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years, 3 months and 24 days. For conquering the self, total victory over hatred and malice, like the earlier Tirthankars, he was called Jina and his speech was called Jinavani. For making Jinavani their mode of faith and conduct, such persons irrespective of their caste, creed and colour, were called Jain. The general area where Mahavir moved about (vihar) and stayed for longer periods and whose borders may have changed/reduced is still recognized by its original name - Bihar. Mahavir's religious assembly was known as samavasaran. Not only people of various religions, faiths, views and age had the liberty to attend, but also birds and animals too had a free access. He himself was a Kshatriya. His chief disciple (ganadhar) Indrabhuti Gautam was a Brahmin. For his preaching, he did not adopt Sanskrit, the language of the elite but used the language of the common person and adopted Prakrit.
Although Prakrit was the language of the new Age, the Sanskrit-speaking people comprehended it, because it had evolved from Sanskrit itself. Mahavir's mother tongue was Magadhi Prakrit but for preaching, he chose Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. The speaking area of Ardhamagadhi was between Magadh and Shurasen. This enabled more people to understand him - people who spoke Ardhamagadhi Prakrit (present Poorvi Hindi, that includes Avadhi, Bagheli, and Chattisgarhi dialects) as also those in the east who spoke Magadhi Prakrit (present Bihari, Bengali, Assami and Oriya languages) and those in the West who spoke Shauraseni Prakrit (present Western Hindi, that includes khadi Boli, Braj, Bundeli, Kannauji and Bangru / Harayanavi dialects). In this way, in the matter of language, Mahavir, due to his democratic thinking, could establish communication and contact with men in a wider geographical area. By describing his language as non-syllabic, assimilating all languages and the Divine Voice (divya dhvani); Jain Agams have explained its adaptability and its quality of being understood simultaneously by all the living beings present at his discourse.
MAHAVIR'S THOUGHT AND VISION Due to Mahavir's perfect & flawless comprehension of
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