History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.58

c12.s6.58

If we accept c. 483 B.C. as the date of the Buddha’s *nirvāṇa*,¹ on the basis of the *Mahāvaṃsa* synchronism the accession of Ajātasattu must have occurred in the year c. 491 B.C., and his second campaign against the Vajjis c. 481-480 B.C. The first campaign, soon after which the death of Gosāla occurred, must have taken place at some time between the date of Ajātasattu’s accession and the year preceding the Buddha’s death. We suggest that the first campaign occurred c. 485 B.C., and the death of Gosāla in that year, or in 484 B.C., if we allow a year for the news of the “Battle of Great Stones” to spread to Sāvatthi and to become fixed in the popular consciousness. On the strength of the *Bhagavatī* statement that Mahāvīra survived Gosāla for sixteen and a half years,² this date would place that of Mahāvīra’s death in 468-467 B.C. which agrees with the date suggested by Jacobi on the basis of Hemacandra’s *Pariśiṣṭa-parvan*,³ and supported by Charpentier.⁴ Whatever our interpretation of the discrepant traditions, however, it seems clear that the death of Gosāla was not far removed in time from that of the Buddha.