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before the Mauryas, and 470 years before Vikrama. This is usually taken to refer to 528 B.C. But 468 B.C. is preferred by some modern scholars, who rely on a tradition recorded by the Jain monk Hemacandra that the interval between Mahavira's death and the accession of Candragupta Maurya was 155, and not 215 years. The latter date does not accord with the explicit statement found in some of the earlier Buddhist texts that Mahavira predeceased Buddha. The earlier date is also beset with difficulties. In the first place it is at variance with the testimony of Hemacandra, who place Mahavira's Nirvana only 155 years before Candragupta Maurya, Again some Jain texts place the Nirvana 470 years before the birth of Vikrama and not his accession and as this event, according to the Jains, does not coincide with the foundation of era of 58 B.C. attributed to Vikrama the date 528 B.C. for Mahavira's death can hardly be accepted as representing unanimous tradition. Certain Jain writers assume an interval of 18 years between the birth of Vikrama and the foundation of the era attributed to him and thereby seek to reconcile the Jain tradition about the date of Mahavira's Nirvana (58+18+470= 546 B.C.) with the Ceylonese date of the great disease of Buddha (544B.C.). But the suggestion can hardly be said to rest on any reliable tradition. Merutunga places the death of the last Jina or Tirthankara 470 years before the end of Saka rule and the victory, and not the birth of the traditional Vikrama. The date 528 B.C. for the Niv - vāna of the Jnatrika teacher can to a certain extent be reconciled with the Cantonese date of the death of Buddha 486 B.C. But then we shall have to assume that Mahavira di ed shortly after Buddha's enlightenment, forty-five years (136) before the Par inirvana, when the latter could hardly have become a renowned religious teacher of long standing as the Buddhist (canonical) texts would lead us to belief. Certain Jaina Sutras seem to suggest that Mahavira died about sixteen years after the accession of Ajatasatru and the commencement of this war with his hostile neighbours. This would place the Nirvāna of the Jain teacher eight years after Buddha's death, as according to the Ceylonese chronicles, Buddha died 8 years after the enthronment of Ajātasatru. Th Nirvana of the Tirthankara would, according to this view, fall in 478 B.C., if we accept the Cantonese reckoning (486 B.C.) as our basis, and in 538 B.C., if we prefer the Ceylones e epoch. The date 478 B.C. would
