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JANUARY, 1974
139
named Pavanagar Mahavir Jain Inter College has been founded at the Buddhist Pava. The founding of a college at a certain place is no historical evidence nor can it wash away the epigraphic and literary evidences that have come down to us over centuries.
That the Buddhist texts were motivated in the villification of Mahavira is pretty certain. Many such passages can be cited where effort has been made to belittle Mahavira who was a part of a long tradition. Thus in the Sāmagāma Sutta, Atthakathā of Majjhima Nikāya, it has been stated that before his death, Mahavira was at Nalanda. There, it is stated, 10 gāthâs were recited in praise of the Buddha in his presence whereon he vomitted blood and was taken ill. In that condition he was taken to Pava where he died. Even in the midst of colossal distortion the grain of truth in the Buddhist account is that he died at Pava near Nalanda which is now disputed by some interested people. In doing so, they have not only done injustice to Mahavira but also to the Buddhist tradition. Surely a man who had been taken ill could be carried only to a distance of a few miles rather than to a distance of about 250 miles, which was the approximate space gap between Nalanda and the Buddhist Pava. It does not make any sense either. According to the Jaina tradition, Mahavira died in excellent health and while he was in the midst of a long sermon.
Taking cue from the arguments advanced by the Western Orientalists and Mr. Saraogi, Muni Sri Nagraj of the Terapanthi Sect has become an ardent supporter of the Buddhist Pava as the place of nirvana of Mahavira and asks if Mahavira had died in Pava of the Jaina tradition, how could there have been a reigning monarch named Hastipala when the whole territory was a part of Magadha. It is stated in the Jaina tradition that Mahavira died in the Writers' Building of king Hastipala. Further, he contends that Ajatasatru (Kunika) who was the reigning monarch of Magadha at that time was no friend of Vaisali Republic and that therefore it was not possible for the Mallakis and the Lichhavis to come either to attend the sermon of Mahavira or to be by his side when he passed away. These arguments are too weak to falsify the Jaina tradition. For, even under Magadha, there could have been a vassal king Hastipala at Pava where Mahavira must have died. But a greater certainty is that the Writers' Building belonged at some past date to a king of that name but that at the time Mahavira and his monks occupied the building for their monsoon sojorn, it was a discarded thing. At least that is the impression one gets from the Tikā. Had the Writers' Building been in regular use, it could not have been a suitable place for such a large body of monks to reside there for four months
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