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the event was marked by the beginning of the Vikrama era. Thus (470 + 18 = 488 years) after Mahavira's Nirvana commenced the ikrama era (58 B.C:). But the above 18 years were left out in the Jain Chronology. Thus, it was clearly a mistake to count a lapse of 470 years between Mahā vira's Nirvana and the commencement of Vikrma era".
In this way, according to Dr. Jayaswal: Mahāvira attained the Nirvana in 488 + 58 = 546 B.C.
A Critique
Dr. Jayaswal's view that the Buddhist allusions about Mahāvira's predecease should not be neglected, is really justifiable. But his assuming an interval of two years between the deaths of Mahavira and Buddha on the basis of the popular belief about the Samgama Suttanta, and his computing the interval between Mahăvira's Nirvana and the Vikrma era by adding 18 years to the traditional number 470, are not based at all on confirmed sources. The famous historians (85), commenting on the view, write: "The suggestion can hardly be said to rest on any reliable tradition - Merutunga (86) places the death of the last Jina or Tirthankara 470 years before the end of Saka rule and the victory and not birth of the traditional Vikrma". Also the belief that Buddha had heard about Mahāvira's Nirvana in Samagamia exactly two years before his own death, is a mere speculation.
Dr. Radha Kumud Mukherjee
A prominent historian Dr. Raddha Kumud Mukherjee, M.A., Ph.D., D. Litt., has treated the problem in a sim.lar way. He, in his famous work, Hindu Civilization (87), has clearly accepted the seniority and the predeceas e of Ma nāvira with respect to Buddha on the basis of the Buddhist Tripitakas. According to Dr. Mukherjee, these two facts are quite unequivocal. It is remarkable that he has approved his view of Mahavira's seniority to Buddha by citing several authoritative Buddhist work (88).
As far as the dates of Mahavira and Buddha are concerned, he has wholly accepted the view of Dr. Jayaswal, according to which Mahavira died in 546 B.C. and Buddha
