Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 57

APRIL, 1974
bore him a daughter Anojja, who was married to a noble of the name Jamali, and in her turn had a daughter. In his thirty-first year his parents died. As they were followers of Parsva, the twenty-third Jina, they chose, according to the custom of Jainas, the death of the wise by starvation. Immediately after this Vardhmana determined to renounce the world. He got permission to take this step from his elder brother Nandivardhana and the ruler of the land, divided his possessions and became a homeless ascetic. He wandered more than twelve years, only resting during the rainy season, in the lands of the Ladha, in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi, the Rarha of to-day in Bengal, and learned to bear with equanimity great hardships and cruel ill-treatment at the hands of the inhabitants of those districts. Besides these he imposed upon himself the severest mortifications; after the first year he discarded clothes and devoted himself to the deepest meditation. In the thirteenth year of this wandering life he believed he had attained to the highest knowledge and to the dignity of a holy one. He then appeared as a prophet, taught the Nirgrantha doctrine, a modification of the religion of Parsva and organised the order of the Nirgrantha ascetics. From that time he bore the name of the venerable ascetic Mahavira. His career as a teacher lasted quite 30 years, during which he travelled about, as formerly all over the country, except during the rainy season. He won for himself numerous followers, both of the clergy and the lay class, among whom, however, in the fourteenth year of his period of techning, a split arose-caused by his son-in-law Jamali.
The extent of his sphere of influence almost corresponds with that of the kingdoms of Sravasti or Kosala, Videha, Magadha, and Anga, the modern Oudh, and the provinces of Tirhut and Bihar. Very frequently he spent the rainy season in his native place Vaisali and in Rajagrha. Among his contemporaries were, a rival teacher Gosala, the son of Mankhali-whom he defeated in dispute, the King of VidehaBhambhasara or Bimbisara called Srenika, and his sons Abhayakumara and the patricide Ajatasatru or Kunika, who protected him or accepted his doctrine, and also, the nobles of the Licchavi and Mallaki races. The town of Papa or Pava, the modern Padraona is given as the place of his death, where he dwelt during the rainy season of the last year of his life, in the house of the scribe of king Hastipala. Immediately after his death, a second split took place in his community.19
19
195
Notes on Mahavira's life are to be found especially in Acaranga Sutra, in S.B.E., Vol. XXII, pp. 84-87, 189-202; Kalpa Sutra, ibid., pp. 217-270. The above may be compared with Jacobi's representation, ibid., pp. x-xviii, where most of the identifications of the places named are given, and Kalpa Sutra, introd., P. ii. We have to thank Dr. Hoernle for the important information that Vardhmana's birthplace Kundapura is still called Vasukund: Upasakadása Sutra, p. 4. Note 3. The information on the schisms of the Jainas is collected by Leumann in the Indische Studien., Bd. XVII, S. 95 ff.