________________
6
DATE OF MAHÂVÎRA'S NIRVANA*
-Hiralal Jain
The last of the Twenty-four Jaina Tirthankaras or prophets was Mahâvîra Vardhamana who was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha the founder of Buddhism. The date of Mahâvîra's Nirvana, therefore, is very important for the chronology of ancient Indian History in general and of Jainism in particular. But, unfortunately, the date has not been so far fixed with accuracy, one of the reasons being that the old mentions of the date in Jaina literary traditions seem to be considerably at variance with one another. The purpose of this paper is briefly to draw attention to those mentions and to see if any explanation of their discrepancies is possible.
Amongst the Jainas there is current an era called Vira Nirvana Samvat. It is believed to have started from the day of th Nirvana of Mahâvîra which took place on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of the month Kartika. The year 2466 of this era was completed on the 29th October 1940 A.D., and from the 30th October 1940 the Nirvana year 2467 has begun. According to this, the Nirvana, of Mahâvîra took place 2467-1940 = 527 years before Christ, and 2467-1997 470 years before the beginning of the current Vikrama era.
Now the question is, when did Vikrama era begin? The Digambara Nandi Samgha pattavali says:
=
सत्तररे-चउसद-युतो जिणकाला विक्कमो ( - मस्स) हवइ जम्मो । '
"Four hundred and seventy years after the Nirvana of Mahâvîra was Vikrama born." According to this view the Vikrama era began with the birth of Vikrama which event took place 470 years after the Nirvana of Mahâvîra .
* Nagpur University Journal, No. 6, December 1940.
