The History of Antiquity Volume Iv Part 16

CHAPTER I.

THE STATES ON THE GANGES IN THE SIXTH CENTURY B.C.

The list of the kings of Magadha, preserved not only among the Brahmans, but from the seventh century B.C. downwards among the Buddhists who then came forward to oppose them, allow us to a.s.sert with tolerable accuracy that the dynasty of the Pradyotas, which ascended the throne of Magadha in the year 803 B.C., was succeeded in 665 B.C. by another family, known to the Brahmans as the caicunagas.[384] The first two kings of this house were Kshemadharman and Bhattya (the Kshatraujas of the Brahmans).

In 603 B.C. Bhattya was succeeded by his son Bimbisara. In the reign of this king, according to the ancient sutras of the Buddhists, justice, morals, and religion were regulated in Magadha and the neighbouring states according to the wishes of the Brahmans. In these narratives we find the rules of the law-book generally recognised and carried out in all essential points, and in some respects they are even transcended.

The system of exclusive castes is complete. The stricter marriage law, forbidding union with a woman of another caste, is victorious over the more liberal view that the husband fixed the caste. "Brahmans marry Brahmans only, n.o.bles only n.o.bles; a man takes a wife only from an equal family."[385] Within the castes those of equal position are divided into separate corporations. Among the Vaicyas and cudras, merchants, artisans, barbers, form special castes, in which the occupation of the father descends to the son; the son of a merchant is a merchant, and the son of a butcher a butcher.[386] The laws on the order of the castes and forbidden food were strictly observed. The lower and impure castes thoroughly believe in their vocation. The Kshatriya, though sick to death, refuses to take even as a remedy the forbidden onion (p. 169), which the physician hands to him.[387] The Chandalas give notice of their approach that the higher castes may not be rendered impure by contact with them; they eat dog's flesh as the law requires, and carry the dead out beyond the gates of the city.[388] Invested with the holy girdle, the Brahmans, as the law directs (p. 173), bear continually in their hands the staff of bamboo and the pitcher of water for purification. The learned among them are occupied with the study of the Veda; they recite the hymns, instruct pupils, and hold discussions on theology and philosophy. Occasionally the princes take an interest in these learned contests, and cause the disputations to go on at their courts in their presence; one king favours this system, another that; one protects this school, the other a different school. The penitent Brahmans live as anchorites in the forest, in the mountains, on the holy lakes Ravanahadra and Manasa, under Kailasa, the lofty peak of the Himalayas. Some live in complete solitude, others dwell in such a manner that a whole circle of settlements lie close together.[389] The neighbours now and then combine for disputation, others give themselves up in deep solitude to meditation and mortification. At that time hundreds of these penitents are said to have lived on the holy lakes, and the severity of their exercises appears already to have exceeded the requirements of the book of the law. Some fast, others sit between four fires, others perpetually hold their hands above their heads, others lie on hot ashes, others on a wooden bed covered with sharp points.[390]

Other Brahmans, and it would appear a considerable number, wander as mendicants through the land; others pursue the newly-discovered avocations of astrology and sooth-saying;[391] others avail themselves of the permission of the book of the law to drive the plough, and carry on the business of a merchant.[392] Others think that they will find an easier path to maintenance and money if they present the kings with poems written in their praise, or give their daughters to be received into the harem of princes. Not all Brahmans could read and write: many confounded _Om_ and _Bhur_.[393]

The life of the opulent cla.s.ses, had become, it is said, easy and luxurious. In such circles no one went without a servant to carry the parasol and keep off the flies. The physician was sent for in every case of sickness, and poor men entreated him not to order too costly remedies. The lot of the beggar was considered miserable, because he could not have a physician in sickness, or obtain medicine.[394]

Industry and trade flourished in spite of the hindrances thrown in the way by the system of caste, or the taxation, which, as is shown by many indications beside the directions in the book of the law, was severe.

