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singhelo try to prove the acceptability of this date from the beginning of the 4th century up to the 11th century, Geiger also warmly accepts this view.
John M. Seneviratne established his theory that "The era reckoned from 483 B, C. remained not only up to the lith century but up to the end of the 15th century, when the new tradition that the Buddha died in 54+ B. C.-came in and soon. oasted the old, are creating no little confusion, not so much during the transitionary stage as in our own time.11
The scholars, who accept 483 B. C. as the date of the Buddha, urge that 218 years after Buddha's death, Asuka's consecration took placc. They quote the Dipavamsals, and Mahavamsalt in support of their theory. As regards Asoka's consecration, they say that his predecessors Bindusara andi Candragupta ruled for 28 and 24 years, according to the Ceylonese chronology.15 And Asoka was consecrated four years after he had already reigned over the country.16 This means Candragupta would have ascended the throne 162 years (218-4-214-28+24=162) after the Buddha's nibbana.
Fortunately they could say with almost certainty that Chandragupta's accession took place in 321 B. C., since Alexander the Great died at Babylon in the same year and this fact has been amply recordea 17. From this they conclude that the Buddha's death would have taken place in 483 B. C. ( 321 +162 = 433 ).
Hoerale, on the otherband, accepts 482 B. C. as the"Practically certain" date of the Buddha's parinubbāna. He supports his view by the evidence that Bimbisara was murdered by his son eight years before the Buddha's nibbāna. 18 Though there is no great difference between the dates, 483 B. C. appears the more dependable one.
As regards the traditional date of Buddha, it is yet to be asertained, since the tradition itself is not accepted with unanimity. According to the Buddhist Chronicles of Cevlon and Burma, the Nibbāna took place in 514-543 B. C., wbile
