ON TIBETAN SCROLLS AND IMAGES. 5 



In the list of the sixteen Sthaviras the name of Nagasena is found. Now, Naga- 

 sena 1 who is a prominent figure in the well-known Pali work called Milindapanha, was a 

 contemporary of Milinda. As king Milinda has been identified with the Greeco-Bactrian 

 king Menander, Nagasena must have lived in the second century B.C. 



Another Sthavira included by some in the list of the sixteen is Dharmata or Dhar- 

 matrata 2 who was a maternal uncle of Vasumitra. Now, Vasumitra was one, if not the chief, 

 of the 500 great arhats who formed the synod convoked by King Kanishka about 33 B.C. 

 Dharmatrata must, therefore, have lived about the 1st century B.C. In this way it can be 

 shown that the sixteen sthaviras did not flourish simultaneously. The earlist of the Stha- 

 viras lived about the 6th century B.C., while the latest of them are of the 1st century 

 A.D. 



The Sixteen Sthaviras were not born in the same country. Thus Anganika 

 came from the Kailasa Mountain in the Himalayas, Vanavasi came from Saptaparnigu- 

 ha in Behar, Kalika came from Tamralipta or Tumlook in Bengal, Vajrayaniputra from 

 Simhala or Ceylon, Kanakavatsa from Kasmira, Bakula from Uttarakuru or Eastern 

 Turkestan, and so on. 



Though thousands of sthaviras lived in Asia in the ancient days, these sixteen were 



Rahula chanted the following stanzas : — 



^i%*fa *wrat <i39«nf^frfa *f f^^ 1 



WflTOTT ^5T Tf^T 3 f f*T1T^^ II ^<LS || 



*u£5T cwjt w^w ^tf?TH?l"5% fawtfa II *£.<= II 



Tl^f $*> I 



(Theragdfhd, Catukkanipata). 



Sivaka, (Gopakar) who is mentioned in the Chinese books as a thera and is described in Pali books as a novice-monk under 

 Vanavacchat-thera, is said to have chanted the following stanzas : — 



?ir% tt <^fa vnvt ^W * **ft **ft 1 



^sR^^a sfc^ff ^mw^t 11 



(Theragdihd, Ekanipata). 

 (Vide Theragatha, London Pali Text Society's edition). 



t Vide Nagasenabhiksu satra in Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue of the Buddhist Tripitaka, No. 1358. This sutra, which was 

 translated into Chinese, A.D. 317-420, seems to be a translation of a text similar to the Milindapanha, though the introductory 

 part is not exactly the same as that of the Pali text published by Dr. Trenckner in his Pali Miscellany, part I, with English trans- 

 lation. Vide also Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue, Appendix I, No. 38. 



2 For Dharmatrata see Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, Appendix I, No. 31. 



