536 Buddhist Chronology. [Sept. 



I cannot, in this place, forbear noticing that, misled by a slight 

 derangement of type in the impression of the Professor's Chronologi- 

 cal Table, you have also in this note been betrayed into making an 

 undeservedly disparaging remark in respect to Buddhistical as com- 

 pared with Brahminical chronology. Under the impression that the 

 date assigned in the Raja Tarangini to the termination of Abhiman- 

 ya's reign was B. C. 118, you consider the accuracy of that chrono- 

 logy to be erroneously impugned by being thrown back to B. C. 388, 

 by Professor Wilson, in deference to Buddhistical authority. The 

 date assigned for that reign, however, is not B. C. 118, but B. C. 

 1182, in the Raja Tarangini ; and by that adjustment, made on Bud- 

 dhistical authority, though the correction, from the circumstances ex- 

 plained, is insufficient, still an important and valuable correction is 

 effected to the extent of 794 years ! 



I have thus, from four sources of information, totally unconnected, 

 arrived at one and the same conclusion, corroborative of the authority 

 of the Milindapanno, on which I have added the single letter " d" to 

 the numeral " Sdrdhan-satan." The chronology of the Raja Tarangini 

 is brought, by the first, to coincide with the adjusted Hindu chrono- 

 logy in the Purunas — by the second with the Attakatha. of the Pitta- 

 kataya and the Mahawanso — by the third with the age of Nagarjuna, 

 or Na'ga Se'na, as given in the Milindapanno, and the revised Sanscrit 

 quotation from the Raja Tarangini : and by the fourth, with the age 

 of the coin of Kanishka ; with Tibetan authorities adduced by Mr. 

 Csoma ; and with the epoch of the overthrow of the Bactrian dynasty, 

 as given by Schlegel and other authorities. 



In computations of this nature, exact precision is not to be attain- 

 ed, or expected. In specifying the age of Na'garjuna, in such round 

 numbers as 500 years after the death of Sakya, it is manifestly an 

 approximating rather than a specific date. If from the general tenor 

 of the Raja Tarangini, and the Tibetan authorities referred to by M. 

 Csoma, it be clearly shown that the Turushka princes were Buddhists, 

 and that Na'garjuna appeared in Cashmir during their dynasty, the 

 only alteration rendered necessary in the foregoing computations, 

 would be that his visit to Cashmir should be considered to have taken 

 place about 460 instead of 500 years after the death of Sa'kya. Mr. 

 Csoma's unpublished life of Sa'kya, to which you refer as containing 

 data connected with Buddhistical history, derived from both Sanscrit 

 and Tibetan works of the age of Kanishka, furnishes another impor- 

 tant and encouraging evidence of authentic annals of Buddhistical 

 history having extended in Continental Asia beyond tbe age of 

 Aso'ka, 



