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OCTOBER, 1914.)
THE TRUE AND EXACT DAY OF BUDDHA'S DEATH.
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THE TRUE AND EXACT DAY OF BUDDHA'S DEATH. BY DIWAN BAHADUR L. D. SWAMIKANNU PILLAI, M.A., B.L. (MADRAS); LL.B. (LOND.). THE object of the subjoined chart is to show that the true date of Buddha's death
(Tuesday, 1 April, 478 B. o.), is deducible from the eight week-day dates cited in Bishop Bigandet's Life of Gaudama (Trübner's Oriental Series). The demonstration is accomplished by selecting 5 out of the many dates which have from time to time been associated with Buddha (see a long list of such dates at p. 165 of Vol. II of Prinsep's Tables) and testing the week-days of the several occurrences with reference to each of these dates. The dates selected were :--
(1) 1027 B. C., which is the most frequently occurring among the dates collected by Prinsep;
(2) 901 B. C., corresponding to 980 B. c. for the birth, and to 991 B. C., which is said to be quoted by Jacbrig from Pallas' Mongol Chronology (Prinsep, loc. cit.);
(3) 846 B. C., corresponding to 835 B. C., which is said by Prinsep to be the era adopted at Lhassa and founded on an average of 9 dates : 846 B. c. appears to be the date of “Buddha's appearance" alluded to in a well-known Tamil Buddhistic poem of 8th cent. A. D. called “Maşimêkhalai;
(4) 638 B, C., known as the Peguan date; and lastly,
(5) 478 B. o., Cunningham's second date, which, at p. 22 of J. R. A. ., 1909, Dr. Fleet admits to be an alternative to his own date, 483 B. C., Kârttika bukļa 8.
In selecting supposed dates for trial, I have endeavoured to limit myself to typical ones, i. e. to those which have at least some points in their favour. I made an exception in favour of 846 B. C., because, though wide of the mark, it is a curious date and seems to have been adopted by Tamil Buddhists of the 8th century A. D. [I have published & magazine article on this subject, a copy of which I shall be glad to send to any one genuinely interested in it). Other dates, which might have been selected, had to be rejected in limine, because the week-days were obviously unsuitable. This remark applies to 544 B. C., which would give a Sunday (instead of Tuesday) as the day of Buddha's death, as well as to 543 B. c., in which the tithi and nakshatra of Buddha's death concurred on a Friday. As
N.B. -The following abbreviations are used in this chart.
1. su. for stakla, the bright fortnight of a lunar month. Bahula paksha is not referred to even once in the chart.
2. J. d. t. and f. d. n. These symbols indicate respectively that a tithi or a nakshatra ended on the following day after that cited as the day of the tithi or the day of the nakshatra. Ordinarily a tithi or nakshatra is cited as belonging to the day on which it comes to end but occasionally, it is cited as belonging to the day when it only commences." F. d. t." and ". d. n." mean accordingly "following day'a tithi" and "following day's nakshatra."
3. The ending moments of tithis and nakshatras are generally given correct to two decimal places of a day. The key to this system will be found in the author's Eye-table.
Thus 20 means 12 ghatikda after sunrise.
4. When both tithi and nakshatra are cited, the ending moment of the tithi is given first, and then the ending moment of the nakshatra.
5. The English calendar years cited in pairs run from 1 March to 0 March, (i. e. the last day of February). Thms 1096-96 B. O, is the period from 1 March 1096 to 28 February 1095. At the epoch We are considering, this period coincided very nearly with an Indian solar sidereal year.
6. The expression“ preceded by an adhiks month" draws attention to the circumstance that the lunar year under consideration was one of 13, not of 12, months.
