A History of Indian Literature v2.c26.2

v2.c26.2

According to the usual chronology of the Śvetāmbara Jainas, Mahāvīra died 470 years before the beginning of the Vikrama era, *i.e.*, in 527 B.C., but according to the Digambaras, in 605 B.C. These dates are probably based upon erroneous calculations, for they are as difficult to reconcile with the one and only firmly established fact, namely that Buddha and Mahāvīra were contemporaries and lived in the reigns of Kings Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru, as they are with other traditions of the Jainas themselves. There is a tradition of the Jainas, which can be traced as far back as the 11th century A.D., according to which Candragupta was anointed king 155 years after the death of Mahāvīra. Now it is true that even the date of Candragupta's coronation is by no means certain. Otto *Stein* (Archiv Orientální 1, 1929, 354 ff., 368 ff.) has shown that Candragupta cannot have been crowned king before 318-17 B.C. If we assume 317 B.C., hypothetically, as the coronation year, then the Nirvāṇa of Mahāvīra would have taken place in 473-72 B.C., and that of Buddha in 480-79 or 483-82 B.C., according to whether we assume 28 or 25 years as the length of Bindusāra's reign. J. *Charpentier* (Ind. Ant., 43, 1914, 118 ff., 125 ff., 167 ff. and Cambridge History, I, 150 ff.) has attempted to prove that Buddha died in 477 B.C. and Mahāvīra in 467 B.C. H. *Jacobi*, who formerly (The Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu Ed., Introduction, p. 6 ff.) had likewise assumed the date 467 B.C., now accepts (Buddhas und Mahāvīras Nirvāṇa und die politische Entwicklung Magadhas zu jener Zeit in SBA, 1930, p. 557 ff.) 484 B.C. as the year of Buddha's death and 477 B.C. as that of Mahāvīra, as a " sure foundation " for the history of Magadha, and he sets out from the year 322 B.C. as the year of Candragupta's coronation. S. V. *Venkateswara*, JRAS, 1917, 122 ff., has tried to prove that Māhavīra could not have died earlier than 437 B.C.