Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Mahāvīra and Buddha tionally believed to be the place of Mahāvīra's Nirvana has erroneously been adopted by the Jains, being oblivious of the true Pāvā.
Thus, it becomes clear that the Pāvā, on the basis of which Dr. Jacobi rejects the Buddhist allusion about Mahāvīra's Nirvāņa by ascertaining them as false and unreal, happens to be the historically accepted Pāvā and confirms the authenticity of those allusions.
Agamas and Tripiļakas in Relatian to the Contemporary Condi
tions,
Dr. Jacobi's view that the Jain Āgamas give a more comprehensive account of the contemporary conditions than what the Buddhist Tripitakas do, is also not trustworthy for, the events cited by Dr. Jacobi are not all contained in the original Agamas. The whole event of “The victory over vaiśālī which ensued after the Mahāśilā-Kanțaka war and the Ratha-Mūsala war and wherein the monk Kūlavālaya became the cause of the demolition of the ramparts of Vajśālī, has been quoted by Dr. Jacobi himself from a later Jain work, Āvasyaka Kathā. The Āgamas and the Tripitakas, which are the original canonical texts of the Jains and the Buddhists respectively, in fact, do not differ much regarding the description of the contemporary political conditions. Now, if we consider the later works of both traditions, the work of the Buddhist traditions like Mahāvassa contain as much vivid descriptions as we find in those of the Jain traditions. Mahāvansa contains even the chronology of the kings up to Asoka?. This by no means testifies to the fact that Buddha died later than Mahāvīra.
1. Mahāvamsa, Pariccheeda, IV-V.