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influence of Cetaka and that the Jains give respect to Cetaka, the maternal uncle of Mahavira, because Vais ali became a strong supporter of Jainism on account of Cetaka, whereas the Buddhists call it (Vaisali) a 'monastery of heretics, Hence, if, according to Dr. Jacobi, the Jain Agamas bear more extensive account of the events concerning Konika and Cetaka than the Buddhist Tripitakas, its natural and consistent reason is that they (Konika and Cetaka) were eminent disciples of Mahavira and Jain religion and 'heretics' in the view of Buddha and not, as Dr. Jacobi has inferred, that Mahavira survived Buddha. Dr. Jacobi's inference is based only on misunderstanding and misinterreplete with many such brilliant and candid descriptions, which show that Mahavira predeceased Buddha, while the Jain Agamas say nothing about Buddha's
Nirvana.
In the light of the aforesaid discussion, the true inference should have been that Mahavira attained the Nirvāna before Buddha and Buddha attained the same later than Mahavira, for the Jain scriptures maintain no record of Buddha's Nirvana and the Buddhist scriptures distinctly state that Mahavira died earlier than Buddha. The greatest flaw in Dr. Jacobi's article is that he has striven to prove the three allusions of the Buddhist Tripitakas, which refer to Mahavira's Nirvana (41), false and fictitious with a view to stabilize his own farfetched interpretation. He says that (42) as these allusions occur in varying forms at different places, they are not credible. On the other hand, he also says that (43) despite the variance in these allusions, they have one and the same objective in common, viz. giving the order of monks a message of love and unity by referring to Mahavira's Nirvana indirectly. It is worth noting that in spite of these three allusions being slightly variant from one another, the reference to Mahavira's Nirvana in all of them remains absolutely the same. The compilers of the scriptures might have embellished the prefaces with whatever style they choose, but it would be entirely unreasonable to think that they might have gone so far as to commit a blunder of calling, living Mahavira dead one.
Pāvā, the Place of Mahavira's Nirvana
Another argument placed forth by Dr. Jacobi in this context is that the city Pāvā depicted as the place of Maha
