Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Mahāvīra and Buddha
ended in 325 B.C." The remaining Nandas are assigned totally 12 years as their regnal period, and hence, the Nanda dynasty should have ended in 313 B.C.2.
Thus, we have reconstructed a complete chronology of the kings from the foundation of Siśunāga-dynasty to that of Maurya-dynasty. We give it here in a tabular form: Event
Date (B.C.) Foundation of Siśunāga-dynasty.
807 Accession of Siśunāga Kākavarana
747 Kșemavardhana
711 Kșemajita
661 Prasenjita
625 Bimbīsāra
582 Ajātaśatru Udāyi (in Pāțliputra) 497 Darsaka or Nagadasaka in
Rājagļha , Aniruddha-Munda 481
544
497
1. It is remarkable that Dr. Smith, who has established his chro
nology on different basis, has also ascribed the period of 88 years from 413 B.C. to 325 B.C. to Mahāpadma Nanda. Candragupta Maurya acceeded to the throne of Magadha in 322 B.C., but the Nandas continued to reign at Avanti, upto 313 B.C. As already discussed before, Candragupta Maurya acquired the kingdom of Avanti in 313 B.C., and this ended the rule of the Nanda-dynasty.
Some historiaus have called the first two Nanda-Nandivardhana and Mahānandi as old Nandas and Mahāpadama Nanda and his dynasty as Neo-Nanda (Nanira-Nanda) or new Nandas. (Cf. Dr. Shanti Lal Shah, Chronological Problems, pp. 34–37; also Cf.E. J. Rapson Cambridge History of India, pp. 279-280; Dr. K. P, Jayaswal, Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Sept, 1915, p. 21).