A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c32.107

v2.c32.107

∗ According to Lassen Nágárjuna lived about A. D. 23 during the reign of Kanishka. The Rájataramginí says : "Then there were in this land three kings called Hushka, Jushka and Kanishka, who built three towns named after them (Hushkapura, Jushkapura and Kanishkapura) . . . . . During the powerful reign of these [kings] the land of Kásmír was, to a great extent, in the possession of the Buddhas. At that time 150 years had passed in this terrestrial world since the blessed Sákya Simha (Buddha) had obtained complete beatitude (Nirvána).......... And a Bodhisattva lived (then) in this country as the lord of the land, namely, the glorious Nágárjuna.......... Stein's trans. Vol. I, pp. 30—31. As the tradition of the Northern Buddhists as recorded by Hiouen 'Thsang (Si-yu-ki, I. pp. 99, 151', the Tibetan Dulva (Csoma, As. Res. XX, pp. 92, 297) as also Schiefner (Tár. Gesch. d. Bud. p. 301) concur in placing the commencement of Kanishka's rule 400 years after Buddha's Nirvána, the date assigned here to Nágárjuna is rather curious. Lassen sums up his conclusion on this knotty point in these words :—" Wegen der grossen Anzahl seiner Münzen mus dem Kanishka eine ziemlich lange Regierung Zugeschrieben werden ; ich glaube daher annehmen zu durfen, das er etwa bis 40 nach Chr. G. regiert habe." Fleet maintains B. C. 57. V. Smith c. 120 A. D. While Messrs. Bhándárkar c. 278 A. D. (Journ. Bombay Br. Roy. As. Soc. Vol. XX, No. lvi, pp. 269—396) as the date of Kanishka..