The legend also corroborates the account in the
Jaina works, according to which Vardhamana often resided in Vai['s]ali and
had a strong following in that town. It is probably related to show that
his sect was stricter, as regards the eating of flesh, than the Buddhists,
a point, which again agrees with the statutes of the Jainas. [Footnote:
_S.B.E_. Vol. XVII, pp. 108-117.]
The account of Nataputta's death is still more important. "Thus I heard
it", says an old book of the Singalese canon, the _Samagama Sutta_,
"once the Venerable one lived in Samagama in the land of the Sakya. At
that time, however, certainly the Niga[n.][t.]ha Nataputta had died in
Pava. After his death the Niga[n.][t.]ha wandered about disunited,
separate, quarrelling, fighting, wounding each other with words."
[Footnote: The passage is given in the original by Oldenberg,
_Leitsch. der D. Morg. Ges_. Bd. XXXIV, S. 749. Its significance
in connection with the Jaina tradition as to their schisms has been
overlooked until now. It has also been unnoticed that the assertion, that
Vardhamana died during Buddha's lifetime, proves that the latest account
of this occurrence given by traditions 467 B.C. is false: Later Buddhist
legends (Spence Hardy, _Manual of Budhism_, pp. 266-271) treat of
Nataputta's death in more detail. In a lengthy account they give as the
cause of the same the apostacy of one of his disciples, Upali who was
converted by Buddha.
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