Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Mahavira and Buddha
His sacred majesty gives this instruction: 'For more than two......And the precept quoted above was preached by? (me) in 256th (years) after Buddha's Nirvāṇa.'
There are mainly two things in the above edicts to be noted: The first is concerning Aśoka's joining order, which - is expressed by the words "Samghe upete;" the second one -the date inscribed in the end of the edicts viz. 256 years after Buddha's Nirvana, expressed by the words "Vyuthenā săvane kate 256 Satavivāsāta.”
The words "Samghe upete" used in the above Edicts have become a matter of controversy amongst the scholars and different scholars have tried to interpret them in different ways. Dr. Radha Kumud Mukherjee, discussing about this controversy, writes: "It is difficult to understand what Aśoka exactly intends by the expression on Samghe upete, which has been translated above to mean that he lived with, entered or visited the Samgha, and the opinion of the scholars is sharply divided on this point. Some scholars hold that Aśoka actually became a Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu). Others, however, take the expression simply to mean that Aśoka made a state-visit to the samgha and publicly proclaimed his faith as the Sinhalese chronicle informs us. The former view is, however, supported by the statement of I-tsing that he actually saw a statue of Aśoka dressed as a monk. A third possibility is that Aśoka lived with the samgha for more than a year, without taking orders.
"Among those who assume that Aśoka became a monk, there is again a difference of opinion. Some hold that
1. The Age of Imperial Unity, (The History and Culture of Indian People, Vol. II), pp. 75-76.