Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 25

Views of Foreign Scholars among the former do we meet “Gāmālī, who caused the first Schism in Jain Church. All the disciples of Buddha bear different names to those of Mahāvīra. To finish this enumeration of differences, Buddha died in Kusinagar, whereas Mahāvīra died in 'Pāvā', avowedly before the former".
Dr. Jacobi has absolutely omitted the mention of evidences supporting his belief nor has he reviewed the dates of the birth and death of both. Hence it is difficult to infer his view about the contemporaniety of Mahāvīra and Buddha.
The Date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāņa
The allusions occurring in both the volumes of the Jain Sūtras edited by Dr. Jacobi bear testimony to the fact that he regarded 526 B.C. as the date of Mahāvīra's Nirvana. He writes. “The recordation of the Jains canon or the Siddhānia took place, according to the unanimous tradition in the council of Vallabhi' under the presidency of Devardhi. The date of this event 980 (or 993) A.V.? corresponding to 454 (or 467) A.D. is incorporated in the Kalpa Sūtra, ($148).” “This extract confirms the fact that Dr. Jacobi has accepted 526 B.C. as the date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa, for we get 980 and 993 respectively only after adding 454 and 467 to 526. He has repeated the same fact, incidentally, in his introduction to the second volume of the Jaina Sūtras edited by him.3 It was written in 1894 A.D. i.e. ten years after the introduc·tion, he wrote the first volume. We come across one more allusion in that introduction which indisputably confirms
1. S.B.E Vol. XXII, Introduction, p. XXXVII. 2. A.V. means "after the death of Vira" (i.e., Mahāvīra). 3. S.B.E. Vol. XIV, Introduction, p. XI.