688 Pali Buddhistical Annats. [Aug.- 



by Megasthenes, during his embassy to India, in the fourth century 

 before Christ, that the chronology of the Hindus, had not been 

 mystified (to the extent, at least, it is now found to be) up to that 

 period; for that Megasthenes is represented to bear testimony that 

 the Hindus had not carried back their antiquities much beyond six 

 thousand years, and that the Hindus and the Jews were the only 

 people who had a true idea of the creation of the world. Although 

 Sakya closed his career in B. C. 543, his creed had not spread over 

 Asia till after the conversion of Aso'ko, and the dispersion of the 

 missionaries to propagate Buddhism in the year after the third convo- 

 cation, which was held in B. C. 309 ; and the general adoption of the 

 Buddhistical derangement of historical data beyond Central India, 

 could only have gained ground with the extension of the creed by 

 which it was promulgated. Thus much then may safely be inferred 

 from these authorities, that the chronology of the Egyptians, the Hin- 

 dus and the Buddhists (the last two perhaps ought not to be separated 

 till after Go'tomo' Buddhchs assumption of Buddhohood) remained, 

 underanged, till about the age of his advent ; and that the alteration 

 of the chronology of the Egyptian and Buddhists had been completely 

 effected between that epoch, and the date at which Buddhism attained 

 its most extended ascendancy. In regard to the Hindu chronology, 

 within my limited means of information, I am only able to learn, that 

 Megasthenes found it of the degree of authenticity already mentioned, 

 in the fourth century before Christ, and that, as far as we can gather 

 from the Raja Taringini, the only continuous Hindu history yet 

 discovered, its mystifications extend to so recent a date as the seventh 

 century of our era. The absence, however, of more precise evidence 

 as to the exact date at which the original derangement of the Hindu 

 chronology actually took place, by no means justifies the conclusion 

 that it was not jtrst disturbed at the same time as that of the Egyptians 

 and Buddhists. 



The temptation to prosecute these analogies further is almost 

 irresistible, under the fresh interest given to the inquiry by your 

 discovery, in the ancient Buddhistical inscriptions, of the names of 

 rulers of Bactriana and of Egypt in the edicts of AsO'Ko, the identical 

 monarch in India, in whose reign the alteration of the Buddhistical 

 chronology must have been generally recognized. The data, however 

 connected with this question are not yet fully prepared for examination ; 

 and even if they were, I should not presume to use them till the public 

 had the benefit of your learned digest of these materials, the fruits of 

 jour own successful researches. My attempt to give a translation of 



