Bhagwan Mahavir ka Janmasthal Kshatriyakunda

SR No.: 010082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal Duggad
Publisher: Jain Prachin Sahitya Prakashan Mandir Delhi
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 196
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 8 MB

Page 188

१३. उपर्यक्त सब घटनाओं का उल्लेख अर्धमागधी भाषा के प्राचीन जैनागमों कल्पसत्र आचारांग आदि में आता है जिनकी ज्योतिष शास्त्र में पुष्टि करता है। यद्यपि दिवबर भी इस जन्मकंडली को अक्षरशः मानते हैं पर इस विषय में दिगम्बर शास्त्र मौन हैं। 98. The Gains, both Svetambaras and Digambaras, state that Mahavira was the son of King Siddhartha of Kundapura or Kundagrama. They would have us believe that Kundagrama was a large town, and Siddhartha a powerful monarch. But they have misrepresented the matter in overrating the real state of things, just as the Buddhists did with regard to Kapilavastu and Suddhodhana. For Kundagrama is called in the Akaranga Sutra a samnivesa, a term which the commentator intcrprcts as denoting a halting-place of caravans or processions. It must therefore have been an insignificant place, of which tradition has only recorded that it lay in Videha (Akaranga Sutra, 11 15 & 17 Yet by combining occasional hints in the Bauddha and Gaina scriptures we can, with sufficient accuracy, point out where the birthplace of Mahavira was situated; for in the Mahavagga of the Buddhists! we read that Buddha, while sojourning at Kotiggama, was visited by the courtezan Amba pali. and the Lihkhavis of the Neighbouring capital Vesali. From Kotiggama he went to where the Natikas-i (lived). There he lodged in the Natika Brickhall, in the neighbourhood of which place the courtcran
Ambpali possessed a park, Amba palivana, which she bequeathed on Buddha and the community. From there he went to Vasali, where he converted the general-in-chief (of the Likkhavis), a lay-disciple of the Nirgranthas (or Gaina monks.) Now it is highly probable that the Kotigama of the Buddhists is identical with the Kundaggama of the Gainas. Apart from the similarity of the names, the mentioning of the Natikas, apparently identical with the Gnatrika Kshatrivas ot whose clan Ma havira belonged, and of Siha, the Gaina, point to the same direction. Kunda grama, therefore, was probably one of the suburbs of Vaisal the capital of Vidcha. This conjecture is borne out by the name Vesalic. ie. Vaisa lika given to Mahavira in the Sutrakritanga 1, 3. The commentator explains the passage in question in two different ways, and at another place a third explanation is given. This inconsistency of opinion proves that there was no distinct tradition as to the real meaning of Vaisalıla. and so we are justified in entirely ignoring the artificial explanations of the later Gainas. Vaisalika apparently means a native of Vaisali: and Mahavira could rightly be called that when Kundagrama was a suburb of Vaisali, just as a native of Turnham Green mav he called a Londoner. If