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Mahāvīra and the Buddha.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
In a very interesting article,1 Professor Jacobi has arrived at the conclusion that, contrary to the Buddhist tradition, we must hold that Mahavlra outlived the Buddha, probably by some seven years. In point of fact, of course, it may seem of very little consequence whether we accept this view or that of Buddhist tradition, but the issue involves a very important question affecting the value of our authorities, and on this point it seems to me clear that the position adopted by Professor Jacobi involves serious difficulties.
Professor Jacobi treats as the assured foundations for his investigations the dates of the Nirvanas of the Buddha and of Mahavlra as 484 and 477 B.C. But it must be admitted that both these dates rest on very unsatisfactory and late evidence. The question of the date of the Buddha has been set out, with his usual acumen and precision, recently by Professor de La Vallée Poussin,2 and he has shown how utterly uncertain is the date 483 or 484 B.C. for the Nirvāṇa. From a very different point of view the late Professor Rhys Davids confessed 3 that the date was purely conjectural.
- Type
- Papers Contributed
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , February 1932 , pp. 859 - 866
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1932
References
page 859 note 1 SBA. 1930, pp. 5S7–68.
page 859 note 2 Indo-européens et Indo-iraniens, pp. 238–48; L'Inde aux Temps des Mauryas, p. 50.
page 859 note 3 CHI. i, pp. 171, 172.
page 859 note 4 Keith, Buddhist Philosophy, chap. i.
page 860 note 1 Introduction to Kalpa Sūtra, p. 9; Introduction to Pariçiṣṭaparvan, p. 6.
page 860 note 2 In CHI. i, pp. 471–3, 321 is suggested as plausible. For other dates see de La Vallée Poussin, L., L'Inde aux Temps des Mauryas, pp. 51, 52.Google Scholar
page 860 note 3 The Upāli Suttanta clearly asserts an illness, if not the death, of Mahāvīra; Chalmers, , SBB. 5, p. 278, n. 2.Google Scholar
page 861 note 1 See Winternitz, , Geschichte der Indischen Litteratur, 2, pp. 360 f.Google Scholar
page 862 note 1 Cunda here appears as a novice, and so also in the Pāsādika Suttanta, which marks him out from his description in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta. The Saṁgīti Suttanta does not use this term of him, and seems to have been influenced by the Mahāparinibbana in this point; compare Franke, Dīgha Nikāya, p. 229. Two Cundas can hardly be admitted, though the Mahāparinibbāna is certainly confused.
page 862 note 2 The Saṁgīti sets the scene in Pāvā, but under quite other circumstances than those of the Mahāparinibbāna, namely the consecration of the new Mote-Hall of the Mallas. This indicates that the author had no desire to connect the episode recorded with the death of the Buddha also. The location at Sāmagāma seems the more accurate account. The fact that Cunda of Pāvā, brought the news to Ānanda no doubt encouraged the idea that the declaration of views took place at that town.
page 864 note 1 Hoernle, , ERE. 1, pp. 267 ff.Google Scholar, held that the Jain division into Digambara and Çvetāmbara may be traced back to the beginning of Jainism, being due to the antagonism of Mahāvīra and Goçāla, the representatives of two hostile sects.
page 864 note 2 See Shah, Chimanlal J., Jainism in Northern India, pp. 60–5.Google Scholar
page 864 note 3 Chimanlal J. Shah, op. cit., p. 78.
page 865 note 1 I A. ix, p. 160.
page 865 note 2 Jacobi (p. 561) ascribes Pāvā to the Çākyas, but it is clear that it was a Malla town.
page 865 note 3 The Kalpa Sūtra ascribed to Bhadrabāhu is clearly not by that author, and is wholly uncertain in date; see Winternitz, , Geschichte der Indischen Litteraiur, 2, pp. 309 f.Google Scholar
page 866 note 1 SBA. 1930, pp. 326, 327.
page 866 note 2 See Kalpa Sutra, sections 161–4.
page 866 note 3 It is dubious if the Bhagavati, vii, 9, 2, can be understood, as by Professor Jacobi (p. 564), as meaning that the Mallakis and Liechavis were the chiefs of the Kāçis and Kosalas.