Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study

Author(s): Nagaraj Muni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers

Page 17

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is powerful and brilliant. So let me try these questions with him."
Again, as per Dahara Sutta of Samyutta Nikāya, king Prasenajit is said to have told the Buddha as follows: "Even Purana Kasyapa, till Niganttha Nātaputta cannot speak with authority about right and unprecedented enlightenment; then how can you who are much younger in age and just initiated make a claim like this?”
Likewise, according to Samanńjaphala Sutta of Digha Nikaya, the ministers of Ajātasatru described the six spiritual leaders aforesaid to be ever initiated, advanced and aged.
In the same manner, at three places in the Tripitakas, Mahāvira is said to have entered into liberation prior to Buddha. These are additional proofs about Mahavira's seniority in age. According to Pasādi ka Sutta of Digha Nikāya and Samāgama Sutta of Majjhima Nikāya Bhikṣu Cunda Samaņuddeśa spent four months of the rainy season at Pāvā and returned and gave the following report to Buddha and Ananda: "Only recently, Nigantha Nātaputta has passed away at Pāvā[28]. The Nigantthas are fighting fiercely on the question of succession.” According to the Sangiti Paryāya Sutta of Digha Nikāya, Sāriputta drew the attention of his monks to this unfortunate episode at Pāvā and advised them to remain united.
When three references in the Tripitakas state the prior liberation of Mahāvira and when neither in the Tripitakas nor in the Agamas, there is any contradictory statement, the aforesaid three references remain undisputed. It may even be possible that these three references are a later interpolation in the Tripitaka literature. Everything is indeed possible, but so long as there is no solid basis for the surmise, there is hardly any ground to doubt its authenticity.
In the later Buddhist literature, Atthakathā and others, there are references to the Nigantha monks and Nigantha Nātaputta. Apart from being a sordid endeavour to establish the superiority of Buddha and inferiority of Mahāvira, this is full of many references which are in bad taste and fictitious description of events. In contrast, in later Jaina literature, Niryukti, Bhāsya, Cūrņi, etc., there is no effort whatsoever at decrying Buddha. This indicates the difference in the mental plane of the Jaina savants and their Buddhist counterparts. The Jaina savants always and invariably gave a precedence to the true well-being of the self over that of their order. 28. Pāvā in Jain tradition was to the south of the Gangā near Rāja grha. But
from the study of Tripitakas and other historical materials it has been now discarded. The real site of the nirvana of Mahavira (Pavā) was that Pāvā as noticed in the Buddhist literature. It was on the northern side of the Gangā near Kusinara.