History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.75

c12.s6.75

Yet another argument against the theory that Mahāvīra predeceased the Buddha may be derived from the account of the war between Magadha and the Licchavis in the *Nirayāvalikā Sūtra*. Mahāvīra was alive at the time, and in contact with the Magadhan court. If we reject the Jaina tradition of his death sixteen and a half years after that of Gosāla, and accept the Buddhist record of its occurrence before that of the Buddha, we must assume that he too died very shortly after the first campaign of Ajātasattu-Kuṇiya. This must have occurred at some time between 491 and 484 B.C., on the basis of our calculations, which are founded on the assumption that the Buddha died in 483 B.C.³ Now Mahāvīra was seventy-two years old at the time of his death, and must have been at least in his late sixties at the time of the war, if we assume that he predeceased the Buddha. But Ceḍaga, the chieftain of the Licchavis, was his maternal uncle, and therefore was probably considerably older than Mahāvīra. Although he was thus a very old man, on the hypothesis of Mahāvīra’s advanced age at the time, he is yet described as leading the Licchavi forces in battle and taking a full part in the campaign. Moreover, according to Jinadāsa, he survived the twelve-year siege of Vesāli which followed the battle. Such elderly leadership is by no means impossible, but at least very improbable, and points to an inaccuracy in one or other of the stories.