conclusion on mahavira and buddha of 200 to 250 words
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Answer:
Explanation:
In a very interesting article, (l) Professor
Jacobi has arrived at the conclusion that, contrary
to the Buddhist tradition, we must hold that Mahavira
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 Mahavira, 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 Vallee Poussin,(2) and he has shown
how utterly uncertain is the date 483 or 484 B.C. for
the Nirvana. From a very different point of view the
late Professor Rhys Davids confessed(3) that the date
was purely conjectural. We may readily believe that
the Buddha died sometime in the fifth century B.C.,
but to lay any stress on the exact date is completely
impossible with the evidence available. What is
perfectly clear is that knowledge of the early period
of Buddhism was imperfect,(4) and the same remark
applies even more strikingly to the traditions of
Jainism. In the case of Mahavira the earlier
tradition--of uncertain date--is emphatic in allowing
470 years between his Nirvana and the beginning of
the Vikrama era, which places the date in 528 or 527
B.C. The later tradition, given in Hemacandra's
Paricistaparvan, viii, 339, and somewhat earlier in
Bhadrecvara's Kahavali, ascribes 155 years as the
period between the death of Mahavira and
Candragupta's accession to the throne of Magadha,
which gives 477 B.C. as the probable date of
Mahavira's death. Here again we are on utterly
uncertain ground. We are obliged to treat the earlier
Jain tradition as of minimal value
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