Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s10.4

c12.s10.4

So far, the story seems to be generally reliable but the difficulty arises when the question of chronology comes in. The tradition says that the council was held in the time of Aśoka, or Kālāśoka, the son of Śiśunāga. But history does not know of any such king. Attempts have been made to identify Kālāśoka with Kākavarṇa who is mentioned in the Puranic lists as the son of Śiśunāga but the identification is based on unconvincing grounds. The Pāli as well as Sanskrit Buddhist sources say that Aśoka flourished one hundred years after the Nirvāṇa and that until he embraced the Buddhist faith he was living a life of black and sinful deeds. He was then a Caṇḍāśoka or a Kāmāśoka but after his conversion he became a Dharmāśoka. It is this Aśoka then who is contemplated in the traditional account of the second council. Some of the monks who took a leading part in the conference seem to have been contemporaneous with the Maurya emperor whereas others belonged to one generation earlier.