That Magadha, even before the sixth century, was the seat of a lively trade, we may conclude from the fact that the merchants are called simply "Magadhas" in the book of the law. Caravans under the guidance of a chief convey the wares from one city to another on camels, elephants, oxen, and a.s.ses, or on the shoulders of bearers, till the sea-coast is reached. Stuffs and woven cloths, especially silk of Varanasi, sandal-wood, saffron and camphor, horses from the north, "n.o.ble Sindhu horses," are mentioned as the commonest articles of traffic.[395] As the most important the book of the law enumerates precious stones, pearls, corals, iron, woven cloths, perfumes and spices, and advises the man who wishes to ama.s.s money quickly to go to sea; "he who will obtain wealth most quickly must not despise the dangers and misery of the great ocean." According to the statements of the sutras the merchants go by hundreds over the sea. The costly sandal-woods of the Malabar coasts are embarked at curparaka (which must no doubt be looked for at the mouth of the Krishna); from thence men sailed past Tamraparni (Ceylon) in order to buy precious stones on a distant island.[396] In the larger cities the merchants formed corporations, the chiefs of which treat with the kings in the names of the whole;[397] some especially-favoured merchants obtained the privilege of receiving their wares free of toll. The great merchants in the cities did not find it necessary to pay at once for the wares which came from a distance. They printed their seal on the bales which they would buy, and paid a small deposit.[398] The members of the family work at their occupation in common; while one brother stays at home and attends to the sale, the others go with the caravans or are at sea.[399] In these circles no one marries till he has ama.s.sed a certain sum of money. The profits of the merchants appear to have been easy and large, though their journeys were attended with danger. They were not only threatened with the exactions of tax-gatherers and attacks of robbers, but were exposed to great temptations in the cities. Mistresses could be found there, "whose bodies were soft as the lotus flower, and shone in gay attire." These, no doubt, gave themselves up to the young travellers at no inconsiderable price.[400]

The kings of Magadha resided at Rajagriha, _i.e._ the king's house, a city which lay to the south of the Ganges and the east of the cona. The sutras mention Prasenajit, king of the Kocalas, who, as already remarked, lay on the Sarayu, and Vatsa, the son of catanika, king of the Bharatas, as contemporaries of Bimbisara, king of Magadha, and his son Ajatacatru. Hence the reigns of Prasenajit and Vatsa may be placed in the first half and about the middle of the sixth century B.C. Both princes are mentioned in the tradition of the Brahmans. In the Vishnu-Purana, Prasenajit is the twenty-third ruler of the Kocalas after the great war. Vatsa is the twenty-fifth successor of Pariks.h.i.+t, who is said to have ascended the throne of Hastinapura after the victory and abdication of the sons of Pandu.[401] The kings of the Kocalas had built a new city, cravasti, to the north of their ancient capital Ayodhya; the kings of the Bharatas resided at Kaucambi on the Ganges. To the north of the kingdom of Magadha, on the other bank of the Ganges, lay the commonwealth of the Vrijis on the Gogari, and the kingdom of Mithila; to the east on both sh.o.r.es of the Ganges were the Angas, whose capital appears to have been Champa (in the neighbourhood of the modern Bhagalpur); to the west of Magadha on the Ganges were the Kacis, whose capital was Varanasi (Benares). The colonies of the Arians had advanced and their territory had been extended to the south both on the east and west. This is not merely proved by the mention of curparaka, for the sutras of the Buddhists tell us of a great Arian kingdom on the northern spur of the Vindhyas, the metropolis of which was Ujjayini (Ozene in western writers) on the Sipra, and adjoining this on the coast was the kingdom of Surashtra (Guzerat).[402]

