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able, the final ordination, the ultimate irrevocable departure from the world. After this long course of correct training, the soul knows how to conduct and control its present earthly journey unto the end. In the above case, assistance is moreover given by a group of accomplished theras.39
It is not surprising that degrees are observed in Khandaga's spiritual career: Mahāvīra himself had awakened but gradually.40 This is also the case in most legends of religious suicides which form the Antagaḍadasão and the Anuttarovavāiyadasão: these legends, obviously, are just slight variants of the suicide of Khandaga: the careers are identical, they are described with the help of the same stock phrases, show the same landmarks, and culminate in the final pãovagamaņa fast, on the summits of Satrunjaya, or of Girnar, or of Parasnath. This being the general pattern, it happens that some details are amplified. For instance, when the portrait of 'Fortunate' Dhanna is traced, each element of his body, emaciated by the mortifications, is compared to dry and withered fragments.41
One curious hybrid variant may be mentioned here. It is related to Nemi's and Kanha's (Kṛṣṇa's) legendary cycle. It tells the story of Kanha's younger brother, Prince Gayasukumāla of
39 tahärüvehim therehim kaḍdihim saddhim... Viy 424, 21-22; etc. Is this detail comparatively late (cp. the dabbha grass, supra n. 33)? It contrasts with the solitude requested in Ayar 1 (infra 57). In Näyādhammakahão 1, § 36 (ed. Sutt'agame 976, 5), it is explicitly stated that theras 'unflinchingly serve' the fasting Meha: tae nam te thera bhagavanto Mehassa aṇagārassa agilāe veyāvaḍiyam karenti.
40 He first follows the ordinary religious course for two years and two months; then, for twelve years, he leads his ascetic life, progressing until he attains kevala. After forty-two years of monkhood, he is perfected, accomplished, and his life is extinguished. As tradition will have it, he dies in the Plains, at Pāvā (Papa), in King Hatthipala's secretariate (cf. the summary of his ascetic career, Lehre § 18, following Ayär 1, ch. 9 and Jinac(ariya) §§ 110 foll.). According to the same tradition, reported in Jinac, the two Prophets who had preceded Mahāvīra died: Arițthanemi, the twenty-second, 'in the company of 536 monks', on one of the summits of Girnar's mountain; and the twenty-third, Pasa, 'in the company of 83 persons on the highest peak of Mount Sametsikhar, Jinac §§ 168; 182.
41 Anuttarovavaiyadasão, ch. 3, 1. Cf. text and translation in Barnett, loc. cit., 128-134; 112-120.
The Meha(kumāra) episode, Nāyādhammakahão book 1, §§ 35 foll., also inserts various amplifications (cf. supra n. 39).
