Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s7.1.1

c12.s7.1.1

There is considerable disagreement between the *Purāṇas* and the Ceylonese chronicles regarding the chronology of the kings of the Bimbisārian (or Haryaṅka) and Śaiśunāga dynasties. Even Smith and Pargiter are not disposed to accept all the dates given in the *Purāṇas*.¹ According to Ceylonese tradition Bimbisāra ruled for fifty-two years, Ajātaśatru for 32 years, Udāyī for 16 years, Anuruddha and Muṇḍa for 8 years, Nāga-Dāsaka for 24 years, Śiśunāga for 18 years, Kālāśoka for 28 years and Kālāśoka's sons for 22 years. Gautama Buddha died in the eighth year of Ajātaśatru,² *i.e.*, in the (52+8=) 60th year (*i.e.*, 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 Saṁgha-bhadra. The date 544 B.C. can, however, hardly be reconciled with a *gāthā* transmitted in the Ceylonese chronicles which states that Priyadarśana (Aśoka Maurya) was consecrated 218 years after the Buddha had passed into *nirvāṇa*.³ This fact and certain Chinese and Chola synchronisms led Geiger and a few other scholars to think that the era of 544 B.C. is a comparatively modern fabrication and that the true date of the death of the Buddha is 483 B.C.¹—a result closely approaching that to which the Cantonese tradition leads us.