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written in the popular Sāngatya metre. It was composed by Padma-kavi in A.D. 1528.
(e) Mahāvīra in the Tri-pitaka and Pāli Literature There is no specific mention of Buddha in any Jaina canonical texts. But in the Tri-pitaka of Buddhists there are many references to Mahāvīra and his preachings under the name Nigamtha Nātaputta (Nirgrantha Jñātņputra). This has been noted nearly a century back when the Buddhist and Jaina canonical texts were brought to light by the Pali Text Society, London and the Sacred Books of the East Series. When Dr. H. Jacobi translated into English the Ācārānga, Kalpasūtra, Uttar-ādhyayana and Sūtra-krtāniga (S.B.E., 22 & 45), in the Introductions of these two volumes he drew the attention of scholars to those contexts of the Pali literature in which Nigaṁtha Nāta-putta was mentioned. Later such contexts were more exhaustively studied; and lately, Muni Nagaraj has collected some such 42 Pāli passages, short and long, in his Agama aura Tripitaka : Eka Anuśīlana (in three parts; Calcutta, 1969; now its translation into English has also been brought out). From these it is clearly proved that both these great men (Mahāvīra and Buddha) were contemporaries, that Mahāvira was the senior of the two, and that he attained nirvāṇa earlier than Buddha. After a good deal of critical scrutiny it is proved that the date of the nirvāna of Mahāvīra is 527 B.C.
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