Lord Mahavira and His Times

Author(s): Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 95

Life of Lord Mahavira
75
ssor of Sambhūtivijaya, died fifteen years later. All Jaina traditions from Hemachandra downwards give 170 after Vira as the year of Bhadrabāhu's.death. This would be 297 B.C. if the date 467 B.C. is accepted as the year of Mahāvīra's death. The Jaina tradition also brings Bhadrabāhu into the closest connection with Chandragupta in whose reign the date 297 B.C, falls.
5. The Kalpasūtra in its present form is a compilation made 980 years after the passing away of Mah vīra during the reign of Dhruvasena, king of Gujarat, but in another recension the number is 993. King Dhruvasena is known to have ruled from 526 to 540 A.D. From this, the date 467 B.C. is fixed as the year of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa.
While discussing the date of Gośāla's death, A.L. BASHAM fixes the date of Mahāvīra's death in 468-467 B.C., which agrees with the date suggested by H. JACOBI on the basis of Hemachandra's Parisishțaparvan and supported by J. CHARPENTIER. Prof. BASHAM accepts 483 B.C. as the date of the Buddha's Nirvāṇa. On the basis of the Mahāvam sa synchronism, the accession of Ajātasatru must have occurred in the year 491 B.C. and the second campaign against the Vajjis in 481-180 B.C. There are two synchronisms for the date of Gośāla's death, the first being the tradition of its occurrence sixteen and a half years before that of Mahāvīra, and the second that of its taking place during the war between Magadha and Vaiśālī in the reign of Ajātaśatru-Kūņiya. Of the two, the latter seems the more reliable. There were two campaigns of the war called Mahāśilakanţac and Rahamusale respectively. A.L. B.ASHAM suggests that the first campaign, soon after which Gośāla died, must have taken place at some time between the date of Ajātaśatru's accession and the year preceding the Buddha's death. He held the view that the first campaign occurred in 485 B.C. and the death of Gośāla in 484 B.C., if a year is allowed for the news of the Battle of Great Stones' to spread to Sāvattli and to become fixed in the popular consciousness. With regard to the death of liaharira as taking place at Pāvā during the Buddha's lifetime and as mentioneri 1. A.L. BASIAN: History and Doctrines of the d ..rp. 66.75.