________________
THE MAHAVIRA ERA
Dr. Parmeshwar Solanki
Dr. Jacobi regards 477 B.C. as the date of Malāvīra's Nirvāņa and 484 B.C. as that of Buddha's Nirvana. But he refrains from giving any specific indication throughout his essay why it became inevitable for him to accept these dates. He simply says "though according to the unanimous traditions of the Jaipa, Candragupta's accession took place 215 years A.V. (after the death of Mahāvīra), in accordance with the view propounded by Hemacandra, (Parisişta Parva, 8-330) Candragupta acceded to the throne in 155 A.V." Dr. Jacobi has supported his view by citing another Jain work, Kahávali, of Bhadreśvara.
Now, the fact is that, as stated by Dr. Jacobi, it is unanimously accepted in all the Jain traditions that Candragupta's accession took place only 215 years after the Nirvāna of Mahavira and not 155 years, as accepted by Ācārya Hemacandra.2 The view of Acārya Hemacandra would prove baseless, if tested on the touchstone of history. Also, the scholars have regarded it as a great blunder committed by Ācārya Hemacandra. The most substantiated opinion in this regard is tha13 a king named Palaka was enthroned at Ujjain the very day on which Mahāvīra attained Niryāna. He (or his dynasty) reigned for 60 years. After this, Nandas ruled for 155 years. Then ensued the Mauryan rule, that is to say Candragupta Maurya was enthroned 215 years after the death of Mahāvīra. This allusion has been extracted from Titthogati Painnaya' which is supposed to be much older than both the books viz. Kahāvali of Bhadreśvara and Parisista Parya of Hemacandra.
It seems that the period of 60 years of the reign of Palaka has completely been omitted in the calculation of Hemacandra's Parisista Parva, Mr. Purna Chandra Nāhar and Mr. Krishna Chandra Ghosh, write4 "Hemacandrāchārya must have omitted by oversight to count the period of 60 years of King Palaka after Mahavira's Nirväņa,"
Dr. Jacobi has edited Parisista Parya.5 He has observed in the preface to it that Hemacandrācārya had composed that work in haste, as a consequence of which the work is studded with errors. Elaborating the subject in the preface itself, Dr. Jacobi has illustrated several compositional and grammatical errors committed by
