No. 11.— 1858-9.] NAGARJUNA AND NAGASENA. 



353 



Seventh; — and here I cannot but express my entire con- 

 currence with the remarks so ably set forth by him. In 

 addition to those remarks under this head, I may be permitted 

 here to observe, that the Tibetan Buddhistical annals, as pre- 

 sented to us by Ksoma de Korosi, indisputably establish the 

 identity in question. 



Ksoma de Korosi in his analysis of the Tibetan Annals, (see 

 "Asiatic Researches," vol. xx. p. 400,) alluding to the same pre- 

 diction contain in the "Mahawaysa," regarding Nagasena, 

 records as facts to be found in the Sher-chm collection, that 

 "Nagarjiina lived 400 years after the death of Shakya, who 

 had foretold of him, that he would be born, after so many 

 years, to explain the higher principles laid down in the Prajna 

 Paramita" In regard to Kanishka, (one of the Turushka 

 princes mentioned in the Raja Tarangani,) it is also stated in 

 the Tibetan annals, that one of the Buddhistical convocations 

 took place in the time of that prince, "Kanishka, a king in the 

 north of India, upwards o/400 years from Shakya." ("Asiatic 

 Researches," vol. xx. p. 41.) It will be seen also, that I intro- 

 duced into a paper which I read before this Society^, "On the 

 Mythological Legends of the Sinhalese," an extract from a 

 little pamphlet which records that Nagasena was a distin- 

 guished hierarch of the Buddhist Church in 490 A.B. 



After a careful perusal of these facts, it is indeed im- 

 possible to withhold the conclusion to which they inevitably 

 lead, viz., that the personage designated Nagarjuna in India, 

 and Nagasena in Ceylon, was one and the same person; and 

 that the ages of 400 and 500 A.B., (assigned to him in round 

 numbers by the two countries respectively,) are to be regarded 

 as approximating rather than specific dates. 



