________________ NINETA farzia ] * રરૂ people, proceeded towards the Shandavana park outside the Kshatriya suburb of Vaisali. There in the centre of the park, under the shade of the evergreen Ashoka tree, he quietly descended from his state palanquin, took off his ornaments, stripped off his princely garments, plucked out his hair in five handfuls, paid obeisance to all liberated spirits, and vowing to do no siuful act, entered upon that ascetic life, the austerities of which were to dry, up all the founts of Karma and free him from the sorrowful cycle of birth and rebirth. This great initiation, all sects agree, took place when *Maba vira was thirty years of age, some time between 570 and 569 B. C., on the tenth day of the latter ( ? ) half of Margashirsha or Maga. sara. For twelve years he led a life of severe austerities, observing frequent fasts of several months' duration, practising penances greater than any other practised, always meditating, always striving to realize himself, always siuless and circumspect in thought, in word and in deed. For full twelve years the homeless ascetic wandered from place to place, never staying for longer than a single night in a village or for more than five nights in a town, and only resting during the four months of the rainy season, always bearing with perfect patience and equanimity all kinds of hardship and cruel ill-treatment at the hands of his enemies
