Indian Epigraphy c15.s2.t3.3

c15.s2.t3.3

The Vicāraśreṇī (c. 1310 A.D.) of the Śvetāmbara author Merutuṅga gives the difference between the Vīra-nirvāṇa and Vikrama eras as 470 years² while another Śvetāmbara writer named Nemicandra, disciple of Ambadeva and author of the Prakrit poem entitled Mahāviracariam (1084 A.D.), quotes 605 years and 5 months as the intervening period between Mahāvīra’s Nirvāṇa and [the beginning of the rule of] the Śaka king, i.e. the beginning of the Śaka era.³ The same difference between the Vīra-nirvāṇa and Śaka eras is given also in Digambara works like Nemicandra’s Trilokasāra (11th century A.D.)⁴ as well as in the Harivaṃśa Purāṇa and Meghanandin’s Śrāvakācāra.⁵ But there are discrepancies in the traditional dates of Mahāvīra.⁶