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Lord Mahâvîra
accession of Chandragupta Maurya, in 323 B.C., which cannot be far from the truth. But the result in respect of Mahâvîra himself as at variance with the clear evidence of the Buddhist canonical texts which make the Buddha survive his Jnatrika rival.
"The Jain statement that their Tirthankara died some sixteen years after the accession of Kunika (Ajatasatru) can be reconciled with the Buddhist tradition about the death of the same teacher before the eighth year of Ajatasatru if we assume that the Jains, who refer to Kunika as ruler of Champa,begin their reckoning from the accession of that prince to the viceregal throne of Champa,while the Buddhists make the accession of Ajatasatru to the royal throne of Rajagrha the basis of their calculation" (H.C. Raychaudhari. p. 86).
(F) In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1917, S.V. Venkateswara wrote an article entitled "The Date of Vardhamana" (page 122-130) in which he suggested, "the date 437 B.C. or 470 of the Ananda Vikrama era" as the date of the nirvana of Vardhamana, "the founder of modern Jainism." His view is based on the Svapnavasavadatta of Bhasa wherein the Sanskrit dramatist "introduces Pradyota as seeking the hand of Darsaka's sister in mariage for his own son" (p. 129). The reigns period of Darsaka as accepted by Venkateswara is 437-413 B.C. Thus Canda Pradyota was alive at the beginning of the reign of Darsaka. Jain tradition17 is to the effect that Vardhamana died on the same day as Canda Pradyota of Avanti. Thus "the founder of the Jain faith must have seen Darsaka's reign (i.e. 437-413 B.C.) if it be true that both Vardharnana and Canda died about the same time" (pp. 124-125).
This view can be easily refuted on the basis of what has already been said.
(G) H.C. Seth 18 suggests 488 B.C. as the date of Mahâvîra's death on the basis of the Buddhist tradition, assuming 487 B.C. as the date of the Buddha's death, As he says:
"The great difficulty in accepting 468 B.C. as the date for Mahâvîra Nirvana will be that it will place Mahâvîra's death several years after that of the Buddha. The traditions preserved in the Buddhist Pali canon clearly tell us that Nigantha Nataputta, i. e., Mahâvîra died at Pava a little before the Buddha.19 Jacobi
