It would seem therefore that, according to the tradition followed by this writer, Susunâga first removed the capital to Vesâli, and his successor Kâlâsoka, who died, in the opinion of the writer in question, in 118 after the Great Decease, finally fixed it at Pâtaliputta.
If we therefore apply this date to the prophecy we must come to the conclusion that the Book of the Great Decease was put into its present form at least 100 years after the Buddha's death, and probably a little more. But the authority followed by Bishop Bigandet is very late; and no mention of these occurrences is found either in the Dîpavamsa or in the Mahâvamsa. I think indeed that the whole account of these two kings, as at present accepted in Ceylon and Birma, is open to grave doubt[1] (in which connection it should be noticed that the oldest account of the Council of Vesâli, in the Kulla-vagga, Book XII, makes no mention of Kâlâsoka).
We have next to consider the reference to the relics in the concluding sections of Chapter VI as a possible basis for chronological argument. These sections are almost certainly older than the time when especial sanctity was claimed for Buddhist dâgabas on the ground that they contained particular relics of the Blessed One (such as a tooth, or the bowl, or the neck bone); for if such special relics were accepted as objects of worship when the Book of the Great Decease was put together, they would naturally have been mentioned in the course of Chapter VI.
It is even almost certain that when the sections were put into their present form no Buddhist dâgaba was in existence except at the eight places mentioned in them; and the words are quite consistent with the belief that those eight had themselves then ceased to have any very widespread and acknowledged sanctity. So in Chapter V, § 13, where four places are spoken of 'which the believing man should visit with feelings of reverence and of awe,' there is no mention of dâgabas at all; and in Chapter V, § 16, it is
- ↑ See my 'Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon,' p. 50.
