34G 



JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. III. 



THE SUPPOSED IDENTITY BETWEEN 

 NAGAEJUNA AND NAGASENA, 



By James D'Alwis, Esq., Asst. Secretary. 



Having on a former occasion expressed my views on the 

 passage extracted from the Raja Tarangani, in reference to 

 its prosodial precision, I now return to the subject, with the 

 object of reviewing the reasons adduced by the Hon'ble Mr. 

 Tumour in favour of the alleged identity between Nagasena 

 and Nagarjuna. This position, I perceive, he has laboured to 

 establish in seven different ways : — 



1. By the evidence supposed to be famished by a Bactrian 

 coin found by Lieutenant Burnes ; 



2. By supplying a supposed omission of a letter in the 

 text, by which the age of Nagarjuna is brought to correspond 

 exactly with that of Nagasena in the Buddhist Scriptures ; 



3. By identifying Asoka of Kashmir with the Asoka of 

 Maghada ; 



4. By the strong resemblance between the two names ; 



5. By shewing that the title of Blmmishwdra given to Na- 

 garjuna did not militate against the hypothesis he sought 

 to establish ; 



G. By identifying "the six Arahatvas" in the extract made 

 by Professor Wilson with the six Tirtakas mentioned in 

 Milindapiivasna ; 



7. By an adjustment of dates, so as to bring the Chrono- 

 logy of the Raja Tarangani tc coincide wite the adjusted 



