Tulsi Prajna 1993 02

SR No.: 524574
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 166
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 150

THE DATE OF MAHĀVIRA'S NIRVANA, AS DETERMINED
IN ŠAKA 1175.
K. B. Pathak
The Jains of Maisur place the date of the Nirvāna of Mahāvīra 607 years before the era of Vikrama. The editor (of the Indian Antiquary, Vol. II Page 140) suggests, however, that this is a mistake for the Saka era. And I propose to show now that, with the difference of 605 for 607 years, this suggestion contains the correct truth, and that the resulting date of B. C. 527 is the one given in the Jaina books of these parts for the event in question.
The mistake arose in the misinterpretation, by the native commentator, of a well-known passage in the Trilokasāra, which says:
'पणछसयवस पणमासजुदं गमिय वीर णिबुइदो सगराजो' “Six-hundred and five years, jointed to five months, having passed away since the nirvāṇa of Vīra, the Saka king (was born)”.
This is the literal rendering of the text as written by Nemichandra. But the commentator, Madhavachandra, takes the expression Sagarajo in the sense of Vikarmānka-Sakarājā. In the text itself there is nothing to warrant this view. And the misinterpretation, which has puzzled many oriental scholars, is not countenanced by the numerous Canarese commentaries on the Trilokasāra, which are found in the Jaina bastis. I shall trascribe below a passage from a work on Srávakâchāra, or the conduct of the laity, which calculates Vira's nirvana according to the Sake era, and enables us to arrive at 527 B. C, as the date of that event. This exactly concides with the view of the Svetämbaras of the north, who place the event 470 years before Vikrama.
Like the Jainemdram, the Trilokasära is regarded as an autority by the Digar baras of Delhi and Jaipur, although Nemichndra flourished in Southern India 200 years later than the illustrous Pūjyapāda.
In the passage in question we are told that 1180 years from Vira had elapsed when this work on Srāvakächāra was established for worship, on the fifth day called the Śruta-pañchmt, in the bright half of Jyeshtha, in the Paridhavi samvatsara. And we read further on that