This section gathers events that can only be placed roughly within a span of years and cannot be fixed to a single year. For these the sutras or the later commentaries often say only “within twenty years of the Awakening”, “after twenty years”, “in the Buddha's last years”, or “in the reign of King Ajātasattu”, without saying which year. They fall into six parts: Years 1 to 5 after the Awakening; the first twenty years after the Awakening; from Year 21 onwards; the Sāvatthī period (Years 21 to 44), the capital of Kosala; the Buddha's last years (roughly Years 33 to 45); and several records of journeys in the whose year is unknown. A few other events that can likewise be placed only within a span of years have already been put on the pages of the relevant years, for example the rule in Year 2 that the newly ordained must have a preceptor, and the formal ordination procedure in Year 4. All ages are reckoned from an awakening at thirty-five.
Years 1 to 5 after the Awakening
This part has no entries of its own and only points to two events already placed on year pages: the Buddha's rule that the newly ordained must have a , known only to fall in Years 1 to 5 after the Awakening and placed in Year 2; and the conferring of by the formal act of the Sangha with one motion and three announcements, for which the sources give Year 2, Year 5 or Year 9, placed in Year 4.
The first twenty years after the Awakening
The later commentaries of the often call the first twenty years after the Awakening “the period of the first awakening”, and say that many things in this period differed from later: the Buddha had no permanent attendant, and Nāgasamāla, Nāgita, Upavāṇa, Sunakkhatta, Cunda, Sāgata, Rādha, Meghiya and others attended him in turn; the had not yet been laid down; and the Buddha mostly stayed at the various shrines (sacred places of worship) of Vesālī. The commentaries also say that for the twenty-five years after this the Buddha kept the rains retreat at Sāvatthī without exception. Another view holds that the first period lasted only fifteen years; here the twenty-year view is followed, and the commentaries do not say in which year the final period begins.
From Year 21 after the Awakening onwards
For the entries below, the sutras or the later commentaries say only “within twenty years of the Awakening” or “after twenty years”, with no fixed year, so they are not placed in Year 21 but only after Year 21; the latest possible year differs from entry to entry and is stated in each. Three events, Ānanda becoming the permanent attendant, the Buddha ceasing to recite the rules himself, and the permission to accept robes offered by lay people, were originally estimated in Year 21 and are now recorded as entries in this part.
Ānanda becomes the Buddha's permanent attendant
The Buddha ceases to recite the rules himself
Permission to accept robes offered by lay people
The Buddha first lays down the rains retreat
Sāriputta asks about support “after twenty years”
The fourth gravest rule laid down after twenty years
Another way of dividing the Buddha's life into three periods
The Sāvatthī period (Years 21 to 44 after the Awakening)
According to the later commentaries, from Year 21 after the Awakening the Buddha lived for many years at the Jetavana and the Eastern Park in Sāvatthī, so discourses whose opening says only “at Sāvatthī” can mostly be assigned only to the period from Year 21 to Year 44 and cannot be fixed to a single year. There are 1,319 such discourses in the canon of the Southern tradition (with a further 80 whose assignment is weaker) and 1,740 in the Chinese canon; the full list is given in an appendix, and this part has no entries of its own. On how the Buddha moved between the two places the commentaries give three accounts: alternating one year at each; going back and forth between the two by day and by night; or nineteen years at the Jetavana and six at the Eastern Park.
The Buddha's last years (roughly Years 33 to 45 after the Awakening)
This part gathers events of which the texts say only “in the Buddha's last years” or “in the reign of King Ajātasattu”, or whose order relative to other events is known but which cannot be fixed to a year. The year of Ajātasattu's accession is here reckoned as Year 38 after the Awakening from the regnal years recorded in the Sri Lankan chronicles (another reckoning gives Year 37), and many events take this as their starting point. When Devadatta split the Sangha, the Vinaya says the Buddha was “already old”, which converts to roughly Years 38 to 45; several discourses also record the Buddha saying he was eighty or past eighty. Events with an estimated year also carry a pointer on the page for that year.
Two battles between Ajātasattu and King Pasenadi
Ajātasattu visits the Buddha and hears the Discourse on the Fruits of the Ascetic Life
The death of Devadatta
Yasodharā passes away at seventy-eight
Mahāpajāpatī and five hundred nuns pass away
King Pasenadi says “the Blessed One is eighty, and I too am eighty”
Viḍūḍabha seizes the throne, and King Pasenadi dies outside the city
King Viḍūḍabha destroys the Sakyans
The timing of the permission for the kaṭhina robe
The regnal years of Bimbisāra and Ajātasattu
Ānanda attends the Buddha for twenty-five years
Several records of journeys whose year is unknown
The Vinaya contains several records of the Buddha's journeys whose routes partly coincide with the Buddha's journey in his last year, but the texts themselves do not show them to be the same journey and give no year. These passages were formerly cited among the variant readings of the entries on the last journey; they are now given entries of their own, cross-referenced to the relevant entries of Year 45 after the Awakening.