ABSTRACT
There is a consensus drawn from several sources that Gotama Sakyamuni began to teach when about 35 years of age, this date must be referred to those of his birth and his so-called Parinirvana. He is made to admit more than once that he was "asltiko", that is eightyish, in the eighties, or it may be, just eighty. And the date of his passing soon after has been discussed round about other events, especially the accession of Asoka, an event which, it is held, Greek historians have made approximately clear. The problem remains however. Western discussion has settled, that the Parinirvana was in 483 b.c. Eastern tradition dates it sixty years earlier: 544 b.c. Recent discoveries of cave-inscriptions, giving an approximately greater antiquity to two kings of Magadha, contemporary with Sakyamuni—Bimbisara and Ajatasattu—suggest, that the tradition may after all be at least less incorrect than had been made out.