The life of the kings on the Ganges is described by our authorities in glowing colours. Their palaces are s.p.a.cious, provided with gardens and terraces for promenading. Besides the women and servants, the bodyguard and the executioners clothed in blue are domiciled in the royal citadels. The princes eat off silver and gold, and are clothed in silk of Varanasi. Friendly princes make handsome presents to each other, _e.g._ suits of armour adorned with precious stones.[403] Their edicts and commands are composed in writing and stamped with the seal of ivory.[404] The labours of government are relieved by the pleasures of the chase. In sickness the princes are served with the most select remedies. When Bimbisari's son and successor fell down one day in a swoon, he was placed in six tubs full of fresh b.u.t.ter, and afterwards in a seventh filled with the most costly sandal-wood.[405] The harem of the king was numerous, and the women had great influence; the children which they bore were suckled by nurses, of whom one child had at times eight.[406] Any one who ventured to cast a look upon one of the wives of the king forfeited his life. When one of the wives of Prasenajit, king of the Kocalas, was walking in the evening on the terrace of the palace she saw the handsome brother of the king, and threw him a bouquet; when this came to the ears of Prasenajit, he caused the feet and hands of his brother to be cut off.[407] The same cruel and barbarous character marks all the punishments inflicted by the king. On the order of a king whose mildness and justice are commended, all the inhabitants of the city are said to have been put to death on account of an error committed by one of them.[408] If any one had to make a communication to the king, or lay any matter before him, he first besought that he might not be punished for his words. No one approached the king without a present; least of all merchants. Happy events were announced by princes to their cities by the sound of bells. Stones, gravel, and dirt were then removed from the streets, which were sprinkled with sandal-water and strewed with flowers and garlands, and silken stuffs were hung along them. At certain distances jars filled with frankincense were placed; and if a guest of distinction was to be received the ways were cleansed for a considerable s.p.a.ce before the gates, smoothed, and perfumed, and furnished with standards, parasols, and resting-places of flowers.[409]

We have already remarked how unfamiliar the abstract G.o.d which the Brahmans had placed at the head of their theory remained to the people, both in his impersonal and personal form. They had been more deeply influenced by the degradation of the old G.o.ds, introduced by the Brahmans in consequence of their religious system (p. 287). Yet it was not so much these doctrines which caused the old G.o.ds to lose their primitive power, and complete charm over the hearts of men, as the fact that the motives which now governed the life of the Aryas were wholly different from those which had filled them in old days on the Indus.

Indra, the hurler of the thunder-bolt, had fought with the tribes whose offering of Soma he had drunk. The storm of the elements characteristic of the Panjab was unknown on the Ganges; and in the civilised conditions of a peaceful, obedient, quiet life the old slayer of the demons could no longer excite the lively feelings of the people. The Brahmans might recede ever further from nature; the people, the peasants and herdmen, remained in constant contact with her, and with the phenomena of the sky and the vegetative life of the earth; they felt themselves continually surrounded by the mighty operations of nature. The feeling and faith of the people required a more personal, present, living power, which a.s.sured them of help and protection. While the Brahmans wearied themselves with abstractions and philosophic systems, the needs of the mult.i.tude, the poetical vein of the Indian nation, its realism as opposed to the spiritualism of the priests and Brahmans, struck out new paths. So it came about that as the supreme deities of the most ancient and the early periods faded away more and more, as Mitra and Varuna, Indra and Ushas pa.s.sed into the background, forms. .h.i.therto little regarded rose up out of the circle of these spirits, which were akin to the present instincts and needs of the nation, the immediate modes of feeling, and in closer relation to them. This movement was not confined to the people; within the circles of the Brahmans, who were not wholly given up to abstractions, the want of a living power, governing the world, could not but be felt.[410]

In the hymns of the Rigveda a G.o.d Vishnu is invoked, though but little prominence is given to him. He is called a friend and comrade of Indra; it said of him that he walks over the seven parts of the earth; that he plants his foot in three places. The "far-stepping" Vishnu is invited with Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman to give salvation. He dwells in the height; his exalted habitation, where honey flows, beams with clear light. He sustains trebly the sky, the earth, and all worlds; he walks with three steps through the wide firmament. He walks through the worlds to secure long life for men. Not even the soaring winged birds could reach up to his third step. He hastens on to ally himself with the beneficent Indra; he favours and protects the Aryas. Fired by hymns of praise Vishnu himself yokes the mighty mares, and dashes into the battle in his youth and strength, accompanied by the Maruts. "Friend Vishnu,"

