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value of the above accounts, one is bound to find that many of these were later interpolations. Thus, for instance, Rhys Davids has written, "The Kuṭadanta Sutta appears to be fictitious. There is no proof anywhere to support that there was a man named Kutadanta" (translated from Hindi) (32).
Edward Thomas has expressed the following opinion,
"The importance of the first meeting between the Buddha and Srenika is no more than a fiction. This account has taken diverse forms in diverse texts. There is nothing of this sort in the older Pali texts". (translated from Hindi) (33).
A review of the Jaina sources too would place some of them in the category of fiction. But then sometimes it is. very difficult to draw a straight line between fiction and reality. When we think that a particular account is fictitious, that thinking may itself be rooted in fiction. Under the circumstances, a consideration of fiction or reality does not take us to a sure enough ground.
In this respect, the only dependable clue may be a consideration about the time when Mahavira, Gautama Buddha and Srenika lived. This point has been already discussed in and earlier chapter wherein it has been shown that the contemporaneity of Mahavira after his attainment of omniscience and Srenika lasted for 13 years, but the same in the case of the Buddha after his attainment of the Buddhahood
lasted for only 3 years. And during these 3 years too, Mahavira was still alive. Mahavira's first monsoon retreat after the attainment of omniscience was spent at Rajagṛha. At the commencement of this period, Srenika courted the voew of equanimity (34) and Abhayakumāra and many others courted the vows of the householders (35). It has already been stated in the account of Monk Anathi that Srepika courted the nirgrantha religion. Maybe, this account came to assume a proper form here. There is no occasion for doubt that a close link came to be established between Mahavira and Sreņika in the very first year of the attainment of omniscience by the former. As an outcome of this very intimate relation, Srenika gave leave to his queen and princes to join Mahavira's order as monks and nuns,
