 Some date the earliest finished form of the text back to 2nd century CE, although its oral origins may go back to 2nd century BCE.The extant version of "Ashokavadana" is a part of "Divyavadana", a Sanskrit-language anthology of Buddhist legends.However, its ancient Chinese translations "A-yu wang chuan" (c. 300 CE), and "A-yu wang ching" (c. 512 CE) suggest that it once existed as an independent text.