DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0043
22 INTRODUCTION.
his 35th year, attained Buddhahood, B.C. 526, and died in the 8th
year of the reign of the last-named king, 481 years B.C.1
From this point down to the Christian era there is no great
difficulty with regard to Indian chronology, and it may be as well,
in so far as the first part of this work is concerned, to confine our
investigations to these limits. Certain it is that no architectural
cave was excavated in India before the Nirvana, and no king's name
has even traditionally been connected with any cave in Eastern
India whose ascertained date is subsequent to the Christian era.
Indeed, in so far as the Bengal caves are concerned, we might
almost stop with the death of Yrihadratha, the last of the Mauryans,
180 B.C., all the names connected with any caves being found among
the kings of the earlier dynasties, if at all.
When we come to speak of the western or southern caves,
in the second part of this work, it will be necessary to pursue
these investigations to more modern dates, but this will be better
done when we come to describe the caves themselves, and then try
to ascertain the dates of the local dynasties to which each indi-
vidual series of caves practically owes its origin.
As a foundation for the whole, and for our present purposes, it will
probably be sufficient to state that the Bxiddhist accounts generally
are agreed that Sakya Muni, the founder of their religion, died in
the 8th year of Ajatasatru, king of Magadha or Bihar, and that 162
years elapsed between that event and the rise of the Maurya dynasty.
This dynasty, as is well known, was founded by Chandragupta, the
Sandrakottos of the Greeks, to whose court Megasthenes was sent
by Seleucus as an ambassador, and who, taking advantage of the
unsettled state of India after the invasion of Alexander of Macedon,
had, by the aid of an astute Brahman, named Vishnugupta Dramila,2
1 When previously writing on this subject, I have always adopted the Ceylonese
date 543 B.C. as that of the Nirvana as the most likely to be the correct one, according to
the information then available. I was of course aware that so long ago as 1837 Tumour
had pointed out (J.A.S.B., vol. vi. p. 716 et seq.) that there was a discrepancy in the
pre-Mauryan chronology of Ceylon, of about 60 years. But how that was to be
rectified he could not explain. I do not yet despair of some new solution being found,
but meanwhile the discovery of the Rupnath and Sahasram inscriptions—both of the
time of Asoka—point so distinctly to the date of the Nirvana given in the text, 61 or
68 later than the usually accepted date, that for the present at least it seems impossible to
adopt any other.—J. F.
2 He is often designated by the patronymic Chanakya, or by the epithet Kautilya
'' the Crafty." See Wilson's works, vol. xii. p. 127 et seqq.
his 35th year, attained Buddhahood, B.C. 526, and died in the 8th
year of the reign of the last-named king, 481 years B.C.1
From this point down to the Christian era there is no great
difficulty with regard to Indian chronology, and it may be as well,
in so far as the first part of this work is concerned, to confine our
investigations to these limits. Certain it is that no architectural
cave was excavated in India before the Nirvana, and no king's name
has even traditionally been connected with any cave in Eastern
India whose ascertained date is subsequent to the Christian era.
Indeed, in so far as the Bengal caves are concerned, we might
almost stop with the death of Yrihadratha, the last of the Mauryans,
180 B.C., all the names connected with any caves being found among
the kings of the earlier dynasties, if at all.
When we come to speak of the western or southern caves,
in the second part of this work, it will be necessary to pursue
these investigations to more modern dates, but this will be better
done when we come to describe the caves themselves, and then try
to ascertain the dates of the local dynasties to which each indi-
vidual series of caves practically owes its origin.
As a foundation for the whole, and for our present purposes, it will
probably be sufficient to state that the Bxiddhist accounts generally
are agreed that Sakya Muni, the founder of their religion, died in
the 8th year of Ajatasatru, king of Magadha or Bihar, and that 162
years elapsed between that event and the rise of the Maurya dynasty.
This dynasty, as is well known, was founded by Chandragupta, the
Sandrakottos of the Greeks, to whose court Megasthenes was sent
by Seleucus as an ambassador, and who, taking advantage of the
unsettled state of India after the invasion of Alexander of Macedon,
had, by the aid of an astute Brahman, named Vishnugupta Dramila,2
1 When previously writing on this subject, I have always adopted the Ceylonese
date 543 B.C. as that of the Nirvana as the most likely to be the correct one, according to
the information then available. I was of course aware that so long ago as 1837 Tumour
had pointed out (J.A.S.B., vol. vi. p. 716 et seq.) that there was a discrepancy in the
pre-Mauryan chronology of Ceylon, of about 60 years. But how that was to be
rectified he could not explain. I do not yet despair of some new solution being found,
but meanwhile the discovery of the Rupnath and Sahasram inscriptions—both of the
time of Asoka—point so distinctly to the date of the Nirvana given in the text, 61 or
68 later than the usually accepted date, that for the present at least it seems impossible to
adopt any other.—J. F.
2 He is often designated by the patronymic Chanakya, or by the epithet Kautilya
'' the Crafty." See Wilson's works, vol. xii. p. 127 et seqq.