A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.57

c8.s3.57

Besides 950 or 949 B.C.¹, which are the usual dates assigned to Buddha's death by Chinese authorities, we may mention the years 1130, 1045, 767, for each of which the same claim has been set up. The year 1130 rests on the authority of Tchao-chi, as quoted by Matouanlin in the annals of the Souï.² Fahian, also, seems to have known this date; for, according to his editor, he placed the death of Buddha towards the beginning of the dynasty Tcheu, and this, according to Chinese chronology, took place in 1122.³ In another place, however, Fahian, speaking of the spreading of Buddhism towards the north, places this event 300 years after Buddha's Nirvâṇa, or in the reign of the Emperor Phing-Wang. As this emperor reigned 770—720, Fahian would seem to have dated the Nirvâṇa somewhere between 1070 and 1020. The date 767 rests on the authority of Matouanlin.⁴ From Tibetan books no less than fourteen dates have been collected⁵; and the Chinese pilgrims who visited India found it impossible to fix on any one date as established on solid evidence. The list of the thirty-three Buddhist patriarchs, first published by Rémusat (Mélanges Asiatiques, i. p. 113), gives the date of their deaths from Chakia-mouni, who died 950 B.C., to Soui-neng, who died 713 A.D., and bears, like everything Chinese, the character of the most exact chronological accuracy. The first link, however, in this long chain of patriarchs is of doubtful character, and the lifetime of Buddha, from 1029 to 950, rests on his own prophecy, that a Millennium would elapse from his death to the conversion of China. If, therefore, Buddha was a true prophet he must have lived about 1000 B.C., and this date once established, everything else had to give way before it. Thus Nâgârjuna, called by the Chinese Nâga Koshuna, or Loung-chou, is placed in their own traditional chronology, which they borrowed from the Buddhists in Northern India, 400 years after the Nirvâna.¹ The Tibetans assign the same date to him.² In the list of the patriarchs, however, he occupies the fourteenth place, and dies 738 years after Buddha. The twelfth patriarch, Maning (Deva Bodhisatva), is traditionally placed by the Chinese 300 years after Buddha. In the list of the patriarchs he dies 618 years after the Nirvâna.