Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

'This appears to be the same as the Sûtra known in the South.... It was translated into Chinese by a Shaman called Fa-tsu, of the Western Tsin dynasty, circa 200 A.D.' I do not understand this date. The Western Tsin dynasty is placed by Mr. Beal himself on the fly-leaf of the Catalogue at 265-313 A.D. And whether the book referred to is really the same work as the Book of the Great Decease seems to me to be very doubtful. At p. 160 of his 'Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese' Mr. Beal says, that another Chinese work 'known as the Mahâ Parinirvâna Sûtra' 'is evidently the same as the Mahâ Parinibbâna Sutta of Ceylon,' but it is quite evident from the extracts which he gives that it is an entirely different and much later work. On this book there would seem further to be a translated commentary, Ta Pan-ni-pan King Lo, mentioned [1. Omitted by Po-fa-tsu. See below, p. xxxviii. 2. Catalogue of Buddhist Chinese Books in the India Office Library, p. 95.] p. xxxvii at p. 100 of the same Catalogue, and there assigned to Chang-an of the Tsin dynasty (589-619 A.D.). At pp. 12-13 of the same Catalogue we find no less than seven other works, and an eighth on p. 77, not indeed identified with the Book of the Great Decease, but bearing titles which Mr. Beal represents in Sanskrit as Mahâparinirvâna Sûtra. They purport to be translated respectively-- A. D. 1. By Dharmaraksha of the Northern Liang dynasty