Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 513

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
(Ch. VIII
This account of the total span of life of the Master is also fully corroborated by the Kalpa Sūtral which states that he left the world at the age of thirty and passed time as ascetic, practising austerities for more than twelve years in the state of Chadmastha and some thing less than thirty years as Kevalin and religious teacher, forty-two years as recluse, and seventy-two years on the whole. He breathed his last at the age of seventytwo in the writers' office of king Hastipāla in the town of Pāvā.
The solution of the problem of the Chronology of Lord Mahävira hinges upon the fixation of the date of his demise (Nirvāna).
The text reveals that the Master was contemporary of the kings, Seņiya-Bimbisāra', and his son, Kūņika-Ajātaśatrul of Magadha, Cetaka of Vaiśālz“, Udayana of Kaušāmbā," Udāyana of Sindhu-Sauvīra, and Mahāsena of Avantī.?
It has already been discussed in connection with the topic *Political Conditions' in the first section of the third chapter that the two great wars called Mahäsilā kantakasangrāma and Rathamusalasangrāma were known, heard and remembered by Lord Mahāvīra.
Moreover, in the BhS Gośāla Mankhaliputra also refers to the sprinkling scent-elephant, the last Tirthankara and the last Mahāśilākantaka Sangrāmalo, after the sixteen years of which the Master is said to have died. He also knew the existence of sixteen great states flourishing during his life time.
The evidences of these two great events are also fully corroborated by those of the Nirayávaliyā Suttall as already discussed in the first section of the third chapter. While in the Buddhist works? Lord Mahāvīra appears as a contemporary of
i Kalpa Sutra, 5, 122. Vide Jacobi's Jaina Sūtras Pt. I. p.
256-264. 2 Bh8, 1, 1, 4.
3 16, 7, 9, 300. 4 Ib, 12. 2, 441. Ib, 12, 2, 441. 6 16, 13, 6, 491. ? Ib, 13, 6, 491. 8 16, 7, 9, 300.
9 16, 7, 9, 301. 10 1b, 15, 1, 554, 11 Nirayāvaliya Sutta, 1. 1: E.g. Jataka I, 509; Digha Nikaya II, 150,