Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 28

Mahāvīra and Buddha Gautama Buddha had died many years before Mahāvīra. Another school of thought holds that, on the basis of the allusion found in the Buddist scriptures, Mahāvīra died perhaps only a little earlier than Buddha. This critique is being written to discover the extent of the truth underlying this obviously discernible contradiction.”
It is worth noting that Dr. Jacobi had already expressed his earlier view in the introductions to the volumes edited by him and they were published also during his life time. Nevertheless, why does not he again say his earlier statement in the last essay? It might have happend under some circumstances and we have not to go deep with its complicacies now. Here we have only to see on what grounds he has based his novel theory and how far they are true. It is beyond doubt that Dr. Jacobi was a profound critic, yet, as the discoverers of truth, it is our duty to examine and re-examine, any fact on various touch-stones, before accepting it. The Quintessence of Dr. Jacobi's Essay
After studying this essay thoroughly one comes to know that this essay was not written only with reference to the date of Nirvāṇa of Mahāyīra and Buddha, but one of the principal objects behind the writing of this essay was to bring to light the contemporary, political and royal conditions. The actual title of this essay, the Nirvāņa of Mahāvīra and Buddha and the contemporary Political Condition of Magadha also signifies the same fact. Also whatever he has written about the dates of the Nirvāṇa is not only insufficient to lead the present controversy to a decisive stage, but it is a little unnatural too. The main evidence, which Dr. Jacobi has advanced in support of his rennovated belief that Buddha was older than Mahāvīra and that