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when clerks and other officers of the state would be humming all over the building minding their own business. The presence of the Mallakis and the Licchavis at Mahavira's sermon should not put one to guess. It is a fact of history, including contemporary history, that pilgrims are always allowed entry into the enemy country, unless the two countries are in a state of warfare. It is on record in the Jaina literature that Canda Pradyot of Avanti who came to beseize Kausambi attended the sermon of Mahavira, in which Queen Mrigavati of Kausambi was also present.
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An alternative suggestion has been that if Mahavira did not die at the Buddhist Pava, he may have died at the third Pava in the south which was the land of the Mallas of the Bhanga country which is near the Parsvanath Hill (Sammet Sikhar) in South Bihar. The supporting, though again distorted, logic of this group has been that at the fag end of his life, Mahavira must have been roaming in the vicinity of the sacred hill where so many Tirthankaras had entered into their liberation in the past. When the Jaina tradition about the place of Mahavira's liberation comes so easy, one wonders what pleasure do these people derive by deviating from it simply for the sake of deviation.
Finally, to attend a trivial point made by Muni Sri Mahendra Kumar 'Pratham', also of the Terapanthi Sect, the Muni has expressed a doubt on the ground that if the previous monsoon was spent by Mahavira at Rajagrha, how could the next one be at Pava which was so very near? Or, to put it differently, according to Muni Sri, did Mahavira cover the distance of a few miles in a whole year? We will only ask Muni Sri to look to what the monks do at present. The monks spend a monsoon, say, at Calcutta and then they move out. They are wandering in the districts and during the next monsoon, they come back again to Calcutta. Can we say from this that the monks made no travelling between the two monsoons? The fact in Mahavira's life is that most of his monsoons were spent within a small region and therefore if he had spent one monsoon at Rajagrha and another at Pava, there is nothing to be struck back by it. In fact, he spent two consecutive monsoons at Rajagrha, Vaisali and Mithila more than once and at one time monsoon sojourn at Rajagrha was followed by another at Nalanda. The truth is that there is no day-to-day dairy available about Mahavira's wanderings. All that we know is that he spent one monsoon at Rajagrha and another at Pava which is perfectly logical and consistent with facts, and we must have the good sense to accept it.
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