Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 140

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Mahāvīra and Buddha
Date
Event of Buddha's life
582 B.C. 554 B.C. 547 B.C. 502 B.C.
Birth Renunciation Enlightenment Nirvāņa
The comparative chronological table of the important events of their life is as follows:
Mahāvīra
Buddha
Birth
599 B.C. 569 B.C. 557 B.C.
582 B.C. 554 B.C. 547 B.C.
Renunciation Enlightenment (Omniscence) Niryāņa
527 B.C.
502 B.C.
Thus Mahāvīra and Buddha lived comtemporarily from 582 B.C. to 527 B.C. i.e. for 55 years. As religious leaders, their contemporaneity lasted from 547 B.C. to 527 B.C. for 20 years.
It should also be noted here that Buddha had attained Nirvåņa in 42nd year of Ajātaśatru's reign; and that Candragupta Maurya and Aśoka acceded to the throne of Magadha 180 and 229 years after Buddha's Nirvana respectively.