Jain Journal 1967 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 30

APRIL, 1967
with some Nirgrantha ascetics in the neighbourhood of Rajagrha. These disciples of Mahavira praised their master as all-knowing and all-seeing, etc.; and there is nothing remarkable in this, for the claim of possessing universal knowledge was a main characteristic of all these prophets, Mahavira as well as Gosala, Buddha as well as Devadatta." (p. 127)
161
This story is given in detail by Sankrityayana under 'Cula-dukkkhakkhandha Sutta' on pages 212-216 and the reference by the Buddha to the Nirgranthas of Rajagrha is given on page 214. The date of the event of this Sutta is given by Sankrityayana as 514 B.C. which is equivalent to 518 B.C. if we regard 487 B. C. as the date of the death of the Buddha. The age of the Buddha is given as 49th year which is equivalent to 519 B.C. (May) to 518 B.C. (May). Thus this event might have happened sometime between May, 519 B.C. and May, 518
B.C.
Now from the Life of Mahavira (Vol. II, Part II, pp. 141, 200) we know that he passed his 13th rainy season after leaving home (or 1st rainy season after enlightenment) at Rajagrha. The date of this according to our calculation is 519 B.C. (July-October), taking 561 B.C. as the date of Mahavira's birth.
Thus we see that it was possible that sometime in 519 B.C. (either in May-June or July-October) the Buddha contacted at Rajagrha (at Kalasila near Rsigiri) some Nirgranthas who told him that Nigantha Nataputta was all-knowing. Very possibly, as we have seen above, Nigantha Nataputta (Mahavira) was himself residing there in the locality, although the text does not make it necessary.
3. "Moreover, there are other instances in the Pali Canon where Mahavira is praised in the same way by his followers; so
(a) in Majjhima Nikaya II, 31, where Sakuludayi in Rajagrha, (b) ibid, II, 214 sq., where some Nirgrantha monks, and
(c) in Anguttara I, 220, where the Licchavi prince Abhaya, in a conversation with Ananda in Vesali,
eulogize Nataputta in the same way. But all these passages speaking in a quite familiar way of Nataputta, his doctrines and his followers seem to prove that the redactors of the Buddhist canonical writings