On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c14.23

v1.c14.23

We find two dates given for the death of king Śīlāditya, Chinese history placing it in the year A. D. 648 and the Life in 655¹. Taking thirty-six years as the duration of his reign we thus have 612 or 619 as the date of his accession. The latter date agrees with a Chinese statement that the troubles in India which led to Śīlāditya's reign took place in the reign of T'ang Kao Tsu (A. D. 618 to 627). But the date 648, or rather 647, is perhaps the correct one. It must have been in 641 or 642 that, in conversation with our pilgrim, Śīlāditya stated that he had then been sovereign for above thirty years. This also gives 612 for the year of his accession, and the addition of six years to the thirty gives 648 as the date of his death. But the Chinese envoy despatched in the early part of that year found, on his arrival in the country, the king dead, and a usurper on the throne. Moreover it was in 648 that Yuan-chuang submitted his Records to T'ai Tsung, and Śīlāditya must have been dead before this work was drawn up in its present form.