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Comment
No such event has been noted anywhere in the Jaina texts. It does not even tally with the account of Upali Sutta on Majjhima Nikaya. Hence it is apparently a concoction of the Atthakatha. According to the Jaina account, starting from Rajagrha Mahavira reached Pava where he camped for the monsoon months. There he passed away on the last day of the dark fortnight of the month of Kartika. We do not find any account of his prolonged illness.
18. Display of Occult Powers
-The story runs like this that once a merchant at Rajagrha got a log of sandal wood which was curved into a bowl. He hanged it from a very tall poll and made an offer it to anyone who could pluck it down. The invitees, six spiritual leaders, which included Nigantha Nataputta, assembled but failed. At last, one Pindola. Bharadvaja, acodisciple of Maudgalyayana, went into the sky, pucked it from the poll, flew over Rajagrha thrice and reached the ground. When Buddha came to know what one of his disciples had done, he openly chastised him, rejected the display of their occult powers by his disciples and prescribed that henceforth his bhiksus would use only iron or earthen vessels.
Comment
Source: Vinaya Pitaka, Cullavagga,
5.1.10.
also, Dhammapada Aṭṭhakathā, 4-2.
This is a fantastically exaggerated account. Even Buddha had disapproved the display of occult power. By what stretch of imagination would one say that Mahavira took part in the contest and failed ? The Jaina tradition. strictly prohibits the display of any power1. It appears that whenever the author of the Tripitakas wanted to insult the leaders of the other paths, he invariably indulged in this cheap device.
1. Vide Presnottara Tattvabodha, Gosaladhikara by Jayacarya, p. 190.
