________________
Buddha was 22 years older than Lord Mah v ra was and Lord Mah v ra attained nirva 15 years after Buddha's nirva . This way, Buddha's nirva is in 542 BC. Without getting into an analysis of scholars' opinions here, we wish to present just facts and evidences so that we get the exact year of nirva.
It may be noted that we have to take a decision on an event that occurred approximately 2500 years ago. It is well-known that at that time San tana, Jain and Buddhist religions were the main ones which are existent even today. There is no description on Buddha's life in Jain
gamas. The description in Buddhist scriptures and texts about Buddha's nirva are so mutually contradictory that not one of them we cannot consider correct. In this situation, it becomes necessary to search for material in San tana religion's ancient literature. Fortunately, there is a
loka in the San tana religion's Sr madbh gavatapura (in its first skamdha), which throws light on Buddha. This loka means that during kalayuga in Magadha (Bih ra) to seduce demons, the enemies of gods, you will be the avat ra of Buddha, son of Amjan ( mjan ).
In Buddha's context, the author of this text refers to the brave king of the time, ‘Amjan'. According to Buddha-related descriptions, uddhodana is Buddha's father; hence, according to the loka there is no scope for considering Amjan to be Buddha's father. Actually, the author of Bh gavata means to say that Buddha was the son of the king Amjana's daughter Amjani. This is a really new but historical fact that Lord Buddha was king Amjana's grandson. The loka mentions Amjana's daughter Amjani in the same way as Janaka's daughter is J nak , and Maithila's daughter is Maithil . The Burmese tradition proves that Buddha's maternal grandfather Amjana was a kya k atriya who started his own era named taj n . In Burmese language, taj n means Amjana. According to taj n era, Buddha's niry a happened in 148 on Vai kha month's full moon day on a Tuesday, which is equivalent to 502 BC, April15, Tuesday.
To solve this problem there is a lokain V yupura in which is mentioned a king named Pradhyota who will be seated on the throne of Avamti after his father Munika will get will get the king murdered and bringing all ministers under his control, will rule for 23 years. According to the Tibbetan Buddhist tradition, Buddha and Camdapradhyota were
365
