Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 81

Historians' View
61
since the publication of the view of Dr. Jacobi and Dr. Charpentier, new conceptions have entered the field of history, concerning the pre-christian period. With regard to the date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāņa, these historians have given importance to two fundamental facts and have insisted on their complete inviolation, while unravelling the present problem. The first is that out of the three dates, which are in vogue, 528 B.C. is the most veracious one. The second fact concerns the allusion of the Buddhist Pitakas regarding the death of Mahāvīra. Dr. R.C. Majumdar and his colleagues have definitely accepted the veracity of the Pițakas' statement that Mahāvīra predeceased Buddha. They have also expressed a need of such a chronology that can be reconciled with the above facts.
The only limitation of the above view of the famous historians is that though they have tried to make the lifeevents of Mahāvīra and Buddha consistent with each other, they have failed to present a completely consistent chronology. For, they have adopted 528 B.C. as the date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa and the Cantonese reckoning 486 B. C. as the date of Buddha's Nirvāņa thus creating an interval of 42 years between the Nirvāṇas of the two teachers. With such a long interval in between the deaths of Mahāvīra and Buddha, we cannot reconcile their life-events with each other. Thus we have to discover such a chronology which is compatible with the true life-events of Mahāvīra and Buddha