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Mahavira made no distinction between men and men or between men and women. He had not enjoined one set of rules for male recluses and another for female, one set of rules for male lay disciples and another for female. In his wanderings he was accompanied by male and female recluses.
He encouraged his followers to study the Purvas or the sacred books and to develop their power of reasoning and arguing. He lived 30 years as a householder, more than full 12 years in a state inferior to perfection, something less than 30 years as a Kevalin having unlimited knowledge and vision, 42 yeare as a recluse and 72 years on the whole. He died at the age of seventy-two.
The Jains place the event of Mahavira's nirvana in B. C. 527. Mahavira predeceased the Buddha by five or six, seven or eight, or even fourteen or fifteen years and he passed as a Jina (conqueror) before the Buddha. Accepting 527 B. C. as the date of Mahavira's Kevaliship one has to compute the date of his birth as B. C, 570 and that of his death as B. C. 498 or B. C. 500
GREAT TEACHER Mahavira was one of the greatest teachers of mankind. He was one of those teachers through
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
