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The Date of Mahavira
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all-knowing and all-seeing, etc. and there is nothing remarkable in this, for the claim of possessing universal knowledge was a main characteristic of all these prophets, Mahâvîra as well as Gosala, the Buddha as well as Devadatta” (p. 127).
This story is given in detail by Sankrityayana under Cula-dukkhakkhandha-Sutta' on pages 212-216 and the reference by the Buddha to the Nirgranthas of Rajagrha is given on page 214. The date of the event of this Sutta is given by Sankrityayana as 514 B.C. which is equivalent to 518 B.C. if we regard 487 B.C. as the date of the death of the Buddha. The age of the Buddha given as 49th year which is equivalent to 519 B.C. (May) to 518 B.C. (May). Thus this event might have happened sometime between May 519 B.C. and May 518 B.C.
Now from the life of Mahâvîra (Vol. II, Part II, pp. 141, 200) we know that he passed his 13th rainy season after leaving home (or 1st rainy season after enlightenment) at Rajagrha. The date of this according to our calculation is 519 B.C. (July-October), taking 561 B.C. as the date of Mahâvîra's birth.
Thus we see that it was possible that sometime in 519 B.C. (either in May-June or July-October) the Buddha contacted at Rajagrha (at Kalasila near Rshigiri) some Nirgranthas who told him that Nigantha Nataputta was all-knowing. Very possibly, as we have seen above, Nigantha Nataputta (Mahâvîra) was himself residing there in the locality, although the text does not make it necessary.
3. “Moreover, there are other instances in the Pali Canon where Mahâvîra is praised in the same way by his followers ; so
(a) in Majjh, Nik. II, 31, where Sakuludayi in Rajagrha. (b) ibid, II, 214 sq., where some Nirgrantha monks, and.
(c) in Anguttara I, 220, where t'ie Licchavi prince, Abhaya, in a conversation with Ananda in Vaisali eulogize Nataputta in the same way. But all these passages speaking in a quite familiar way of Nataputta, his doctrines and his followers seem to prove, that the redactors of the Buddhist canonical writings had a rather intimate knowledge of the communication between Buddhists and Jains in the lifetime of Gutama and Mahâvîra” (p. 127).
Of the three passages above, we have already considered the first one. This is the occasion when both the Buddha and Mahâvîra passed the same rainy season at one and the same
