrama. This Gardabhil)a is elsewhere said to have been the father of Vikramaditya21 and king in Ujjayini ; and concerning him it has been suggested, that he was identical with Bahram Gor, king of Persia A. D. 420-438, and again that he is in reality the same person as the satrap Gudaphara or Gondopheres, who must have lived in the first century B. c.22 But neither of these hypothesis is satisfactory, Gardabhil(l)a being always closely connected with the time of Vikrama. Now it must be conceled that Gardha bil(l)a is a rather strange Indian name23 scarcely to be accounted for, and seems very likely to be of foreign origin. And I might suggest that it is at least as probable as the above-mentioned theories, that Gardabhil(l)a represents in fact a Greek name ending in thos, and that the person in question was perhaps a petty Greek prince or Governor overthrown by the Scythian invaders, and had in reality nothing to do with the famous king of Ujjain. There is nothing against this suggestion in the fact, that the Gardabhilas are mentioned in Vişnu P. IV, 24, 14 as a tribe or dynasty for they rank there together with the Yavanas, Sakas, Bahlikas and other invaders, named as successors of the Andhra Dynasty. For of course these may have been named after the old Gardabhila, existing many centuries before, on account of some real or fictitious relationship to him.
(To be continued.)
19 Jacobi l. c. p. 250 s.
19 A commentary to the Kalpas útra by Laksmivallabha, who wrote a commentary on the Uttari. dhya yanasitra in Samo.
3 Klatt Ante. XI, 251. 21 Visnu P.: (Wilson) 5, 392, cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. XV, 252 ag.
2. The first suggestion was made by Wilford As. Res. 1x, 147 aq. the second one was propounded by Prinsep, Ante. II, 142 and supported by Lassen Ind. Act. II, 409.
23 To be compared as far as I can soe, only with the old Gobhila and tho obscure name Robhila in the Mcchakatika. cf. Indog. Forach, 28, 178, 29, 380 aq.
