A short note on the date of Buddhani rv@%a using planetarium software B. N.

Narahari Achar
Abstract It is shown that a unique date results for the Buddhanirv@%a when the astronomical events that occurred during the last months in the life of Buddha are examined with planetarium software. After his arrival at ^r@vasti, there occurred the winter solstice. There was a lunar eclipse followed by a solar eclipse before his final passage on vai^@khap#r%ima. It is shown using planetarium software that this sequence of events leads to a unique date of 1807 BCE, in surprising agreement with Kota Venkatachelam. Introduction Before the reader exclaims with oh, another paper on the date of Buddha!, the author requests the readers patience, and pleads that this is a very short note and has some surprising results. As is well known, the literature on this topic is extensive1. Most of the modern scholars prefer a date of 554 BCE, or 483 BCE or even later date for Buddhasnirv@%a.On the other hand, many Indian scholars such as Kota Venkatachelam2, Sathe3, Sethna4, and Bhattacharjya5 and some Western scholars such as Parker6 and Knapp7 have advocated much earlier dates. Buddhawas the son of King ^uddhodana who was the 23rd king of the Ik&v@ku dynasty and Pur@%icrecords point to 1807 BCE as the date of attaining nirv@%a by Buddha. Kota Venkatachelam has determined that Buddhasnirv@%a occurred on the
1

Bechert, Heinz, (ed) (1996). When did the Buddha live? The controversy on the Dating of the Historical Buddha. Sri Satguru publications, Delhi 2 Venkatachelam, K,, (1953),The plot in Indian Chronology, Vijayavadaa 3 Sathe, S., (1987) Dates of the Buddha,Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Samiti, Hyderabad 4 Sethna, K. D., (1987), Ancient India in a New Light, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi. 5 Bhattacharjya, S.K.,(2008) The Dotted Record and its impact on ancient Indian chronology, including the antiquity of the Vedas and of the Bhagavadgita, 7th Int. Conf. WAVES, June 27-29, Orlando. 6 Parker, Vrin, (2000), The Vedic Buddha, Vaishnava News 7 Knapp, S., (2007) Reestablishing the Datae of Lord Buddha, http://www.stephen-knapp.com

vai^@khaP#r%im@,on March 27, 1807 BCE. Support for this date is derived from an independent Buddhist source, sa>yuttanik@ya. For about three months before his death, Buddha was staying in ^r@vasti. During this time several devaputtas visit him. This included kassapa,candim@ and s#riyo. Both candim@and s#riyo were seized by r@hu and they both pray Buddhato release them from the grips of r@hu.Sengupta8 assumed kassapato denote praj@pati and devaputtas to denote the deities, the @dityas, who are the lords of the months. He therefore interpreted the visits to mean thatthere occurred the winter solstice, a lunar eclipse, followed by a solar eclipse. Sengupta tried to confirm the usually accepted dates of 544 BCE or 483 BCE for the event of Buddhanirv@%a. He found that two eclipses as mentioned in the sa>yuttanik@ya would be possible in 560 BCE, however this would match neither of the dates 544 BCE and 483 BCE which have been touted as possible dates of Buddhasnirv@%a.He argued that since 544 BCE is closer to 560 BCE, 544 could be accepted. Simulations with planetarium software. Accepting Senguptas interpretation, a search was made from 1900 BCE to 400 BCE for the sequence of events: winter solstice, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, followed by vai^@khap#r%ima, the full moon day of Buddhanirv@%a. It is found that there are only 14 dates possible for this sequence of events to occur:1807 BCE, 1694 BCE, 1659 BCE, 1510 BCE, 1250 BCE, 1192 BCE, 1138 BCE, 1119 BCE, 1062 BCE, 1007 BCE, 765 BCE, 690 BCE and 560 BCE. If a time limit of about three months (the time that Buddha spends in ^r@vasti before attaining his nnirv@%a ) is imposed, then the time interval between winter solstice and vi^@khap#r%ima must be less than 90 days and that vi^@kha p#r%ima should occur before the vernal equinox, as winter solstice occurred after his arrival at ^r@vasti.With this restriction, most of the dates do not qualify, leaving only two dates 1807 BCE and 1510 BCE as possible dates. It is interesting to note that the traditionally accepted dates, 544 BCE, or 483 BCE, or any of the recently revised dates do not fit the picture. One additional piece of astronomical information is needed to fix the date. We follow the suggestion of Sengupta.
8

Sengupta, P. C.,(1947), Ancient Indian Chronology,University of Calcutta

The sa>yutta nik@ya, Part I, Sug@thaVagga, Book II, Chapter I, Devaputta sa>yuttam,suttas contain ten units in all, two of them to relate to kassapa. The others are devaputtas who visit Buddha. Sengupta identifies kassapa with praj@pati and hence with winter solstice. He regards the other deities as @dityas The first devaputta to visit is to be taken as the lord of the month of the lunar eclipse. We take a hint from a listing of the sons of aditi in taittir$yaara%yaka:dh@t@@ryam@n.. If we assume as Sengupta did, kassapa as dh@ta@ or praj@pati, his visit would indicate the arrival of winter solstice. @ryam@n would be the first devaputta to visit as the deity of the month, i.e., the presiding deity of the nak&atra of the full moon, where the lunar eclipse occurs. In 1510 BCE, as shown in Figure 1, the lunar eclipse occurs at uttaraph@lgu%$, whose deity is bhaga. In 1807 BCE, the lunar eclipse occurs at p#rvaph@lgu%$, with @ryam@nas the deity. So we choose 1807 BCE as the year. Simulations show that the winter solstice occurred on January 5, 1807 BCE. There was a lunar eclipse on January 26, 1807 BCE, which was followed by a solar eclipse on February 10, 1807 BCE, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. It can also be seen from Figure 3 that winter solstice would have occurred earlier when the Sun was near dhani&{ha(the position which corresponds to 270 along the ecliptic). Buddhasnirv@%a occurs on vai^@khap#r%ima shown in Figure 4.This is exactly as recorded9 in sa>yutta nik@ya, Part I, Sug@thaVagga, Book II, Chapter I, Devaputtasa>yuttam,suttas 9, and 10. Discussion If the arguments based on the astronomical interpretation suggested by Sengupta for the verses in samyuttanik@ya can be believed, then the information of a unique date for the nirv@%a appears to have been preserved in the Buddhist scriptures. The date is
9

Athakhobhagav@ca<dima>devaputta>@rabhar@hu>asuri<da>g@thay@ajjabh@si || that@gata>araha<ta> | ca<dim@sara%a>gato || r@huca<da>pamu~cassu | Buddhalok@nuka>pak@ti|| SN (I. ii . 1. 9.3) || Athakhobhagav@suria>devaputta>@rabhar@hu>asuri<da>g@thay@ajjabh@si || that@gata>araha<ta> | suriya>sara%a>gato || r@hupamu~casuriya> |Buddh@lok@nuka>pak@ti|| SN (I. ii . 1. 10.3) ||

1807 BCE and is in perfect agreement with the tradition as shown by Kota Venkatachelam, Knapp and others.

Figure 1

Lunar eclipse in 1510 BCE occurs at uttaraph@lgu%$

Figure 2. Lunar Eclipse on January 26, 1807 BCE at p#rvaph@lgu%$

Figure 3. Solar Eclipse on February 10, 1807 BCE

Figure 4. Star Map for March 27, 1807 BCE: Full Moon at vi^@kha;Buddhasnirv@%a It is also easy to demonstrate that if the legend that Buddha spent about the last three months of his life in ^r@vasti , where he arrived before the winter solstice and attained nirv@%aon the full moon day of vai^@kha is true, then 544 BCE, 483 BCE or any of the later dates cannot be the date of nirv@%a. Since the interval between winter solstice and vernal equinox is three months, and Buddha had arrived at ^r@vasti before winter solstice, his nirv@%a on vai^@khap#r%imashould occur before the vernal equinox. For this to occur, Sun should be near bhara%i(or, past bhara%itowards k=ttika) at winter solstice. However, for all years after 1000 BCE, the Sun will be near a&hvini (and moving towards revati because of precession) at winter solstice, making it impossible to satisfy the criterion set earlier, that vai^@khap#r%imashould occur before the vernal equinox. The occurrence of the lunar eclipse followed by a solar eclipse within the time interval fixes the date uniquely at 1807 BCE. This is also the date according to Puranic records as well as r@jatara<gi%i Conclusion The date of Buddhanirv@%a is 1807 BCE