Sramana 2016 04

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

Page 61

54 : $401, af 67, 3ta 2, 34T-TA, 2016 are chances of the omission of certain names which has been confirmed by Muni Kalyana Vijayaji himself.20 Thus it is not possible to establish the date of the Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa on this basis of the inscriptional evidences related to Arya Mangu because on the basis neither the traditional belief in the date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa as 527 B.C. nor the scholars' opinion, as 467 B.C., could be proved correct. On equating the Pastāvalīs with the inscriptions, the date of Vira Nirvāṇa falls around 360 B.C. The reason of this uncertainty is the presence of various wrong conceptions regarding the period of Arya Mangu. So far as Ārya Nandila is concerned, we find the reference to his name also in the Nandīsūtra. In the Nandīsūtra Sthavirāvali.21 his name appears before Arya Nāgahasti and after Ārya Mangu. There is an inscription of Nandika (Nandila) of the saka Samvat 32 in (the inscriptions of Mathura (see Jaina silälekha Sargraha, Vol. II, article No. 41); in another inscription of the Saka Samvat 93, the name is not clear, only 'Nandi' is mentioned there. (see Jaina Śilālekha Saṁgraha. Vol. II, article No. 67). Arya Nandila is referred to also in the Prabandhakośa and in some ancient Pattāvalis but since at no place there is any reference to his period, it is not possible to establish the date of the Nirvāņa of Mahāvīra on the basis of this inscriptional evidence. Now let us consider Nāgahasti. Usually in all the Pattāvalis, the date of the demise of Arya Vajra has been considered as 584 V.N.S. After Arya Vajra, Arya Rakṣita remained the Yuga Pradhāna Ācārya for 13 years, Pușyamitra for 20 years and Vajrasena for 3 years, i.e. Vajrasena died in the year 620 V.N.S. In Merutunga's Vicāraśreņi, the period of Arya Nāgahasti as the Yuga Pradhāna has been accepted as continuing for 69 years, i.e. Nāgahasti was the Yuga Pradhāna from 621 to 690 V.N.S.22 If Hastahasti of the Mathura inscription is Nāgahasti, then he is also referred to as the guru of Māghahasti in the inscription of the saka Samvat 54, which establishes him of before 131 A.D.