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Parinirv
a(liberation) and the Congregation
After a little less than seven hundred years of being an omniscient, sensing the end of his time, the Lord, observing one month's fast with 536 monks on Ujjayantagiri, became, emancipated and liberated on the eighth day of the bright fortnight of ādha month under Citr constellation at midnight hour, destroying the non obscuring karmas i.e. name, age, status and feeling, while in the ni ady posture. Arihanta Ari anemi was 1000 years old.
The congregation of Lord Ari anemi had 11 Ga adharas like Varadatta, etc, and 11 ga as, 1500 keval s, 1000 manah paryavaj ns, 1500 avadhijns, 400 fourteen-p rvadh rs, 800 v ds, 18000 monks, 40000 female-monks, 169000 votaries, 336000 female-votaries and 1600 of anuttaragatis. 1500 monks, 3000 female-monks i.e. totally 4500 antev ss of the Lord became emancipated, enlightened and liberated.
Historical Backdrop
Modern historians only consider Lord Mah v ra and Lord P r van tha to be historical figures, but for some years now diligent and objective research has proven that Arihanta Ari anemi was also a historical person. In gveda we find mention several times of the term Ari anemi. In the Mah Bh rata, the term t k rya has been used as a synonym for Ari anemi. That t k rya Ari anemi gives the king Sagara a discourse related to liberation, which is found in Jain scriptures on mok a-related matters. In the i-bh ita-Suttra' there are 45 chapters related to Ari anemi and K a, among them twenty enlightened ones are from Ari anemi's time-period. The chapters written by them are proofs of the existence of Ari anemi. Apart from gveda, other Vaidika literature mentions Ari anemi. Moreover, it seems that the influence of Ari anemi was not limited to India alone but also in many other countries. Colonel Todd writes - "I think that there were four enlightened or great men in the ancient times. Among them the first was Adinātha and the second Neminātha. Neminātha was the first “Odina" of the Scandonavians and the first god 'Fo’of the Chinese", Dharm nanda Kaus mbi considers the ghora mgirasa to be Nemin tha.
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