Who among the following was contemporary of Gautam Buddha?

Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira were contemporaries who lived and preached in Northern India during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE [t1, t3, t8]. While historical dates vary slightly, Mahavira is often considered an older contemporary of the Buddha [t1, t8]. Both figures emerged during a period of religious unrest and the rise of heterodox sects against the Vedic tradition [t6]. In contrast, the other options belong to significantly later periods: Kautilya (Chanakya) was the prime minister of Chandragupta Maurya in the 4th century BCE [t9]; Kanishka was a Kushan emperor who ruled in the 1st-2nd century CE [t2, t9]; and Nagarjuna was a Mahayana Buddhist philosopher who lived during the 2nd-3rd century CE under the patronage of later rulers like the Satavahanas or Kushans [c3]. Thus, only Mahavira shared the same historical era as the Buddha.

Sources

1. [1] https://gacbe.ac.in/pdf/ematerial/18MHI11C-U3.pdf
2. [2] https://www.worldhistory.org/Siddhartha_Gautama/
3. [3] https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/icp01/chapter/religious-movements-jainism-and-buddhism/
4. [4] https://nsktu.ac.in/storage/2022/11/CDOE-Study-PRAK-Sastri-Paper.4.-Indian-History.pdf
5. [5] https://fmuniversity.nic.in/getdata?dir=deptnotice&rid=notice2002_29520251748500495861.pdf
6. [6] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 6: Polity and Society in Post-Mauryan Period > Art and Literature > p. 82