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SECTION VII.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE HARYANKASAISUNAGA KINGS.
There is considerable disagreement between the Puranas and the Ceylonese chronicles regarding the chronology of the kings of the Bimbisarian (or Haryanka) and Saisunaga dynasties. Even Smith and Pargiter are not disposed to accept all the dates given in the Puranas.1 According to Ceylonese tradition Bimbisara ruled for fifty-two years, Ajatasatru for 32 years, Udayi for 16 years, Anuruddha and Munda for 8 years, Naga-Dāsaka for 24 years, Śiśunaga for 18 years, Kalasoka for 28 years and Kālāśoka's sons for 22 years. Gautama Buddha died in the eighth year of Ajatasatru,2 i.e., in the (52+8=) 60th year (ie., a little more than 59 years) after the accession of Bimbisāra. The event happened in 544 B.C. according to a Ceylonese reckoning, and in 486 B.C. according to a Cantonese tradition of 489 A.D., based on a 'dotted record' brought to China by Samgha-bhadra. The date 544 B.C. can, however, hardly be reconciled with a gathā transmitted in the Ceylonese chronicles which states that Priyadarsana (Aśoka Maurya) was consecrated 218 years after the Buddha had passed into nirvāņa. 3 This fact and certain Chinese and Chola
1 Pargiter (AIHT pp. 286-7) reads the Matsya Purana as assigning the Śiśunāgas 163 years, and further reduces the number to 145 allowing an average of about 14 years for each reign. He places the beginning of the Śiśunāgas (among whom he includes the Bimbisarids) in B.C. 567 and rejects (287n) the traditional figures for the reigns of Bimbisara and his son. Cf. also Bhandarkar, Carm. Lec, 1918, p. 68. 'A period of 363 years for ten consecutive reigns' ie, 36. 3-years for each 'is quite preposterous.'
2 Mahavamsa, Ch, 2 (p. 12 of translation).
3 Dve satani cha vassāni aṭṭhārasa vassāni cha Sambuddhe parinibbute abhisitto Piyadassano.
O. P. 90-29.
Ibid p. xxiii. (Cf. Dip. 6. 1).