History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.79

c12.s6.79

Hoernle's second calculation has the one advantage that it allows the acceptance of the Buddhist tradition of Mahāvīra's death being prior to that of the Buddha. For the sake of the acceptance of this one story other statements equally probable have been rejected. The *Mahā-parinibbāna Sutta's* record, that preparations for a campaign against the Vajjis were made in the last year of the Buddha's life, is not brought into relation with the chronological scheme. Hemacandra's statement that the *nirvāna* of Mahāvīra occurred 155 years before the accession of Candragupta Maurya,¹ which the Jaina tradition places in 313 B.C.,² is rejected.