Answer

Within accepted Jain and Buddhist traditions, there is no clearly established account that Bhagwan Mahavira and Gautama Buddha personally met.

They lived in the same broad historical period and in overlapping regions of ancient India, but a direct meeting between them is not firmly recorded as a traditional fact.

Explanation

Bhagwan Mahavira and the Buddha were both great śramaṇa teachers of ancient India. Their teachings developed in a similar religious environment, and both traditions mention groups, monks, kings, and regions that overlap historically.

However:

• Jain tradition does not clearly preserve a confirmed meeting between Mahavira and the Buddha.
• Buddhist texts refer to Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, generally understood to mean Mahavira, but they do not establish a direct personal meeting between the Buddha and Mahavira.
• Some disciples or followers of their communities may have encountered one another, but that is different from saying the two teachers personally met.

Spiritual Understanding

From a Jain perspective, the important point is not whether Mahavira and the Buddha met personally, but the unique place of Bhagwan Mahavira as the 24th Tirthankar of the present time-cycle.

Bhagwan Mahavira taught the eternal Jain path of:

• Ahimsa — non-violence
• Anekantavada — many-sided understanding
• Aparigraha — non-possessiveness
• Self-discipline and liberation through purification of the soul

Takeaway

Mahavira and the Buddha were contemporaries in ancient India, but there is no verified traditional account that they personally met.