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Jambu-A historical person..
accept, in accordance with both the Svetambara and Digambara traditions, that Jambu got absolution sixtytwo or sixtyfour years after Mahavira's emancipation, we wil also have to accept the fact that Indrabhuti Gautama got final release twentysix or twentyeight years after Mahavira's but this is entirely against all the acknowledged facts of the history of the Jain church. In the opinions of Yativṛsabha, Virasena, Nericandra, Gugabhadra, and Puspadanta, Indrabhati Gautama got emancipation twelve years after Mahavia's, Sudharma twelve years after Gautama's and Jambu forty years after Sudharma's. This is the conclusion arrived at by almost all.
Now according to another view point, Buddha got Nirvana in 544 B.C. Eight years before this, that is to say in 552 B.C. Ajataśatru sat on the throne and just about this very time, Śrepika's death occurred. It is recorded in all the Jaina literary sources that śrenika had put a question regarding Jaribu's birth to Lord Mahavira or Gautama. This leads us to suppose that Jaribu's birth must have taken place by about the time of Śrepika's death, that is to say, by about 552 B.C. Moreover, it is not improbable that Jambu might have lived for ninety years instead of eighty. Other writers of Jambu's life have said that Jambu took initiation at a time when Śrenika was ruling. Not only that but they have also said that Śrepika celebrated it with great interest and enthusiasm. In the light of these considerations we will have to accept that Jambu's birth took place in 568 B.C., some sixteen years before Śreņika's death in 552 B.C. If we accept this we will have also to accept that Jambu lived for 105 years between 463 B.C. and 568 B.C. This will disturb the hitherto accepted theories about the dates of the attainment of omniscience by the three personages Gautama, Sudharma and Jambu and therefore it is not tenable.
Period of eighteen years of omnisicnece assigned to Sudharma and Jambu each, according to others, is also not supported by historical evidence. Puspadanta's statement that Mahavira got emancipation on the same night on which Jambu was conceived 10 does not stand to reason. Thus we are left with no choice but to rely on the Patavalis of the Svetämbaras in relation to Gauatma, Sudharma and Jambu. According to these Pattavalis Indrabhüti-Gautama was born in 607 B. C. He passed fifty years as a householder and thirty as a monk and got emancipation in 515 B.C. having passed twelve years as an omniscient sage after Mahavira's Nirvana in 527 B. C. Sudharma also was born in 607 B.C. and remained as a househloder for 50 years. He observed monkhood for 30 years, remained as the head of the church for 12 years and as an omniscient sage for 8 years thus completing the age of 100 years. Jambu was born in 543 B.C., was initiated into order at the age of 16, got omniscience in 507 and emancipation in 463 B.C., thus living till the age of 80 years. This theory is the only most accepted theory according to the historical evidence hitherto available relating to Jambu's birth, initiation, omniscience and emancipation.
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