Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Mahāvīra and Buddha
that he met Buddha only seven or eight years before his Nirvana. The Muni in this treatise has given a critical and careful evaluation of such inconsistencies. Though the main object of the present study is to decide “the contemporaneity and chronology of Mahāvīra and Buddha," the author has also discussed the chronology of kings right from Siśunāga to Chandragupta Maurya. He has even refuted some of the misconceptions regarding the Nanda period. Not only that, he has also brought into light a number of unknown facts connected with the Jain and Buddhist traditions : Pāvā, where Mahāvīra attained Nirvāṇa, is a village situated in North Bihar and not in South Bihar ; Ajātaśatru was a follower of Māhavīra and merely a patron of Buddha ; origin of the schism in the Jain Church resulting in the creation of Svetāmbara and Digambara sects.
The exhilaration which I have felt and the knowledge I have gained have, undoubtedly, richly compensated me for the effort involved in the editing of this volume. The task of translating was not an easy one, as there were a number of technical terms in Jainism and Buddhism, which needed a fair amount of explanation. At the same time, I had to study lhe English rendering of the Jain and Buddhist canons by scholars like Dr. Jacobi, Dr. Rhys Davids, Mrs. Rhys Davids, E.M. Hare, F.L. Woodward, and I.B. Horner.
I thank Muni Sri Mahendra Kumarji ‘Pratham' for his valuable guidance in carrying out this work. I am also thankful to Mr. Sohan Lal Gandhi of the Gulabpura High School for his commendable participation in the work of translation.
MUNI MAHENDRA KUMAR 'DVITEEYA'
7 September 1963