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The Date of Mahavira
139
Charpentier adds that "too much weight should not be attached to this passage” but we are unable to agree with him.
The date of the event of this Sutta is given as 487 B.C. by Sankrityayana (p. 424) which is equivalent to 491 B.C. according to our calculation. The scene of this Sutta is Rajagrha where both the Buddha and Mahâvîra are shown as present. We have already shown above that Mahâvîra was at Rajagrha from November 492 B.C. to the early months of 490 B.C. He passed his rainy season of 491 B.C. also at Rajagrha. Thus there is nothing impossible in it.
7."....Samy. Nik. IV, 322 sq. where we are told that Buddha and Nataputta were staying in Nalanda at the same time during a severe famine; when the latter asked his lay-follower the squire (gamani) Asibandhakaputta (cf ibid., p. 317 sq.) to go to Buddha and ask him, whether he deemed it right to have all his monks there at that time devouring the food of the poor people” (p. 128, f.n.)
The story of Asibandhakaputta has been narrated on pp. 103-105 by Sankrityayana. It indicates that both the Buddha and Mahâvîra were at Nalanda at the time when there was a famine there. The date of the event is given as 518 B.C. which is equivalent to 522 B.C. according to our calculation. Just above the story is mentioned the fact that the 11th rainy season of the Buddha was passed in the Brahmana village of Nala or Nalada (p. 103). The date of this rainy season according to our calculation is 522 B.C. Thus if Sankrityaya is strictly followed, the event took place sometime after the rainy season, i.e., in November December, 522 B.C.
Coming to the Jain tradition, we find that Mahâvîra passed his 10th rainy season at Sravasti (Life, Vol. II, part I, 472) in 522 B.C. according to our calculation). After the rains he travelled to other places. “Sraman Bhagavan Mahâvîra then went to Rajagrha Nagara. There Isanendra (Indra of Isana devaloka) came, and worshipped the Lord. After making inquiries about Bhagavan's health, he went away” (Life, Vol. II, part I, p. 491). Thus Mahâvîra is also at Rajagrha, i.e., in the Rajagrha-Nalanda area at the same time.
The seven passages analysed so far are pointed out in the
