The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.30

v2.c16.s2.30

[28] The only question of importance which concerns the historian is the date of Aira. This the record does not supply. There is, however, enough in it to enable us to make an approximate guess as to the time when Aira lived. The ancient Pāli character in which the inscription is inscribed was current down to the 2nd century before Christ. No authentic record has been met with of a later date, and this fact affords us a *terminus a quo* to start with. Now we know not for certain how long before that time the character in question was current. Prinsep in his plate of ancient Indian characters, calls Pāli the character of the 5th century B.C. Whether we accept this conjecture or not, we cannot take Aira to be older than the first century after Buddha, for the Jaina or Buddhist salutation at the beginning of his record, and the reference to the Arhats in a subsequent part of it, unquestionably put a limit to his antiquity. Taking this as the *terminus ad quem* we must look for his date between the second and the fifth century before Christ. So far the inference is,