The History of Buddhist Thought c9.s2.24

c9.s2.24

This is the tradition as preserved by one school, the Theravāda, and the extent to which the details can be relied upon is much disputed.¹ It is unnecessary for our purpose to investigate the chronological problems beyond pointing out those which can be verified independently as historical facts. Chandagutta (Chandragupta), the grandfather of Asoka, has been identified with certainty as the Indian ruler known to the Greeks and Romans as Sandrocottus, who about 304-3 B.C. made a treaty with Seleucus Nicator. The historical character of Asoka’s reign is proved by the decrees which he caused to be inscribed on rocks and pillars in various parts of India. All the earlier dates are problematical, though they agree to some extent with the chronology of the Jains and the Purāṇas. If we could be sure of the number 218 as the number of years between the death of Buddha and the Consecration of Asoka, all the rest would fall into a natural chronological sequence. The Sarvāstivādin tradition, however, puts Asoka one century after the death of Buddha, and apparently confuses him with Kālāsoka. But, as it also omits Chandragupta from its list of kings, there is no reason to prefer it as the more correct. The relative dates as accepted by the Theravāda school thus become: