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Jaina Monuments of Orissa
north and south Bihar dwelling principally in the kingdoms of Magadha and Anga. Most of the rainy seasons were spent round about his native town Vajśāli, at Rājgpha, the old capital of Magadha, at Champā, the capital of ancient Anga, at Mithila, the Kingdom of Videha and Srāvasti.
On the basis of references contained in the Kalpa Sūtra, B.C. Lawlo gives an account of the places in which Mahāvira spent the forty-two rainy seasons since he renounced the life of a householder. Taken in order, the places stand in the list as follows:
1. Aşthigrāma 2. Champā and Pșsti Champā 3. Vaisāli and Vanijagrāma 4. Rajgrha and Nalanda
Mithila 6. Bhadrikā 7. Alabhika 8. Panita bhumi 9. Srāvasti 10. Pāpā
First rainy season Next three rainy seasons Next twelve rainy seasons Next fourteen rainy seasons Next six rainy seasons Next two rainy seasons Next one rainy season Next one rainy season Next one rainy season Last rainy season.
His wanderings seem to have covered a wide area, and on occasions he visited Rajgrha the capital of Magadha ard other towns, where the utmost honour was shown to him. Further mcre, locking to the schisms in the Jaina church in his own day, the number of Mahāvira's followers, as believed by the Jainas does in no way discredit him. He had an excellent community of 14,000 Sramanas, 30,000 Nuns, 1,59,000 male layvotaries, 3,18,000 female layvotaries and something like 5,400 others who either knew the fourteen Pūrvas or were Kevalins and so on.11
Thus having become a Kevalin at the age of forty-two and having wandered for about thirty years as a reformer in the Jaina church, Lord Mahavira died at the age of seventy-two in the house of king Hastipal's scribe in Pāvapuri near Rājgrha, a place still visited by thousands of Jaina pilgrims. According to the traditional Jaina chronology the event is believed to have taken place in the year 527 B.C. differing by sixteen years from the nirvana of Buddha according to the chronology of the Ceylon or 543 B.C.12
The Kalpa Sūtra definitely records that Mahāvira lived thirty years as a householder, more than full twelve years in a state inferior to perfection, something less than thirty years as a Kevalin, forty-two years as a recluse and seventy two years on the
9. C.J. Shah, Jainism in North India, p. 26. 10. B.C. Law, Mahavira : His Life and teachings, p. 32. 11. C.J. Shah, Jainism in North India, p. 27. 12. Ibid, p. 27
