Jain Journal 2001 04

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

Page 20

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXV, No. 4 April 2001
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.
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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 Nikāya 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 had a rather intimate knowledge of the communication between the Buddhists and the Jainas in the lifetime of Gotama and Mahavira." (p. 127)
Of the three passages above, we have already considered the first one. This is the occasion when both Buddha and Mahavira passed the rainy season at one and the same place i.e., Rajagrha. This event took place in 516 B.C. according to our calculation as shown above. The other two passages are not relevant for our purposes.
4. "The passage in the Mahāvagga VI, 31, 1 sq. speaking of the meeting in Vesali21 of the General Siha, who afterwards became a laydisciple of Buddha, with Nataputta has been discussed by Professor Jacobi in SBE 45, p. xvi. sq....." (p. 127)
The passage is very important as in this it is expressly stated that both the Buddha and Mahavira were at Vaisali at that time.
21. The passage is repeated in Anguttara Nikaya IV, p. 180 sq. (Charpentier)