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Jinas and Avtars three times, and Sakra and Isana fanned him. Mahâvîra was carried to a park, and there under an asoka tree he put off all his clothes except one garment, and plucked out his hair in five handfuls, which Sakra caught in a diamond cup and carried to the Milk Ocean.
For a year after his renunciation Mahâvîra wore one robe, and after that he walked about naked. The two chief Jain sects are the Digambaras, 'sky-clad', whose monks are naked, and the Svetambaras, 'white-clad', whose monks wear white robes and are found mainly in the colder northern parts of India. The alienation between the two sects goes back to the early days and is centred on the extremes of asceticism. The Digambara hold the uncompromising ideal of the Kevalin, the 'isolated monk. Not only do they reject the scriptures of their opponents, but they deny that Mahâvîra was married or was born by some divine gynaecology. Mahâvîra did not even eat or drink, and his body was simply kept alive by an influx of material particles. 6
The Sevetambara agree that for twelve years Mahâvîra neglected his body, and suffered hardships from nature and men with equanimity, exerting himself for the suppression of the defilements of karma. Some of the older texts tell of the many sorts of living beings which crawled about on his body causing pain. He meditated and did not answer those who saluted him, and so was beaten with sticks by sinful people. He saw women as 'the cause of all wicked acts'. He never washed or cleaned his teeth, and sometimes slept in gardens and sometimes in cemeteries. Dogs bit him and few people protected him, but in all things Mahâvîra sought to meditate, even if badly treated. So he committed no sin, nor consented to the sins of others. Killing no creatures, he begged his food. ?
In the thirteenth year, on a river bank, under a Sal tree near an old temple (like the Buddha), after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, Mahâvîra attained the highest knowledge called Kevala (isolation or integration). He reached Nirvana, complete and free, and became a jina and an Arhat. He was omniscient and understood all things. He saw all the conditions of the world, of gods and men and demons; where they come from and where they go to, the thoughts of their minds and their secret deeds their births and rebirths as gods and demons. He taught
