Sramana 2016 04

Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey, Rahulkumar Singh, Omprakash Singh
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

Page 54

Reconsidering the Date of the Nirvāņa of Lord Mahavira : 47
Among the contemporaries of Lord Mahāvīra, the names of Lord Buddha, Bimbisāra-Śreņika and Ajātaśatru are well-known. The Buddhist sources give more information about them than the Jaina sources. The study of Jaina sources also does not give rise to any doubt about their contemporaneity. The Jaina Āgamas are mostly silent about Buddha's Life-history, but there are ample references to the contemporary presence of Mahāvīra and Buddha in the Bauddha Tripitaka literature. Here we shall take only two of the references. In the first reference there is a mention of the event of Dighanikāya in which Ajātaśatru meets many of his contemporary religious heads. In this reference, the Chief Minister of Ajātaśatru talks about Nirgrantha Jñātrputra like this: "Master, this Nirgrantha Jñātrputra, is the master of the sect as well as the monastery, teacher of the sect, a scholar and a renowned Tīrthankara, he is admired by many and respectable gentleman. He has been a long wandering mendicant (Parivrājaka) and is middle-aged”. It can he derived from this statement that at the time of Ajātaśatru's accession to the throne, Mahāvīra's age must be about 50 years, because his Nirvana is supposed to have taken place in the 22nd year of Ajātaśatru Kunộika's rule. By deducting 22 years from his total age of 72 years, it is proved that at that time he was 50 years old.' So far as Buddha's case is concerned, he attained his Nirvāņa in the gih year of Ajātaśatru's accession to the throne. This is the hypothesis of Buddhist writers. This hypothesis gave rise to two facts. Firstly, when Mahāvīra was 50 years old, Buddha was 72 (80-8). i.e. Buddha was 22 years older than Mahāvīra. Secondly, Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa took place 14 years after Buddha's Nirvāņa (22-8-14). It is worth mentioning here, that in the reference occurring in the Dighanikāya,'' where Nirgrantha Jñātrputra and other five Tīrthankaras have been called middle-aged, there is no mention of Gautama Buddha's age, but he must be 72 at that time because this event took place during the rule of Ajātaśatru Kuņika and Buddha's Nirvāṇa look place in the gih year of the rule of Ajātaśatru.