[790] The inscriptions of Açoka date from various years, or at any rate mention regulations from various years; they speak of the tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, twenty-sixth, and thirty-first years after the coronation. According to the Singhalese the coronation did not take place till the fourth year after Vindusara's death. The inscriptions in which the Greek kings are mentioned date from the thirteenth year after the coronation, i. e. from the sixteenth or seventeenth year of the reign. The festival of the complete adoption of the law of Buddha by Açoka would thus have taken place in the thirteenth year of the reign, i. e. 251 B.C. If the statement of the Singhalese ("Mahavança," p. 22) were correct, that Açoka's consecration did not take place till the fourth year of his reign, which is quite contrary to Indian custom, and seems to have arisen from the desire to make the coronation synchronise with the conversion to Buddhism (according to the "Açoka-avadana," Açoka put on the royal head-dress at the moment when Vindusara died, Burnouf, loc. cit. 364), there would be a chronological difficulty. Alexander of Epirus died about the year 258 B.C.; Magas of Cyrene in that year; consequently both were dead in the thirteenth year after the coronation, the seventeenth year of Açoka, if he ascended the throne in the year 263. The Buddhists have already told us that Açoka showed himself favourable to their religion in the third year after his accession, though it was not till the year 254 or 251 that he formally went over. Hence, arrangements may have been made even earlier with the kings of the West in favour of the spread of Buddhism, and they may have been first mentioned in 251 or 247 B.C. Von Gutschmid, "Z. D. M. G." 18, 373. He might also mention kings of the distant West with whom he had had dealings, though they were dead, especially if he was without intelligence of their death.
[791] Lassen, loc. cit. 22, 238.
[792] Lassen, loc. cit. 22, 239.
[793] "Mahavança," p. 38. Köppen, "Rel. des Buddha," s. 154 ff.
[794] Burnouf, "Lotus de la bonne loi," p. 725, 727. Cf. "Mahavança," ed. Turnour, p. 251. A. Weber, "Ind. Studien," 3, 172.
[795] Köppen, loc. cit. s. 182.
[796] Lassen, loc. cit. 22, 238.
[797] Girnar, 6: in Lassen, 22, 267, n. 1.
[798] Girnar, 6: in Lassen, 22, 267, n. 1.
[799] Delhi, 2: in Lassen, 22, 268, n. 2.