Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 54

Mahāvīra and Buddha Dr. Raddha Kumud Mukherjee
A prominent historian Dr. Raddha Kumud Mukherjee, M.A., Ph.D., D. Litt., has treated the problem in a similar way. He, in his famous work, Hindu Civilization, has clearly accepted the seniority and the predecease of Mahavīra with respect to Buddha on the basis of the Buddhist Tripițakas. According to Dr. Mukherjee, these two facts are quite unequivocal. It is remarkable that he has approved his view of Mahāvīra's seniority to Buddha by citing several authoritative Buddhist works.?
As far as the dates of Mahāvīra and Buddha are concerned, he has wholly accepted the view of Dr. Jayaswal, according to which Mahāvīra died in 546 B.C. and Buddha in 544 B.C. But it should be noted that by accepting these dates for the Nirvāņa of Mahāvīra and Buddha, Dr. Mukherjee has created self-contradiction in his view of Mahāvīra's siniority to Buddha. For the total age of Mahāvīra's was 72, and that of Buddha was 80, so that, if the above chronology is accepted, Buddha would become six years older than Mahāvīra.
Thus, we can conclude that though Dr. Mukherjee has succeeded in proving Mahāyīra's siniority and predecease with respect to Buddha, he has failed to reconcile his chronology with these facts. Dr. Kamta Prasad Jain
Dr. Kamta Prasad Jain, a Jain Digambara scholar and the editor of Ahiṁsā Vāṇī, has also accepted the above date of Mahāvira and Buddha. Though he is of the view that Mahāvīra predeceased Buddha, he clearly denies the belief
1. Hindu Sabhyată (Tr. by Dr. V.S. Aggrawal) pp. 210-224. 2. Ibid., pp. 216, 223, 224.