Jain Journal 1972 01

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

Page 20

100
different schools. This is seen not only in the various elaborations of Buddha's contest with Mara, but in different accounts of his meditation under the rose-apple tree, his journey to Rajagrha or Vaisali, and his first words. The meeting with Bimbisara is not only told variously, but is inserted in the narrative at different places."27
JAIN JOURNAL
Jaina sources would also make some appear to be legendary. But coming next to comparative study of chronology in the Agamas and the Tripitakas, it will be found that Mahavira was born in 599 B.C., renounced the world in 569 B.C.; achieved omniscience in 557 B.C. and attained the nirvana in 527 B.C.; while Buddha was born in 582 B.C., renounced the world in 554 B.C.; achieved enlightenment in 547 B.C. and attained the nirvana in 502 B.C. Also the dates of accession and death of Bimbisara are found to be 582 B.C. and 544 B.C. respectively.28 It, therefore, follows that the period of contemporaneity of Bimbisara with Mahavira is thirteen years, while that of Bimbisara with enlightened Buddha is just three years; and during these three years too Mahavira was living. Mahavira sojourned at Rajagrha during his first monsoon after omniscience. At the commencement of this sojourn,29 Srenika accepted samyaktva religion, and freely permitted his princesses and queens to be initiated in the monastic order and participated in the celebration of these occasions. Initiation ceremony of Meghakumara and Nandisena also took place in this very first year.30 Srenika's extreme devotion towards Mahavira might well be the reason why the latter spent numerous rainy seasons at Rajagrha.
Srenika was devout by nature. It cannot, therefore, be conceived that inspite of repeated sojourns of Mahavira in Rajagrha, even prior to Buddha's enlightenment Srenika would not have become his follower. At the same time it is hardly probable that he would be proselytised during the last three years of his life, when Mahavira himself was alive and specially when many of his queens and princesses had already been initiated by him. Prof. Dalshukhbhai Malavania contends that Srenika was converted to Buddhism later on, because Mahavira predicted his next life in hell.31 We cannot, however, agree with his view because if such was the case, since it was Mahavira again who
27 The life of the Buddha, pp. 79-80.
28 For detailed account of the chronological facts, see the author's The Contemporaneity and Chronology of Mahavira and the Buddha, Delhi. 1970. Tirthankar Mahavir, part II, p. 11.
29
30 Ibid., pp. 11-16.
1 Sthananga-Samavayanga (Gujarati translation), p. 41.