Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/28

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Abstract of the Contents of the Dul-va.
Jan.

On the death of Sa′kya, Kasyapa, the head of the Baud'dhas, directs 500 superior monks to make a compilation of the doctrines of their master. The Do is also compiled by Ananda; the Dul-vá by Upali; and the Ma-moon, Abhidharma, or Prájná-páramita by himself. He presides over the sect at Rájagriha till his death.

Ananda succeeds as hierarch. On his death his reliques are divided between the Lichckivis and the king of Magadha; and two chaityas are built for their reception, one at Allahabad, the other at Pataliputra.

One hundred years after the disappearance of Sa′kya, his religion is carried into Kashmír.

One hundred and ten years after the same event, in the reign of Asoka, king of Pataliputra, a new compilation of the laws of Sa′kya was prepared by 700 monks, at Yangs-pa-chen (Allahabad).

The twelfth and thirteenth volumes contain supplementary rules and instructions, as communicated by Sákya to Upali, his disciple, in answer to the inquiries of the latter.


We shall be better prepared, upon the completion of the catalogue of the whole of the Káh-gyur, to offer any remarks upon the doctrines it inculcates, or the historical facts it may be supposed to preserve. It is therefore rather premature to make any observations upon the present analysis, confined as that is to but one division of the work, and unaccompanied by extractor translation; but we may perhaps be permitted to inquire what new light it imparts, as far as it extends, to the date and birth-place of Sa′kya.

Any thing like real chronology is, if possible, more unknown in Baud’dha than Brahmanical writings; and it is in vain therefore to expect any satisfactory specification of the date at which the Bud’dha Sákya flourished. We find however that 110 years after his death, Asoka, king of Patalíputra, reigned: now in the Vishna Purána and one or two other Puránas, the second king of Magadha from Chandra-gupta, or Sandrocoptos, bears the title of Asoka, or Asokaverddhana. If this be the prince intended, Sákya lived about 430 years before the Christian æra, which is about one century posterior to the date usually assigned for his appearance. It is not very different, however, from that stated by the Siamese, to Mr. Crawfurd. "By their account, his death took place in the first year of the sacred æra, being the year of the little snake; on Tuesday, being the full moon of the sixth month of the year. The year 1822 was the year 2364 of the æra in question, and as Bud’dha is stated by them to have died when 80 years of age, his birth by this account took place 462 years before the Christian æra." Crawfurd's Siam, 367.