said Indra, when planning the death of Vritra, "step out wide; thou heaven, give room, that the thunder-club may descend; let us smite Vritra and set the waters free. O strong G.o.d (Indra), in concert with Vishnu thou hast smitten Vritra; thou hast smitten Ahi who held back the waters." "Ye two heroes, who bring to nought the magic powers of the hostile spirits, to you I bring songs of praise and sacrifice. Ye have always conquered, ye have never been overcome. Come ye, Indra and Vishnu, to the draught of Soma, bring treasures with you; may your mares, which overpower the foe, sharing in your victories, bring you hither; may our songs anoint you with the ointment of prayer. Rejoiced by the draught of Soma, take ye your wide steps; make wide the atmosphere and spread out the earth. Grant us rich sustenance in our houses." "No mortal, O Vishnu, knows the uttermost limits of thy greatness; thou hast surrounded the earth on both sides with beams of light. Never does the man repent it, who serves the far-stepping Vishnu with all his heart, and makes the mighty one favourable. Grant us, O swift G.o.d, thy favour graciously, which includes all men; thy favouring glance, that abundance, treasures, and horses may be ours. Thrice the swift G.o.d stepped through the earth that he might make it to be a dwelling for men."[411]

Hence we must regard Vishnu, whose dwelling is in the height of heaven, as a swift spirit of light. Invoked in the hymns of the Veda beside the Adityas or spirits of light, he is not definitely named as such, though we cannot refuse to him a close connection with the sun when we consider the further development of the conception formed of him. As he supports Indra in the battle against the demons, he must be regarded, like him, as a protector against the evil ones, a giver of water and wealth. His kindly feeling towards men, his beneficent acts are brought into prominence. Hence from the early point of view he was a G.o.d bringing blessing and help. The three steps are explained by the Mahabharata as the earth, the air, and the heavens;[412] other explanations refer them to the light of the sun at morning, noon, and evening. The Brahmanas reckon Vishnu among their twelve Adityas (instead of the seven or eight of the Rigveda), and give a myth of Vishnu. The Aitareya-Brahmana calls him the gate-keeper, but also the highest deity, as Agni is the lowest; the rest of the G.o.ds are between them. Leaning on his bow Vishnu stood, as the catapatha-Brahmana relates, while the rest of the G.o.ds sacrificed to Kurukshetra; the ants ate through the string, the bow sprung back and tore off Vishnu's head, which now flew through heaven and earth. The body was divided by the G.o.ds into three parts; Agni took the morning sacrifice, Indra that at mid-day, and all the rest the third sacrifice.

But they received no blessing from their headless sacrifice, till the Acvins, who were skilled in the art of healing, put back the head on the sacrifice. Further, by sacrifice and penance Vishnu became the first of the G.o.ds; in order to wrest this place from him the other G.o.ds caused the ants to eat through the string and then divided Vishnu, the sacrifice, into three parts.[413] Here the G.o.ds are found sacrificing a G.o.d, but the self-sacrifice of the G.o.ds is common in the Brahmanas.

Mystical conceptions of this kind naturally remained outside the national religion. The view of the Aitareya-Brahmana is nearer the popular mind--that Vishnu took away from the Asuras the world of which they had possessed themselves, and gave it back to the G.o.ds. This idea is carried out in the Epos: Bali, a great Asura, had gained the dominion over the earth, and conquered the G.o.ds; in order to help the G.o.ds out of their distress Vishnu a.s.sumes the form of a dwarf, and entreats Bali to allow him s.p.a.ce for three steps of his dwarfish feet. Having obtained his request he takes possession of earth, air, and heaven in three great steps, hurls the Asura into h.e.l.l, and thus, by the liberation of the world and the G.o.ds, he became the younger brother of Indra.[414]

