Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 13

EDITOR'S NOTE
Although Mahāvīra and Buddha shine like two resplendent luminaries on the firmament of Indian history, yet it is suiprising that the computation of their contemporaneity and chronology has remained so dim. The complexity of the problem can be easily gauged by the conflicting opinion expressed by renowned scholars. Dr. R.C. Majumdar, Dr. H.C. Raychaudhuri, Dr. K.K. Dattal and Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerjee assert that Mahāvīra was senior to Buddha and attained Nirvāna before the latter. However, Dr. Harmann Jacobil and Jarl Charpentier4 hold the contrary view. On the other hand, Dr. Hoernle5 and Dr. K.P. Jayaswalo think that Mahāvīra was junior to Buddha but he attained Nirvāņa before the latter.
Much more complicated, in any case, is the problem of the date of Buddha's Nirvāna, on which historians have frequently commented. Pandit Bhagwan Lal Inderji? places it in the seventh century B.C., while Dr. Vincent A. Smith' and Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerjee regard this event to be occurring in the sixth century B.C. Dr. R.C. Majumdar, Dr. H.C. Ray
1. An Advanced History of India, Part I, pp. 85-86. 2. Hindu Sabhyata, pp. 216–224. 3. Hindi translation of Dr. Jacobi's article in German in Sramana
(Monthly), Vol. XIII, No, VII, p. 10. 4. Indian Antiquary 1914, pp. 195-196; The Cambridge History of India,
Vol. I, pp. 139-140. 5. Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. I, p. 264. 6. Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. XIII, p. 246. 7. Cf, Muni Kalyana Vijayaji, Vira Nirvana Samvat aura Jaina Kala
ganana, p. 155. 8. Early History of India, 46-47. 9. Hindu Sabhyata, p. 223,