Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Introduction 47
of his meditation and austerities, he received in many places ill-treatment from unfriendly peoples. In the second year of his monkhood Mahavira met Gośāla Mankhaliputta, and they lived together for six years. Then came a breach between the two on doctrinal points. Gośāla went his own way, proclaimed himself a Jina and lived in Śrāvasti as the third pontiff of the Ajivikas. The two met again sixteen years later and had a hot debate between them. Gośāla died about 484 BC when Ajātaśatru launched an invasion against the Vajjians.
For twelve years Mahavira wandered from place to place in quest of truth and at last, after this long period of austerity, achieved omniscience under a Sala tree on the bank of the river Ṛjupälikä near a village called Jṛmbhikagrāma. He felt the need of preaching to the common people what he had achieved through austerity and meditation. The Jain legends give the names of different rulers Mahāvīra visited and tell how Ceṭaka, the President of the great tribal confederacy of the east, became a patron of his order, and Kuņika, king of Magadha, gave him the most cordial welcome. In Kausāmbi he was received with great honour by its king Sthānika. He used to wander for eight months of the year and spend four months of the rainy seasons in some famous towns of eastern India. According to the Jain tradition at first he went to Asthikagrāma, then spent three rainy seasons in Champă and Pṛṣṭicampā, twelve rainy seasons at Vaiśāli and its suburb Vāņijyagrāma, fourteen at Rajagṛha, six in Mithila, two in Bhadrika and the remaining four of the 42 years of his itineracy respectively, at Alabhikā, Puṇitabhūmi, Śrāvasti and Pāvāpuri.
Mahāvīra passed away in 468 BC at the age of 72 in a place called Majjhima Pāvā, modern Pāvāpuri in the Patna district. Then he was residing in the house of its ruler Hastipāla. There he delivered the fifty-five lectures explaining the results of Karma and recited the thirty-six unasked questions. Then feeling that his end was drawing nigh, he sat reverently with clasped hands and crossed knees and just as the morning dawned, he attained Nirvāṇa. The republican tribes who were his kinsmen and devotees instituted an illumination in honour of this great hero. "Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter," they said.1
Ecclesiastical History
While dealing with the Jain epigraphs, we have seen that they
1Ãyāra, SBE, XXII, p. 226.