This mighty G.o.d, the ruler of earth and heaven, this swift, bright, friendly helper of G.o.ds and men, was invoked by the nation on the Ganges as their best protecting deity. It was no doubt the helpful nature of Vishnu, the characteristic celebrated in the songs of the Veda and in the legends, which permitted this change. In the plains of the Ganges fruit and increase naturally depended on the period of rain, on the regular rise and overflow of the river, not on violent crises in the sky, or the tempestuous storm in which Indra was still the ruling deity; in this district the blessing of the land, the life-giving, fructifying power of nature, could be ascribed to a deity who worked his beneficial will in a ceaseless persistent course. In the book of the law Vishnu is hardly mentioned; only once, in the addition at the close, is reference made to his swift approach;[415] on the other hand, in the ancient sutras of the Buddhists, Vishnu appears under the names Hari and Janardana as a widely-honoured deity.[416]

Rudra, the G.o.d of the storm, is repeatedly invoked in the Rigveda.

Derived from the tumult of the tempest, the name signifies "the roarer,"

"the howler." He is the father of the Maruts, or winds, the G.o.d whom no other surpa.s.ses in strength, terrible as a wild beast, as the boar of the sky. Red or brown in colour, he wears his hair closely braided (an idea no doubt taken from the clouds gathered together by the storm-wind); the swift strong arrows from his mighty bow force their way from heaven to earth; he is the lord of the heroes, the slayer of men.

"Bring to the venerable Rudra the draught of the Soma; I have praised him with the heroes of the sky,"--so we are told in some prayers of the Rigveda. "Submissively we call on the red boar of the sky; be gracious to us, to our children and descendants! Smite neither the great nor the small among us, neither father nor mother, neither our cattle nor our horses. Listen to our prayers, father of the Maruts." "May Rudra's arrow pa.s.s by us; may the spear which travels over the earth touch us not. May the weapons which slay men and cows remain far from us! Grant us refuge and protection; take thou our side. Remove from us sickness and want, thou who art easily entreated. Thou bearest in thy hand a thousand remedies; these I desire with the favour of Rudra. Be gracious to the wandering sources of our nourishment; let our cows eat strengthening plants, and drink abundant life-giving water. For our men and women, for our horses, rams, sheep and cows, Rudra secures health and prosperity".[417] It is the wild injurious force of the storm, the force that carries off men and animals, which these prayers would avert, and the beneficial consequences of this storm, the filling of springs and streams, the refreshment of the meadows, the cooling and purification of the air, are the blessings which these prayers would win from the double nature of the easily entreated G.o.d. By the remedies which Rudra carries in his hand along with the mighty bow the beneficial consequences of the storm are no doubt to be understood. In the Atharvaveda, Rudra with Bhava is invoked under the name of carva as a mighty, darkly-glancing archer, with black hair, a thrower of the spear, who dashes on with a thousand eyes, and slays the Andhakas. Here also he is entreated not to be angry, not to smite men nor cattle, to hurl his heavenly weapons against others and not against his suppliant.[418] He is more highly exalted still in the catapatha-Brahmana, which unites in him the attributes and functions of various G.o.ds, of Vayu, Chandra, Bhava, Parjanya, _i.e._ the rain-G.o.d, and of Agni, represents the G.o.ds as afraid of his power, and denotes him by the name Mahadeva (great G.o.d). A long and extraordinary prayer which this Brahmana prescribes for appeasing him, ascribes to him the most extensive power: it calls him the inhabitant, the lord of the mountains, forests, and fields, of the wild beasts, of the streets and hosts, who slays from before and from behind, red in colour, with a blue neck. If the anger of the mighty deity is appeased, he brings rain and blessing, and then he is the gracious one, civa. The fruitfulness of this deity and the necessity of propitiating him appear to have brought it about that this name, which is found as an epithet of other G.o.ds, became his peculiar t.i.tle. In the old sutras of the Buddhists he is thus called, though he more frequently bears the name cankara, _i.e._ bringer of happiness.

