Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and Buddha

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

Page 90

Mahāvīra and Buddha
baras) Nirgranthas.1 It is also probable that the Buddhists might have presented it in an exaggerated form in the above three allusions. It generally happens that the persons belonging to one sect often express even a trifling event of the rival sect in an exaggerated form. Dharmannda Kauśāmbi, the renowned Buddhist scholar has, accordingly, regarded the undermining delineation of Gośalaka in the Jain Agamas as an exaggeration.2
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One of the arguments given by Dr. Jacobi against the authenticity of the above allusions is that the Mahaparinirvāņa Sutta, which affords us the account of the events of Buddha's last days, says nothing about this event. But this argument of Dr. Jacobi does not prove at all that the aforesaid allusions are inconsistent. At the most it only proves that the event described in the above allusions had not happened in the last days of Buddha's life.
Muni Kalyana Vijayaji has regarded the whole event alluded in the Buddhist Piṭakas to be a mere consequence of a misunderstanding of the Buddhist compilers. Muni Kalyana Vijayaji, in his interpretation of the above allusions of the Buddhist Tripitakas, has observed that the event of Mahāvīra's Nirvana, which is described in the Buddhist canons, is merely the result of the rumour prevalent at the time of Mahavira's serious illness due to the injury caused by the Tejolesya of Gośālaka. He has also traced the origin of the post-Nirvana dispute among the Nirgranthas (Jain
1. 1. The plausibility suggested is only conjectural. Yet it is possible on the basis of the hints given in the above allusions that the origin of the schism of the Jain order into Svetambara and Digambara Sects, may lie somewhere here. The researchers should pay attention to this.
2. See, Parsvanātha kā Căturyāma Dharma.
3. Op. cit. p. 11.