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NOVEM32R, 1917)
THE DATE OF KANISHKA
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report of Pan Yong alone in his account of the Yue-chi country and Kabul kingdom which lay in an intermediate position between China and those countries.
But all possible doubts on this point are removed, so far at least as India is concerned, by the express statement of Fan-Ye, that he had access to later authorities than Pan Yong's report. In the dissertations which end the chapter, Fan-Ye remarks that very meagre accounts of Buddhism are given in the geographical treatises on India of the Han period and then observes as follows:
“Changkien merely writes the country is mostly warm and the inhabitants ride on the elephants when fighting. As to Pan Yong, although he has stated that the people adore Buddha, and that they neither kill nor attack, still he does not convey any information regarding the perfect style and the excellent doctrine (of the Sacred Books), and the merit these possess of guiding the people and making them comprehend (the truth). For me here is what I have heard spoken on the subject by others at a subsequent period." 8
Fan-Ye thus positively asserts that he had utilised other sources of information regarding India, besides Pan Yong's report, and that these belonged to a period subsequent to it. No doubt it was from these sources that he learnt the events which he records to have happened subsequent to Pan Yong's time.
Besides it has been elsewhere clearly shown by Chavannes himself that Fan-Ye's work was based upon previous works, not less than ten in number and all posterior to Pan Yong's time.9
There is thus no reason to suppose that the events mentioned by Fan-Ye had all taken place before Pan Yong's report. As regards the phrase "at this time", on which Chavannes remarks "Apparently, at the time when Pan Yong wrote", the case is still more clear. As Fan-Ye drew upon sources of information, both anterior10 and posterior to Pan Yong's time, there is no reason why that phrase should refer to it. Besides, Fan-Ye was not reproducing the report of Pan Yong, he was writing an independent account of India : and even if it were wholly based on that report, he could not borrow any such expression ; because any man possessed with a grain of common sense (and Fan-Ye has clearly proved that he had a fair share of it) could not have been blind to the fact that such expressions, if they were meant to refer to Pan Yong's time, would be entirely misleading in a work which professes to record the historical events down to A.D. 220. It would indeed be a most astounding thing if a writer, usually so precise about dates, would so far forget himself as to
8 "Tehangkion s'est borné à ecrire" Ce pays est le plus souvent chaud et humide ; les habitants montent sur les elephants pour combattre.
"Quant à Pan Young quoiquil ait expone que ces Rens adorent le Buddha et qu'ils ne tuent ni n'attaquent, cependant il no nous a rien transmis sur le style parfait et sur la doctrine excellente (des livres sainta) xur lo merite qdont ooux-ci do guider les hommes et de leur faire comprendre la vérité).
"Pour moi voici ce que jai entendu dire à ceux qui, plus tard, on parle de ce sujet." Toung Pao, 1907, p. 218.
An old Chinese authority has furnished us with a list of historical treatises which were written before Fan-Yo's time and to which evidently Fan Y. had nocens, for we are told that Fan-Yo "rassembla et compléta tous cos auteurs." The extract has been tranelated by Chavannes in Toung Pao, 1906, Pp. 211-214.
* It is quite evident that Fan-Ye had access to Changkion's report. Ses the first sentence of the quotation in footnoto 8. Chavannes remarks on obeervations attributed therein to Obangkion : " These two montonces are found almost word for word in the 98 th Chapter of Bumachion's history which is based on the report of Tchangkien." Toung Pao, 1907, p. 218, F. N. 2.
