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The Fordmakers
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was written in the seventh century CE. A further expansion of this exegetical literature was provided by Haribhadra. It was the commentators on the Avashyakasutra who organised the raw material for the Universal History, drawing together and expanding it to create an image of the promulgator of the true path with which they could confront the inadequate myths and hagiographies of their sectarian opponents.
Mahâvîra's Date
It is fruitless to attempt to locate a historical Mahâvîra outwith the parameters of the texts which describe him. Even such a basic question as when he lived is not certain. So, while his traditional Shvetambara dating is 599 BCE to 527 BCE, the Digarnbaras hold that he died in 510 BCE. There has been considerable scholarly debate about this matter since the nineteenth century and a variety of different datings have been proposed. The arguments are technical but it should be noted that Mahâvîra's dates depend in the last resort on synchronicity with those of the Buddha since the two were contemporaries and if, as is increasingly being suggested, a re-examination of early Buddhist historical material, nothing comparable to which exists in Jainism, necessitates a redating of the Buddha, then a shift in Mahâvîra's dating will also be entailed.14
Equally uncertain is the question of Mahâvîra's birthplace. The Kalpasutra states that he was born at Kundagrama, a site generally taken as having been in the vicinity of Vaishali, at that time one of the greatest towns of the Ganges basin. The exact location of Kundagrama has remained elusive, however, doubtless because the Jains began to migrate at a relatively early date from the east which subsequently went into economic and political decline for a considerable time so that accurate knowledge of the region where Mahâvîra had preached was soon at a premium, and there is still disagreement between the Shvetambaras and the Digambaras over this matter. This is in contrast to the general concord between the two sects with regard to the location of Mahâvîra's death, with the town of Pava mentioned in the Kalpasutra as the place where this event occurred being identified by about the thirteenth century with the village of Pavapur in the state of Bihar.
