DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0397
380
MR. J. PRINSEP S NOTES
The epoch of Sakya (the fifth Buddha or Goutama)
is determined by concurrent testimony of the Ceylonese,
Siamese, Pegue, Burmese, and Chinese aeras, which are
all founded on the birth or death of the Buddha legis-
lator ; and, though all differing more or less, concur in
placing him between the limits of 544 and 638 years
b. c. : the Raj Guru of Asam, a pundit well versed in
Buddha literature, fixes the Nirwan or emancipation of
Sakya-Muni in 520 b. c* Taking, then, from this
epoch an interval of 400 years to the reign of Kaniska,
the latter would fall near the end of the second century
b. c. We know from other sources that the overthrow
of the Bactrian dynasty by the Scythian or Sakyan
tribes happened in 134 b. c. (125 by Schlegel.) The
present coin, therefore, confirms the fidelity of the
Raja Taringini as an historical work, and leaves no
doubt of the epoch of Sakya.
Mr. "Wilson finds grounds for throwing back the
termination of the reign of Abhimanya Canischa's suc-
cessor, from b.c. 118, as given in the Raja Taringini,
to b. c. 388 ; because Kashmir became a Buddha
country under Tartar princes, shortly after the death of
Sakya ; but from Mr. Csoma's subsequent examination
of the Tibetan sacred books, in which the three periods
of their compilation are expressly stated ; " first, under
Sakya himself (520—638 b. c), then under Ashoka,
king of Pataliputra, 110 years after the decease of
Sakya; and lastly by Kaniska, upwards of 400 years
after Sakya," — little doubt can remain that the epoch,
as it stands in the Raja Taringini, is correct.
There are other circumstances connected with the
Bactrian coins, which tend to confirm the supposition
of a Buddhist succession to the Greek princes. In the
first place, the reverse ceases to bear the formerly na-
tional emblem of the Bactrian horseman, with the
* Orient. Mag. iv. 108.
MR. J. PRINSEP S NOTES
The epoch of Sakya (the fifth Buddha or Goutama)
is determined by concurrent testimony of the Ceylonese,
Siamese, Pegue, Burmese, and Chinese aeras, which are
all founded on the birth or death of the Buddha legis-
lator ; and, though all differing more or less, concur in
placing him between the limits of 544 and 638 years
b. c. : the Raj Guru of Asam, a pundit well versed in
Buddha literature, fixes the Nirwan or emancipation of
Sakya-Muni in 520 b. c* Taking, then, from this
epoch an interval of 400 years to the reign of Kaniska,
the latter would fall near the end of the second century
b. c. We know from other sources that the overthrow
of the Bactrian dynasty by the Scythian or Sakyan
tribes happened in 134 b. c. (125 by Schlegel.) The
present coin, therefore, confirms the fidelity of the
Raja Taringini as an historical work, and leaves no
doubt of the epoch of Sakya.
Mr. "Wilson finds grounds for throwing back the
termination of the reign of Abhimanya Canischa's suc-
cessor, from b.c. 118, as given in the Raja Taringini,
to b. c. 388 ; because Kashmir became a Buddha
country under Tartar princes, shortly after the death of
Sakya ; but from Mr. Csoma's subsequent examination
of the Tibetan sacred books, in which the three periods
of their compilation are expressly stated ; " first, under
Sakya himself (520—638 b. c), then under Ashoka,
king of Pataliputra, 110 years after the decease of
Sakya; and lastly by Kaniska, upwards of 400 years
after Sakya," — little doubt can remain that the epoch,
as it stands in the Raja Taringini, is correct.
There are other circumstances connected with the
Bactrian coins, which tend to confirm the supposition
of a Buddhist succession to the Greek princes. In the
first place, the reverse ceases to bear the formerly na-
tional emblem of the Bactrian horseman, with the
* Orient. Mag. iv. 108.