Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

Author(s): Nagrajmuni, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Book Agency

Page 124

104
Mahāvīra and Buddha
within 16 or 18 years, Nandivardhana, the first Nanda king died in 456 B.C.1.
It may be remarked here that this date (474-456 B. C.) of Nandivardhana, the first Nanda king, is also corroborated by the date of famous grammarian Pāṇini, who is proved to be his contemporary and to have lived in 480-410 B. C.?.
Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1918, p. 554 ; Dr. K. P. Jayaswal, op. cit. Vol. III, p. 447, Dr. Shanti Lal Shah, op. cit, pp. 53-55).
Our view that this Nandarājā was no other than Nandivardhana, is supported by some famous historians. Dr. V. A. Smith observes, “The Nanda-Rājā reffered to appears to be Nandivardhana, the ninth Siśunāga king of the Purānas. It seems to be necessary to treat him and his successor Mahānandin, No. 10 as Nandas distinct from the nine Nandas who come between No. 10 and Candragupta. In the third edition of Early History of India (1914) I placed the accession of Nandivardhana about 418 B. C. He must now go back to c. 470 B. C. or possibly to an earlier date." ( Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1918, p. 547). E. J. Rapson, the editor of Cambridge History of India (Vol. 1.), concludes: "If tivasa-sata in line 6 of the inscription can mean 'three centuries before (the fifth year of Khāravela's reign), we must suppose that in the middle of the fifth century B. C., Kalinga was under the rule of a Nanda king, and it is natural to associate him with the wellknown predecessors of the Mauryas." --op. cit. p. 484). This date is also approved by the fact that according to Alberuni, the Nanda era commenced 400 years before the Vikrama-era (56 B. C.) (Cf. Dr. K. P. Jayaswal, op. cit, vol. XIII, p. 240, also, cf. Ganga Prasad Maheta. Prācīna Bharata. p. 103). It is quite probable that to mark the death of the founder of Nanda-dynasty, the Nanda-era was started in 456 B. C. The ancient Brahmanical as well as Buddhist traditions show Pāṇini to be contemporary with a Nanda king. It is mentioned by Tarānāth, the famous Tibetan writer, that Pänini was a friend of the Nanda-king, Mahānandin, the father of Mahāpadma Nanda.
1.
2.
(Contd. on next page)