The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c10.17

c10.17

In the ‘Life’ it is recorded that at the end of his second visit to Magadha, after two years’ study, the pilgrim had a dream, in which the Bodhisatwa *Mânju Sri* appeared to him, and foretold the death of King Silâditya in ten years.* The king’s death is then noted to have taken place at the end of the period Yong-hoei, or in A.D. 650. According to this date, the pilgrim’s two years’ residence in Magadha must have been from A.D. 638 to 640. But I find it quite impossible to reconcile this date with the detailed statements of his travels. If, however, we might refer the dream to the end of his *first* visit to Magadha, in November A.D. 638, which would seem to have also extended to about two years, then the date of Silâditya’s death would be fixed to A.D. 648, which is the very year assigned for it in the Chinese account of India by *Ma-twan-lin*.* In the 22nd of the years Ching-kwan (A.D. 648), the Emperor of China sent an ambassador to Magadha, but before his arrival Silâditya was dead. The information obtained by this ambassador is, I think, more trustworthy than the account of Hoei-li, the biographer of Hwen Thsang, as the former had no object to serve in making an erroneous statement, while the latter was obliged to support the prophetic announcement of Hwen Thsang’s dream. I am, therefore, inclined to adopt A.D. 648 as the true date of Silâditya’s death, and to refer the period of the pilgrim’s dream to the close of his first visit to Magadha in A.D. 638.