Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study

SR No.: 022804
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nagaraj Muni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 804
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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82
Testimony of the Later Works
One of the testimonies advocated by Muni Kalyāņa Vijayaji to defend his view is (108): "The Jain traditional record of Srenika and his queen Cellana shows that Srenika was first a follower of Buddha and afterwards was converted to Jain faith. "But, as a matter of fact, this account is based only on later Jain stories and hence it has no historical importance. Moreover, Muni Kalyāņa Vijayaji has not mentioned in which authoritative work, the said account is recorded. In a similar way, he has choos en five statements from the later Buddhist work to show the seniority of Buddha, and that too without mentioning the original references (109). Most of those beliefs seems to have no connection with the Buddhist Pitakas. Some of them even contradict the facts of the Buddhist Pitakas.
Contradictions
The argument advanced by Muni Kalyāņa Vijayaji are not at all sufficient to prove the seniority of Buddha to Mahavira. In his effort to reconcile his view, he has contradicted some fundamental and well-established facts. For example, the Buddhist Tripitakas state Mahavira to have died earlier than Buddha. They also elucidate that Buddha himself had accepted his juniority to all the six religious teachers of his time. In addition to this, at several places Buddha's juniority is clearly indicated in them (110). Muni Kalyāņa Vijayaji has not been able to reconcile his view with all these facts. He has called everywhere such events as fabrication and falsifying. His trend regarding the Buddhist Tripitakas cannot be called proper and justifying. It is to be noted that the historians - eastern as well as Western, have recognised these scriptural evidences as fundamental facts in deciding the contemporaneity of Mahavira and Buddha. At some places Muni Kalyāņa Vijayaji has contradicted his own arguments. For example, in the beginning of his book, he has accepted the belief of the later Buddhist works that Buddha died in the 8th year of Ajātsatru's regin, as the basis of his view. Later on, he, on the basis of the fact that Gosala's enumeration of the eight finilaties (Caramas) at the time of his death, was made sixteen years before the Mahavira's Nirvana, concludes (111). "Mahavira lived for more than