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also expressed a need of such a chronology that can be reconciled with the above facts.
The only limitation of the above view of the famous historians is that though they have tried to make the lifeevents of Mahavira and Buddha consistent with each other, they have failed to present a completely consistent chronology. For they have adopted 528 B.C. as the date of Mahavira's Nirvana and the Cantonese reckoning 486 B.C. as the date of Buddha's Nirvānas. With such a long interval in between the deaths of Mahävira and Buddha, we cannot reconcile their life-events with each other. Thus we have to discover such a chronology which is compatible with the true life-events of Mahåvira and Buddha.
RESEARCH AND CONCLUSION
Need of an Exhaustive Research
An unprejudiced survey of the efforts made up to now by the various scholars shows that the problem of contempo. raneity of Mahavira and Buddha, was, first of all, tried to be unravelled on the basis of general historical facts, then available. At a later stage, some scholars carried on research into it in the light of the Buddhist scriptures, while others arrived at their conclusions of the problem with the help of the Jain scriptures. The result was that on the one hand, the research based on general historical facts was in itself incomplete without bearing the imprint of the scriptural evidences, while on the other hand, the one-sided approach solely based on either the Jain scriptures or the Buddhist scriptures coloured the whole issue with sectarian tint. Some scholars regarded each and every word of the Jain scripture as a principle evidence and attached little significance to the Buddhist scriptures, whereas other did the vice versa. This cannot be the method of historical research, 'To arrive at the perfect solution, we have to think over the issue giving proportionate value to the general historical facts, the evidences of the Buddhist Tripitakas as well as the testimonies of the Jain Agamas. We shall also have to pay heed to the fact that the Aga mas and the Tripitakas are taken to be the original and genuine evidences of the Jain and the Buddhist traditions respectively, while the evidences of the
| SR No. | 022804 |
| Book Title | Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study |
| 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 |