Jainism in North India

Author(s): Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

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MAHAVIRA AND HIS TIMES to take the form of an embryo in the womb of a Brahman lady named Devānandā, the wife of the Brahman Rshabhadatta, and, as usual with the lives of all such big prophets, there is a popular legend about Mabăvira also that when the god Sakra (Indra), "the chief of kings and gods," 2 came to know about this, it was arranged by him to transfer the embryo from Devānanda's womb to that of Kshatriyani Trisalā, the wife of the Kshatriya king Siddhārtha of the Kāsyapa-Gotra, belonging to the clan of the Jñātri-Kshatriyas.3 Although at the instance of a miracle, Mahāvīra ultimately belongs to Kshatriya origin,
Curiously enough this legend has been worked out in sculptures also. Some specimens of Jaina sculptures from Mathura bear testimony to it with an exactness which is really surprising, which fact shows that this legend can be traced historically to the very beginning of the Christian era, and therefore it can safely be said that it must have had "some connection either with the life of Mahāríra or that it must have been connected with one or the other social characteristics of those days.
We know from Kalpa-Sūtra that the god Indra had sent Harinegamesi to carry out this command of his. This Harinegamesi is generally interpreted as “Negamesī of Hari"--,e. “ Negamesī, the servant of Indra." 5 Dr Buhler observes : “A Jaina sculpture representing Naigamesa, a small Tīrthankara and a female with a small infant, can only be taken to refer to the most famous legend, in which the deity plays a part-viz. the exchange of the embryos of Devānandā and Trisalā."
On the very face of it this legend of Mahāvīra seems strange enough, but it must be admitted that tales stranger and more
considered to be imperishable, indescribable, and undestroyable unless they take effect Now Mahāvīra had committed the Karman relating to name and Gotra in one out of trenty-seven visible lives which he had to pass before he was destined to be born on this earth as the last Jaida prophet It was because of this Karman that he had first to take his birth in the family of a Brahman 77 SIE ENT orafagfi14247 hitu
-Kalpa-Satra, Subodhrha-piha, p 26 Cf also Jacobi, op at, pp 190, 191.
ततश्युत्वा तेन मरीचिभवपद्धेन नोचैगोत्रकर्मणा . अपभदत्तस्म ब्रायणस्य देवानन्दायाः areat: quat ana.Kalpa-Sūtra, Subdohrla-Itkā, p 29.
. CI S.B.E, W, 225
s After eighty-two days the embryo was removed HAU HATA Herald, arete.. TATHTE WEfte ..-Kalpa-Sutra, Subodhrha-Tikd, pp 85, 30
• Jacobi, op cit, pp 228 ff. 6 Bühier, op art, 316 • Ibid., p 817. Cf also Mathura Sculptures, Plate II, 4.S.R , X , Plate IV, 2-5.
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