We see that the deity whose strong power drove up the rain-clouds to the coast of Surashtra (Guzerat) and the heights of the Himalayas was victorious over the ancient G.o.d of tempest. In this G.o.d there was a destroying power, but his anger and rage were followed by the fructifying showers of rain, causing vegetation to revive and the springs to flow, cooling the air and refres.h.i.+ng man and beast. So the nation looked up with thankful eyes to the G.o.d of storm who had now, in reality, become a G.o.d of increase and prosperity, a healer of wounds and sickness, as was already indicated in the poems of the Rigveda. Among his retinue is a being of the name of Nandin, who appears later as a bull, and is without doubt nothing more than an indication of the wild force of the storm, and its fruitful operation.[419] As he is more especially a lord of the mountains, and is said to be throned on Kailasa, and the Ganges flows down over his head, as the Epos represents the heroes as going to the Himalayas to wors.h.i.+p civa, and the storm rages fiercest in the hills, we may a.s.sume that it was the inhabitants of the Western Himalayas who elevated Rudra-civa to be their protecting deity, just as Vishnu became the G.o.d of the nations on the Ganges.[420]

FOOTNOTES:

[384] Cp. p. 76, 145, 321.

[385] Burnouf, "Introduction a l'histoire du Bouddhisme," p. 208, 209, 151.

[386] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 152.

[387] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 150.

[388] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 138, 205, 208.

[389] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 157, 172. La.s.sen, "Ind. Alterth." 1, 581-585.

[390] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 138, 415.

[391] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 141, 149, 343.

[392] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 141.

[393] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 139, 140, 149. _Supra_, p. 173.

[394] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 236, 420.

[395] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 241, 244 ff. "Dhammapadam," translated by A. Weber, 322.

[396] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 223, 238.

[397] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 247.

[398] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 245, 246.

[399] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 240.

[400] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 146, 187.

[401] Above, p. 95. Our chronology for the epochs of Indian history depends essentially on fixing two points. The first is the accession of Chandragupta in Magadha, already mentioned, from which the year 315 B.C.

is certain (cp. _infra_); the second point is the year of Buddha's death. The Bhagavata-Purana puts Buddha's death 2000 years after the beginning of the Kaliyuga (_supra_, p. 77); such a round number and so general a date cannot lay claim to credibility. Besides this we have a number of other Brahmanic statements about the date of Buddha's life, varying more or less, but equally untrustworthy. More weight would naturally be ascribed to the statements of the Buddhists; yet even these differ widely from each other. The Thibetans have fourteen different statements about the year of Buddha's death, which cover the interval from 2422 to 546 or 544 B.C. The Chinese Buddhists as a rule a.s.sign Buddha's death to the year 950 B.C., but Buddhism did not reach the Chinese till after the birth of Christ. The most trustworthy statement seems to be that of the Singhalese. Buddhism reached them soon after the year 250 B.C.; from the year 161 B.C. their chronology agrees with existing inscriptions: their chronological system and their era is based on the year of Buddha's death, which they place in 543 B.C. If this date is compared with the Brahmanic list of kings of Magadha we get the following results: Before Chandragupta the dynasty of the Nandas reigned for 88 years according to the Brahmanic accounts, and 22 according to the Singhalese. On this point I agree with La.s.sen and Gutschmid in preferring the statement of the Brahmans, because the error of the Singhalese may very easily have arisen from the fact that the reign of 22 years, which they give to the sons of Kalac.o.ka, was incorrectly repeated for the following dynasty. According to this the first Nanda ascended the throne of Magadha in the year 403 (315+88). From this year the items on the Singhalese list carry us up to the year 665 B.C. for the accession of Kshemadharman (cicunaga), and the year 603 B.C. for the commencement of the reign of Bimbisara (Gutschmid, "Beitrage," s. 79 ff.), who is succeeded by Ajatacatru eight years before Buddha's Nirvana ("Mahavanca," 2, 32, p. 10, ed. Turnour), which thus falls in the year 543 B.C. If we keep to the Singhalese date for the Nanda dynasty, we arrive at the year 477 B.C. for Buddha's death. Bimbisara ascended the throne 198 years according to the Matsya-Purana, and 193 years according to the Vayu-Purana, before the first Nanda. If the year 403 B.C. marks the accession of the Nandas, Bimbisara according to the Matsya-Purana began to reign in 601 B.C., and according to the Vayu-Purana in 590 B.C.

