A History of Indian Literature v2.c26.3

v2.c26.3

None of these datings can be reconciled with the tradition, preserved in three different passages in the Pāli Canon (Dīgha III, 117, 210; Majjhima II, 243f.) and also in the Chinese Dīrghāgama (s. S. *Behrsing* in Asia Major VII, 1931, p. 1ff), that the Nighaṇṭa Nātaputta died a short time before Gotama. *Jacobi* SBA 1930, 558 ff., assumes that this report was only invented in order to connect with it the story of the quarrels in the community of the Nighaṇṭas after the death of the Master. Of course, this is possible, but I have grave doubts that such a report which, as the Chinese translation shows, belongs to an earlier Canon, should be mere invention. I should prefer to say that the real date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa is still unknown.