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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that the Jain cannons are as reticent about Buddha as the Buddhist canons are eloquent about Mahavira. The possible reasons thereof, are as follows:
A budding religious leader generally speaks much about his senior rivals. He has psychologically a feeling of equating himself with his senior rivals, and, hence, he endeavours to show himself superior and his rivals inferior. Consequently, refers every now and then to the weak points of his rivals. This very process is reflected in the Buddhist canons which are replete with the allusions about Niganatha Nataputta (and also other five religious teachers) and the doctrines of the Niganthas (i. e. the Jains) (150). On the contrary the Jain canons do not mention even the name of Buddha as the sponsor of Buddhism. This also signifies the same fact that those who have already earned the name and fame and become dignifying and dominating figures, shrink from giving an importance to the rival budding power all of a sudden.
Another possible reasons is that the teachings of Mahavira had already been complied in the form of 12 Angas, comprising the most original portion of the Jain canonical literature, by the eleven Ganadhar as soon after Mahavira's attainment of omniscence. Now because Buddha's advent was not even 'in the air' at that time, How could we expect to find allusions in those canons about the life of Buddha? Also, on the other hand, if Buddha were really a senior contemporary of Mahavira, how the Jain canons could have refrained from referring to the events of Buddha's life (151).
Again because Buddha was a junior contemporary of - Mahavira and the Buddhist canons were compiled after the Nirvana of Buddha by his perfected disciples, it is quite natural that the Tripitakas afford us with a lot of allusions about Mahavira's life.
Contemporaneity and Chronology
On the basis of the facts discussed in the preceding sections, we indubitably reach the conclusion that Mahavira predeceased Buddha and that Mahavira was a senior contemporary of Buddha. Now it remains to decide the period of