1836.] Buddhist Chronology. 523 



" Appendix No. 7, to Professor Wilson's Essay. 



" The passage in the text adverted to (page 23) requires a little consideration, 

 both as to its meaning and the chronological views to which it has already given 

 rise. The text of the original runs thus : — 



Te" Turushkan\vay6dbhuta pi punyasraya nripab. Sushkakshetradi d£s£shu ma- 

 thach'ityadi chakrire\ Prajye" rajyakshane' teshan, praya Kasmiramardalam bhojya- 

 maste* sawauddhana?n pravrajyorjita t^jasam. Tat6 Bhagawatah Sa'kya Sinhasya 

 purar.irvrite' asmin saha 16kdhatau s&rdham varshasatam hyagit B6dhisatwascha 

 des^siniu neka bnum£swar6 bhut, sacha Na'ga'rjunah sriman shadarhatwa na 

 san§raye\ 



" There are in this passage some obvious inaccuracies, and some compounds 

 of a purport absolutely unknown to the most learned Brahmans. Taking it as it 

 stood, it appeared to involve the position that the Turushka princes preceded 

 Sa'kya Sinha by above a century and a half; and concluding the Gautama 

 of the sixth century before the Christian era to be intended by the name Sa'kya 

 Sinha, which is always enumerated as a synonime, the date of Gonerda III. 

 was adjusted accordingly in the preceding pages, and placed 640 B. C. 

 An opportunity having subsequently occurred of consulting a Burma priest, 

 and a man of some learning, on the subject, there appeared good grounds for 

 revising the passage, and altering the results, in consequence of which several 

 pages previously printed off have been cancelled, and it is only in the marginal 

 dates of the first dynasty that any traces of the error have been suffered to 

 remain. These are of comparative unimportance, and will be readily rectified 

 by adverting to the table. We have now then to offer a translation of the pas- 

 sage ; premising, that the term Puranirvrite should be Parinirvrite, the sixth 

 case of Parinirvriti, or in Pali, Parinibbuti, the ordinary term used by the 

 Bauddhas, to express the final Nirvritte or emancipation of their Buddhas or 

 saints in its fullest sense ; Pari being added as an intensitive prefix. The use 

 of this and some other peculiar expressions, which are at present quite unin- 

 telligible to the ablest scholars among the brahmans of Hindustan, but are fa- 

 miliar to the Rahans of the Burman empire, proves that Kalha'na, the author 

 of the Cashmirian History, or at least his guides, were well acquainted with the 

 language, and, probably, with the system, of the Bauddhas. 



' They (Hushka, &c.) of Turushka descent, were princes, asylums of virtue, 

 and they founded colleges, and planted sacred trees, in Sushka and other places. 

 During the period of their reign the whole of Cashmir was the enjoyment of 

 Bauddhas, eminent for austerity. After them, when 150 years had elapsed from 

 the emancipation of the Lord Sa'kya Sinha in this essence of the world, a 

 Bodhisatwa in the country named Na'ga'rjuna, was Bhumiswara, (Lord of the 

 earth,) and he was the asylum of the six A'rhatwas.' 



" As the prevalence of the Bauddhas and consequence of Na'ga'rjuna, if not 

 subverted, were at least checked in the ensuing reign of Abhimanya ; and as the 

 passage expressly states that the circumstance occurred after the Turushka 

 princes, the 150 years subsequent to Sa'kya Sinha must fall within the limits 

 of Abhimanya's reign : it is therefore necessary only to fix the date of Sa'kya 

 Sinha to determine that of the several reigns occurring in this portion of our 

 history. 



Assuming that this Sakya Sinha was the Buddha of 542 B. C. he 

 ventures to correct thereby Kalhana's more distant epoch : — 

 3 y 2 



