Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

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Mahāvīra and Buddha of Buddha's Nirvāņa. Thus, it can be said that Shri Vijayendra Suri has almost wholly supported the view of Muni Kalyana Vijayaji except the following modification. Regarding the allusion of Mahāvīra's death in the Buddhist texts, Shri Vijayendra Suri has accepted the view of Dr. A.L. Basham' that it was really the death of Gośālaka, and by mistake the Buddhist texts described it as Mahavira's death. This assumption of Shri Vijayendra Suri and Dr. Basham, is more speculative rather than logical. For, it is possible that for a while such misunderstanding could have prevailed, but how is it possible that it was retained by the Buddhists, in spite of the fact that Mahāvīra had lived for 16 years even after the death of Gośālka ? Again, as Shri Vijayendra Suri indicated}, the scholars believe that the Buddhist Pițakas were compiled two or three centuries after Buddha's Nirvāņa. Then, how could the above misunderstanding could have continued to exist for such a long time, even though both Mahāvīra and Buddha had lived contemporarily, preaching in the same limited area and both were the leaders of the same sramaņic tradition ?
There is also a self-contradiction in the view of Shri Vijayendra Suri. On one the hand he writes4 "Buddha, in fact, should have received the news of Gośāla's death in the form of Mahāvīra's death.” While on the other hand he states, both Buddha and Gośālaka had died sixteen years before Mahāvīra's Nirvāņa. But the Buddist texts indicate that Buddha had heard about Mahāvīra's death long before he (Buddha) died, then how is it possible that
1. Ajivikas, p. 75, 2. Tirtharkara Mahāvīra, Vol. II, p. 32. 3. Ibid. p. 326. 4. Ibid. p. 326. 5. Ibid. p. 326.