Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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branch of literature is as much important as the Pāli canon for its language and style and for the philosophical and historical material contained therein.?
7. Date of Mahāvira's Nirvāņa As to the time of the nirvāna of Lord Mahāvīra, a clear-cut record is available that this event took place in the last quarter of the night of the caturdasi of the krsna-paksa of the month of Kārtika, i.e., in the early hours of the amāvāsyā; and both gods and men celebrated this occasion as the Dipāvali festival. Accordingly, the (Mahā)Vira N. samvat era begins from the Kārtika Dipävali. There was no such samvat or era specified either contemporary with Mahāvīra or for a long time after him. References to this era, which are noticed in later works, are often mutually contradictory here and there and also not consistent with the data available in other branches of literature and with other historical events. Consequently there have resulted differences of opinions in this connection among modern scholars. On the one hand, the German scholar Dr. Jacobi puts the date of the nirvana of Mahāvira as 477 (four hundred seventyseven) B.C. His evidence is that the coronation of Maurya Candragupta took place in 322 (three hundred twentytwo) B.C., and this event, according to the Parisista-parvan (VIII. 339) of Hemacandra happened 155 (one hundred fiftyfive) years after the nirvāņa of Mahāvira : thus the date of Mahāvira's nirvāna comes to be 322 + 155 = 477.
But, on the other hand, Dr. Kashi Prasad Jayaswal holds the view that, according to the Buddhist tradition in Ceylon or
? Samavāy-ānga-sutra 211-227. Sat-kland-āgama 1, 1, 2, ţikā, bhāga 1, page 96 ff. Winternitz : A History of Indian Literature, II Jaina Literature. Kapadia : History of the Jaina Canonical Literature. Jagadish Chandra : Prākrta Sahitya kā Itihasa, pp. 33 ff. Hiralal Jaina : Bhāratiya Samskrti-men Jaina-dharma-kā Yoga-däna, pp. 55 ff. Nemichandra Shastri : Prākrta Bhāṣā aura Sahitya-kā Alocanātmaka Itihāsa, pp. 157 ff.
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