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Buddha & Mahâvîra
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precisely the reason why Buddha has not co-ordinated the views of any predecessor or contemporary with his own; he has expressed the traits of his own outlook, Mahâvîra has not done this. He has co-ordinated his own reforms and changes with the then followers of Parsvanatha.? The path therefore of Mahâvîra is suggestive of the inclination of co-ordination with the sect of Parsvanatha.
Another point to be drawn attention to is the life-time of Buddha and Mahâvîra. Buddha attained Nirvana at the age of eighty; Mahâvîra at seventy two. It is now more or less a proved fact that Buddha preceded Mahâvîra in Nirvana.' Buddha was slightly older than Mahâvîra. Again, when Mahâvîra independently started preaching of his religion, Buddha had already established his cult. Buddha was expected to gain strength from more and more of followers of his path; Mahâvîra had to keep within his fold and influence the old followers of Parsvanatha in addition to winning over new followers of his cult. Buddha could not have succeeded in the formation of his Sangha without a complete evaluation and rejection of all other contemporary sects. Mahâvîra's problem was slightly different. He brought to his own fold the contemporary followers of Parsvanatha on the strength of his own conduct and the strength of his own personality, which won their hearts.
The problem therefore, of recruitment of new followers was not as acute for Mahâvîra as for Buddha. It is , therefore, full of criticism of others. Influence of Nirgrantha tradition on Buddha
Buddha discarded several sects one after the other, before he established his own path. One of these was the Nirgrantha path; Buddha has narrated his own life.. On reading this and comparing it with the conduct described in the Jaina Agamas, it can be known without doubt that Buddha had passed some time of his life in the Jain cult as in others. Mahâvîra had not carved his path during the period of the Sadhana of Buddha and at that time in eastern India there existed no sect other than the Nirgrantha path of Parsvanatha. This shows that just for some time, Buddha passed his life in the Nirgrantha cult of Parsvanatha. As a result of this, Buddha severely attacks austerity-tapas that was firmly
