Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Dr. Jackobi's Second Approach
Nirvāṇa, he attended a meeting arranged by Suddharma Svami, the immediate successor of Mahāvīra, and put serious questions to him. In addition to these, we find a number of such conclusions in the Jain scriptrures, which make it crystal clear that Konika was a staunch follower of Mahavira and Jain religion.
While, on the other hand, as Rhys Davids writes, "When the king of Magadha, the famous (and infamous) Ajätśatru, made his only call upon the Buddha, he is said to have put a puzzle to the teacher to test him......," and as we have already quoted Rhys Davids," "he (Ajatśatru) never, so far as we know, waited again either upon Buddha or upon any member of the order to discuss ethical matters......," Ajatśatru had little inclination towards Buddhism. What opinion, Buddha had for Ajätśatru becomes clear from his own words, he uttered: "O Bhikṣus! the king of Magadha Ajataśatru is a friend to, an intimate of, mixed up with, whatever is evil," According to the Buddhist texts, Ajātaśatru was, inter alia, a parricide, and a supporter of Devadadatta, the great schismatics. Again it was Ajātsatru according to the Buddhist canons, who incited by Devadatta, ordered his men to deprive Buddha of his life.
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A similar is the case of Ceṭaka, the king of Vaiśālī. He was not only a maternal uncle of Mahavira', but also a
1. Parisiṣața Parva of Hema-Candracārya, cantos IV v. v. 15-54. 2. Buddhist India, p. 88.
3. Ibid, pp. 15-16.
4. Samyukata Nikaya, 1-81 (The Book of Kindred Sayings, Tr. by Mrs. Rhys Davids, Vol. I, p. 109.
5. Ibid, vol. I, p. 109.
6. Vinaya Pitaka, Culla Vagga, VII 3-6 (The Book of Discipline, Tr. by I.B. Horner, vol. V, p. 268). Cf. also "Shri Chand Rampuria" in chapter V of this Book.
7. Avaśyaka Cūrṇi, part 1, leaf 245.