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488 B.C. as the Date of Mahâvîra Nirvana
67
Saka King who established an era of his own when 135 years of the Vikrama era had elapsed. $0 If we accept these as correct historical traditions we get (135-58) 77 A.D. as the end of the reign of the dynasty of Vikramaditya or ther Gardabhila dynasty.
As regards Nahavana or Nahapana, the critical examination of the Digambara and the Svetambara traditions given above and also the light thrown on him by modern researches make it clear that he came after the Gardabhilas. This will place the commencement of Nahavana's reign in 78 A.D. Nahavana in the Digambara Jain chronological traditions stands in the same place which is given to the Saka King in the Svetambara traditions. This Saka King in both these traditions is placed in the post-Vikrama period about 605 yars after Mahâvîra Nirvana. It then appears that Nahavana or Nahapana is the Saka King of both the traditions, who, as discussed above, in the Svetambara traditions is put by mistake also before Gardabhila. Nahapana, according to the inscriptions, belonged to Kshaharata family, which was of the Saka extraction. We know from the inscriptions that the Saka rulers Liaka, Patika, Ghataka and Bhumika were other members of the same Kshaharata family. Ushavadata, son-in-law of Nahapana, is distinctly mentioned as a Saka in these inscriptions.
The conclusion we have drawn from the critical study of the various Jain traditions that Nahapana was the Saka King whose rule commenced from 78 A.D., makes us also conclude that he is the founder of the Saka era of 78 A.D. All the Jain traditions assign 40 years of reign of Nahavana or Nahapana, whose reign therefore lasted upto 605 years (430 between Mahâvîra Nirvana and Vikrama) + 135 of Vikrama's dynasty +40 of Nahavana) after Mahâvîra Nirvana. It thus seems that the Jain counting of 605 years between Mahâvîra Niryana and the Saka King, perhaps, refers to the period between the death of Mahâvîra and that of Nahavana. Starting with the commencement of the reign of Nahavana or Nahapana in 78 A.D. the end of his forty years' reign will fall in 118 A.D. which will then be the date of the defeat of Nahapana by Gautamiputra Satakarni...
