Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s21.20

c11.s21.20

One is the reckoning in the era of the *pari-nirvāṇa* of the Buddha, preserved in the *Dīpavaṃsa*, which dates Aśoka's accession in 214 A.B. and his coronation in 218². These precise indications unfortunately lose much of their value owing to the uncertainty of the date of the *nirvāṇa*. The choice seems to lie between 543 B.C. and 483 ; with the first date as the starting point, 218 A.B. would bring us to 325 B.C., a date more suited to the beginning of the Mauryan empire and of Chandragupta's reign than that of Aśoka. And the suggestion has been offered that in the chronicles of Ceylon, the epoch of the beginning of the Mauryan empire was mixed up with that of the Coronation of Aśoka which was the event they really cared for³. Ingenious as this reconciliation is, it is not easy to accept it in view of the fact the Buddha-varsha of 543 B.C. is a comparatively modern fabrication, whereas 483 B.C. has much better claims to be considered the true date of the Buddha era.,⁴ With this as starting point, we get 265 B.C. for the coronation of Aśoka, 269 B.C. for his accession, 297 for that of Bindusāra and 321 for the accession cf Chandragupta, a scheme which has intrinsically much in its favour⁵. Some writers would, however, prefer the date 486 B.C. for the death of the Buddha, on the strength of the Chinese ‘dotted record⁶.’