NO. 43. — 1892.] ANCIENT CHRONICLES OP CEYLON. 167 



claim to historical materials begins : the beginning of the fifth 

 century, close upon the issue of Part I.: and during Part II., 

 that is, the part written up in 1750 A.D. For the period since 

 1750 A.D. there are of course abundant means of verification. 



What are these tests ? For the beginning, the edicts of 

 Asoka, the great Indian Emperor, inscribed on rocks and 

 pillars about India ; for about 400 A.D. the travels of Fa Hian, 

 the Chinese pilgrim, who then visited Anuradhapura ; and 

 for the latter part of the seventeenth century (besides all the 

 Portuguese and Dutch works) the account of Robert Knox. 



The Mahdwansa and Dipawansa tell us that it was Asoka 

 Piyadasi who sent Mahinda to establish Buddhism here, in 

 the reign of the Sinhalese King Tissa. They fix the date of 

 this, and say a great deal both about Asoka and about the 

 mission of Mahinda. Asoka is a person whose place in history 

 is fixed with certainty by his coming into contact with 

 European history by his relations with several Greek kings, 

 whom he mentions : he is also a person whose acts and views 

 are well known to us from his writings— writings which 

 may almost be called voluminous — on the rocks and pillars 

 to which I have referred. The date of his anointing, or, as 

 we should say, coronation, was 270 B.C., and his edicts were 

 issued between 260 and 230 B.C. 



With this date the Mahdwansa does not exactly agree : it is 

 about sixty years out. Of this discrepancy a very probable 

 explanation has been suggested, and the error is probably little 

 more than a miscalculation. But even supposing the date to 

 be sixty years out, it was impossible for a writer six centuries 

 later to get even as near as that to it if he had not definite 

 records to rely upon. 



Apart from the question of date, the representation which 

 the Mahdwansa gives of Asoka is verified by his own edicts, 

 both in general and in detail. The names of his father and 

 grandfather, and that his grandfather was the first of the 

 dynasty, set up by a certain Brahman — these points are con- 

 firmed by the Greek historian. That he was not always a 

 Buddhist, but was converted to Buddhism after his consecra- 



