Jain Journal 2001 04

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

Page 23

167
MISHRA: THE DATE OF MAHAVIRA
"Sraman Bhagawan Mahavira lived at Rajagrha nagara during the rainy season of the forty-first year of his ascetic life." (page 658) [Date July-October, 491 B.C.]
"Even after the close of rainy season, Sramana Bhagawan Mahavira lived at Rajagrha nagara, for a long time." (page 568) [Date from November, 491 B.C. onwards for some months]
From Rajagrha he went to Apapa nagari or Pavapuri (pages 664, 682) where he breathed his last in November, 490 B.C. (according to our calculation).
Hence the event narrated in the Upāli Sutta is rendered more probable due to the presence of the two teachers in the RajagrhaNalanda area in the period from November, 491 B.C. to the early months of 490 B.C.
6. "In the Abhayakumāra Sutta (Maj. Nik., I, 392 sq.) it is stated that prince Abhaya was aked in Rajagrha by Nigantha Nataputta to go to Buddha, and put to him the question, whether it was advisable or not to speak words agreeable to other people. By this a trap was to be laid out for him; for if he answered 'no' he would, of course, be wrong, and if he answered 'yes', Abhaya ought to ask, why he had in such fierce terms denounced Devadatta and his apostacy." (p. 128)
Charpentier adds that "too much weight should not be attached to this passage" but we are unable to agree with him.
The date of the event of this Sutta is given as 487 B.C. by Sanskrityayana (p. 424) which is equivalent to 491 B.C. according to our calculation. The scene of this Sutta is Rajagrha where both the Buddha and Mahavira are shown as present. We have already shown above that Mahavira was at Rajagrha from November, 492 B.C. to the early months of 490 B.C. He passed his rainy season of 491 B.C. also at Rajagrha. Thus there is nothing impossible in it.
7. "...Samyutta Nikaya IV, 322 sq. where we are told that the Buddha and Nataputta were staying in Nalanda at the same time during a severe famine; when the latter asked his lay-follower, the squire (gāmāni), Asibandhakaputta (cf. ibid., p. 317 sq.) to go to Buddha and ask him, whether he deemed it right to have all his monks there at that time devouring the food of the poor people." (p. 128, f.n.)
The story of Asibandhakaputta has been narrated on pp. 103-105 by Sankrityayana..It indicates that both the Buddha and Mahavira were at Nalanda at the time when there was a famine there. The date