Page:The Mahāvaṃsa or the Great Chronicle of Ceylon.djvu/46

xlii Introduction Munda whom the Jainas do not know but who is mentioned in the Ahguttara-Nikaya. 1 Thus the Ceylonese tradition is in this point confirmed by the Northern tradition.

The JAINA list is based on the Parisistaparvan of Hema- candra. 2 It is, I think, generally admitted 3 that in this list Srenika and Kunika correspond to the Bimbisara and Ajata- sattu of the Pali sources. On the other hand the names from Anuruddha-Munda downwards to the Nandas are missing-. But among these names those of both Munda and Kalasoka are well established by other testimony, as we shall see presently.

The PURANIC list has the series Bimbisara-Ajatasatru- Udayin ( = Udayabhadda) in common with the Ceylonese. But the Puranas insert yet another king before the last- named, and the Ceylonese Chronicles place those three kings at the head of the whole list; the Puranas range the corresponding four kings in the second half of the list. Moreover, I cannot say that the Purana list inspires me with much confidence. The tradition as to individual names is very unstable in the different Puranas. The same is the case with the dates of the individual reigns, although the totals agree fairly well. 4

The question then arises : which list merits the most confidence, the Ceylonese, the Jaina, or that of the Puranas ? JACOBI 5 is disposed to give the preference to the Jaina list. He adheres to the view that Kalasoka, 'the black Asoka/ and Kakavarnin (Kakavarna), 'the crow-coloured/ are one and the same person. That is certainly correct and is con- firmed by the fact that Kalasoka in the Pali sources is named

1 A. III. 57 23 foil. OLDENBERG has already, Z.D.M.G. 34 (1880), p. 752, stated this fact.

2 Ed. JACOBI (Bibl Ind.}, I. 22 foil. ; VI. 22 foil., 231 foil. ; VIII. 1 foil., 297 foil. ; IX. 14 foil.

3 JACOBI, The Kalpasutra of Bhadrabdhu (Abhandl. fur die Kunde des Morgenl. vii. 1), Introduction, p. 2. The combination Srenika = Bimbisara occurs ROCKHILL, Life of Buddha (1907), p. 67.

4 See MABEL DUFF, The Chronology of India, Table to p. 322.

5 The Kalpasutra, Introd. ; also Z. D. M. G. 34, pp. 185-186. Cf. OLDENBERG, Z. D. M. G. 34, p. 750 foil. ; and further, JACOBI, Z. D. M. G. 35, p. 667 foil.