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APRIL, 1967
Mahavira's nirvāṇa and Vikrama+135 of Vikrama's dynasty +40 of Nahavana) after Mahavira nirvana." (p. 834)
157
Now his main argument is as follows :
"Nahavana is in all probability, as is generally believed by modern historians, the same as Nahapana, the Maha-Kṣatrapa of Ksaharata family, who is mentioned in several inscriptions and a large number of whose coins is also discovered. ...The modern historical researches put Nahapana in the period after the commencement of the Vikrama era... If we take out 40 years of Nahavana from 470 years, the interval given in these traditions between Mahavira nirvāṇa and the commencement of the Vikrama era, the difference between these two important events will be 430 years. This will give (430+58) 488 B.C., as the date of Mahavira nirvana. This will place Mahavira's death about a year before that of Buddha, who died, as suggested above, in 487 B.C. These two dates will reconcile most of the Buddhist as well as the Jaina traditions about these two great religious teachers." (pp. 831-832)
We fully agree with him that whatsoever date we accept, the Buddha and Mahavira must be shown contemporaries; otherwise the date cannot be correct. But we suggest a modification in it:
The Christian year changes in our Pausa. This may be applicable to B.C. dates as well. If we say that Mahavira died in 488 B.C. and the Buddha died in 487 B.C., seemingly there is a difference of one year between these two events. But really speaking, there is a difference of 6 months only; because Mahavira died in the month of Kartika in 488 B.C., the year changed in Pauşa and 487 B.C. began from that month and in Vaisakha of the same year (487 B.C.) the Buddha died. From Buddhist literature we know that some time, evidently more than one or two years, passed between the deaths of the two teachers, because it is recorded that the Buddha passed his rainy season (evidently in 488 B.C., at Vaisali. So 488 B.C. as the date of Mahavira's death will have to be given up and we should see if we can find out a date of Mahavira's death somewhere near that, which is in keeping with other details.
After a comparison of the details of the lives of the Buddha and Mahavira, especially the places where they spent their rainy seasons, we have come to the conclusion that Mahavira died in 490 B.C. (November) and that he had been born in 561 B.C. (April). He was alive for
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