Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 45

Dr. Jacobi's Second Approach
25 of Mahāvīra. But, the chronology proposed by Dr. Jacobi, allow a maximum interval of 15 years between these events. In this way the acceptance of these dates involves many objections.
Conclusion
The opinion that Mahāvīra attained the Nirvāṇa in 527 B.C. has remained almost uncontroversial and unique. No date of Buddha's Nirvāṇa has been taken to be so indubitable. A number of opinions about the date of Buddha's Nirvāņa were in vogue in ancient time and they continue to exist. even now. Nevertheless, in this essay, Dr. Jacobi has gone so far as to ascertain (484 B.C.), the date of Buddha's Nirvāna as almost unique and has tried to reconcile the events of Mahāvīra's life with it through far-fetched interpretations. By doing so, Dr. Jacobi has stirred up a new polemic with regard to the contemporaneity of Mahāvira. and Buddha. The view expressed by Dr. Jacobi has also been rendered obsolete for more than 33 years have elapsed. since what he wrote. In the mean time history has also renovated and modified to a very great extent. Hence it will not at all be reasonable to accept Dr. Jacobi's findings as final.
Pandit Sukh Lal ji and Other Scholars
Some thinkers of our age have accepted Dr. Jacobi's view regarding the chronology of Mahāvīra and Buddha. The famous Jain scholar Pandit Sukh Lal ji writes:3 “Prof. Jacobi has found out on the basis of a comparative study
1. See, Traditional Dates of Buddha's Nirvāņa, in chapter VII of this.
book. 2. The essay of Dr. Jacobi was published originally in 1930. 3. Darśana Aura Cintana, Part II, pp. 47, 48.