Between Bimbisara's accession in 603 B.C. and the end of Ac.o.ka of Magadha there intervene, according to the statements of the Buddhists, 375 years. If with this we compare the dates of the reigns in the list of kings in the Vayu-Purana from Bimbisara to Ac.o.ka, we get 378 years from the first year of Bimbisara to the last year of Ac.o.ka. There is also another fact which agrees with the era 543 _B.C._ According to the statements of the Singhalese the second synod of the Buddhists was held 100 or 110 years after Buddha's death, in the reign of Kalac.o.ka, _i.e._ in 443 or 433 B.C. ("Mahavanca," ed. Turnour, p. 15). Of these two statements it is obvious that the more definite, 110 years, is more deserving of credit. According to the detailed statements of the Singhalese for the time of the separate reigns, Kalac.o.ka's reign begins 90 years after Buddha's death, _i.e._ 453; he reigns 28 years according to the Singhalese, _i.e._ if we reckon up the single items from Chandragupta (the Nandas 80, and Kalac.o.ka's sons 22 years) from 453 to 425 B.C. In this way the era of the Singhalese and the year of Buddha's death are completely justified. Still the year is not wholly beyond a doubt. According to the statement of the native Singhalese, Chandragupta ascended the throne 162 years (and the various items agree with this total) after Buddha's death, _i.e._ 162 years after the year 543 B.C., and therefore in the year 381 B.C., but we know that his accession took place in 315 B.C. Here we find an error of 66 years, which however we have already removed by adopting the Brahmanic statement of 88 years for the dynasty of the Nandas instead of the 22 years of the Singhalese.

Further, it does not agree with the era of 543 B.C., when we are told by the Singhalese that the third Buddhist synod was held 118 years after the second, _i.e._ 228 years after Buddha's death. We know from inscriptions that this synod met in the seventeenth year of Ac.o.ka, Chandragupta's second successor. Ac.o.ka reigned from 265 to 228, or from 263 to 226 B.C.: his seventeenth year reckoned from 265 would be 249 B.C.; if we add to this 228 years we get 477 B.C. for the year of Buddha's death; thus we have here again the same error of 66 years.

Lastly, it does not agree with the era of 543 B.C. when we are told that the fourth Buddhist synod was held 400 years after the death of Buddha, under Kanishka, king of Cashmere. Kanishka is a contemporary of Augustus and Antonius (La.s.sen, "Ind. Alterth." 2, 412, 413); and according to this statement, therefore, Buddha would have died about the year 400 B.C. As the number of 400 years given for the fourth synod is nevertheless designedly a round number, little weight is to be placed upon it, and the year 543 can be kept as the year of Buddha's death.

Before the dynasty of the Nandas in Magadha (403-315 B.C.) the throne was occupied by the Kshatrabandhus or caicunagas for 262 years (665-403 B.C.); before these came the Pradyotas with 138 years (803-665 B.C.), who were again preceded (as is shown above, p. 77) by the Barhadrathas with 615 years, _i.e._ from 1418 to 803 B.C. (Cf. Gutschmid in "Beitrage zur Geschichte des alten Orients," s. 76, 87, and in "Zeitschrift d. D.

M. G." 18, 372 ff.)

[402] As the Arian colonists go from Surashtra to Ceylon about the year 500 B.C., this kingdom must have been in existence in the sixth century B.C. Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 166 ff.

[403] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 427.

[404] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 407.

[405] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 245.

[406] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 237, 432.

[407] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 146, 514.

[408] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 423.

[409] Burnouf, _loc. cit._ p. 175, 261, 380.

[410] If I ascribe the rise of Vishnu and civa primarily to the people, this is done because the need pointed out must have been felt most deeply by them; two rival deities would never have been elevated to supreme positions if the movement had not begun from beneath, and the life in two different districts had not formed the starting-point.

[411] Muir, "Sanskrit Texts," 4, 67 ff.