Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 82

CHAPTER VII
RESEARCH AND CONCLUSION
Need of an Exhaustive Research
An unprejudiced survey of the efforts made up to now by the various scholars shows that the problem of contemporaneity of Mahāvīra and Buddha, was, first of all, tried to be unravelled on the basis of general historical facts, then available. At a later stage, some scholars carried research into it in the light of the Buddhist scriptures, while others reached for its solution with the help of the Jain scriptures. The result was that on the one hand, the research based on general historical facts was in itself incomplete without bearing the imprint of the scriptural evidences, while on the other hand, the one-sided approach solely based on either the Jain scriptures or the Buddhist scriptures coloured the whole issue with sectarian tint. Some scholars regarded each and every word of the Jain scripture as a principle evidence and attached little significance to the Buddhist scriptures, whereas other did the vice versa. This cannot be the method of historical research. To arrive at the perfect solution, we have to think over the issue giving proportionate value to the general historical facts, the evidences of the Buddhist Tripitakas as well as the testimonies of the Jain Agamas. We shall also have to pay heed to the fact that the Agamas and the Tripitakas are taken to be the original and genuine evidences of the Jain and the Buddhist traditions respectively, while the evidences of the other traditional works are valid only so far as they conform to the original canons.