A History of Indian Literature v2.c21.2

v2.c21.2

Much as has already been written about the year of Buddha’s death, it is by no means firmly established as yet. According to the Singhalese tradition, 544 B.C. would be the death-year, but this is rejected by most European scholars as incompatible with the chronology of the kings of Magadha. According to M. de Z. Wickremasinghe, there used to be in Ceylon too, an era beginning with 483 B.C. as the year of Buddha’s death, whilst 544 B.C. as the death-year cannot be traced back further than about the middle of the 11th century.[^1) However, all the seemingly convincing evidence which we thought we had acquired in favour of various dates between 477 and 487 B.C., has in every case proved to be uncertain and doubtful. *Cf.* J. F. *Fleet*, JRAS 1909, 1 ff., 323 ff., 981 ff.; 1910, 1308; 1912, 239 ff.; *Oldenberg*, AR 13, 1910, 611 ff., V. Gopala *Aiyer*, Ind. Ant. 37, 1908, 341 ff.; W. *Geiger*, The Mahavaṁsa, Transl., p. xxii ff.; J. *Charpentier*, Ind. Ant. 43, 1914, 130 ff.; T. W. *Rhys Davids* in Cambridge History I, 171 ff.; E. *Hultzsch*, Inscriptions of Asoka (1925), p. xxxii f., xxxv; H. *Jacobi*, Buddhas und Mahāvīras Nirvāṇa und die politische Entwicklung Magadhas zu jener Zeit, in SBA 1930, p. 557 ff. K. P. *Jayaswal* (JBORS I, 1915, 67 ff., 97 ff.; *cf.* III, 1917, 425 ff.; IV, 1918, 264 ff.) again endeavoured to prove, on the basis of a new reading of the Hāthīgumphā inscription of Khāravela, that the year 544 B.C. is the year of Buddha’s death, and V. A. *Smith* (JRAS 1918,