History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.71

c12.s6.71

A further objection might be raised that the Śvetāmbara Jaina tradition places the date of Mahāvīra’s *nirvāṇa* in the year 470 before Vikrama, or 528 B.C., while the Digambara traditional date is even earlier—the impossible year of 605 before Vikrama.⁷ The wide divergence of the two traditions tends to make even the more plausible date suspect. It is to be noted that the Sinhalese tradition of the Buddha’s *nirvāṇa* occurring in 544 B.C. is almost certainly some sixty years too early.¹ But the Buddhist and Jaina traditions taken together confirm Jacobi’s contention that the Buddha predeceased Mahāvīra by about sixteen years.²