Lord Mahavira and His Times

SR No.: 011080
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 427
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 55

Life of Lord Mahavira :
35
To them Tirabhukti became Sindhu-Vishaya. Evidently, however, Vaiśālī was not situated in Sindhu-Sauvīra. K. P. JAINI suggests two reasons for this confusion. Firstly, it may be that the authors have equated Sindhu-deśa with Vrijideśa”, and, secondly, there might have been a confusion especially because Ujjayini in Avanti, too, was called Viśālā,3 and there was the Sindhu river in the adjoining territory for which reason it was called Sindhu-desa in the middle ages (8th to 15th centuries A.D.). Since the Digambara writers, K.P. JAIN adds, lived more in the Ujjayiní region, they appear to have confused Ujjayini (which was also called Visālā) with the Viśālā, little knowing that another Viśālā different from their own existed in Eastern India.
Efforts have recently been made to find out the birthplace of Lord Mahāvīra, the son of the Jñātņika leader of Kshatriya-Kundapura or Kundalapura and the maternal son of a Lichchhavi chief. While the Digambara Jainas found a village called Kundalapura ncar Nālandi, the Svetāmbara Jainas found a site called Kshatriyakunda near the village Lachhwād or Lachhuār in South Monghyr. These came to be regarded as the birthplaces of Lord Mahāvīra by the respective sects. Temples and Dharmaśālās were constructed and the Jaina pilgrims began to pour into these places. Thus while the real birthplace was forgotten, other places came to be rccognized as such.
The present site, Kshatriyakunda, near Lachhwād, cannot be the birthplace of Lord Mahavira because it formed part of Aŭga, and not of Videha. Modern Kshatriyakunga is situated on the mountain while there are no references to mountains in connection with ancient Kshatriyakunda of Kundapura in the Jaina scriptures. Near the present Kshatriyakunda, no traces of such ancient places as Vaišāli, Vānijyagrāma,
1. Jaina Siddhanta Bhāskara, 3 (Sept. 1936), p. 30, 8.n.). 2. Sindhu-desa literally mcans "the country of Rivers' and Tirabhukti,
100, has a similar incaning, i.r. 'the Province situated on the Bank:s (of Rivers). From the Gupta pcrio: onwards, Videho came to be
known as Tirabhukti. 3. fechadi/a, 1,30.