Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Boolchand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

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versations and sayings of Mahavira, is certainly more trustworthy as a source of information than the KalpaSutra, which after all is the work of an acharya, however learned. It is not impossible that the story was invented by the author of the Kalpa-Sutra as an occasion to express the prevailing sentiment of contempt for the Brahmanas, and that it was later on embodied in the second book of the Acharanga. But that alone does not solve the problem. In the Bhagan'ati Mahavira says that Devananda is his mother and in the Acharanga and the Kalpa-Sutra the name of Mahavira's mother is given as Kshattriyani Trisala. Of this Professor Jacobi offered a somewhat fanciful solution. “I assume”, he said "that Siddhartha had two wives, the Brahmani Devananda, the real mother of Mahavira, and the the Kshattriyani Trisala ; for the name of the alleged husband of the former, viz. Ķshabhadatta, cannot be very old, because its Prakrit form would in that case probably be Usabhadinna instead of Usabhadatta. Besides, the name is such as could be given to a Jaina only, not to a Brahmana. I, therefore, make no doubt that Rshabhadatta has been invented by the Jains in order to provide Devananda with another husband. Now Siddhartha was connected with persons of high rank and great influence through his marriage with Trisala. It was, therefore, probably thought more profitable to give out that Mahavira was the son, and not merely the stepson, of Trisala, for this reason that he should be entitled to the patronage of her relations.” This is obviously far-fetched and also incorrect, for it is certain that in the days of Mahavira the marriage of a Brahmana girl with a Kshattriya was not at all an easy adventure and that anyhow the offspring of such a marriage would not be considered very respectable. What seems more likely is that Devananda was Mahavira's foster-mother. This likelihood finds substantial support in the text of the Acharanga (second book) which specifically speaks of Mahavira as having been attended by five nurses, one of them being a
wet-nurse. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat