________________
144
Lord Mahavira of experience that is ascribed to him fits naturally into the background of Indian life as known from the time of the Upanishads on, and the record may not be entirely devoid of historical value.29
According to the Kalpasutra30 Parsava was born in Benares as the son of King Asvasena and Queen Vama. A commentary says that the name Parsva was bestowed upon him because before his birth Queen Vama saw a black serpent crawling about; and in the text he is given the appellation Purisadaniya, which means "the people's favorite” or “who is to be chosen among men because of his preferable Karma."
After living for thirty years as a householder, Parsva left the world behind to practice asceticism and seek salvation. He attained the enlightenment he sought after eighty-three days, and then spent the remainder of his life preaching his doctrine to others. At last, having abstained from food and water for an entire months, he died at the age of a hundred upon the summit of Mount Sammeta, now known in his memory as Parasnath Mountain.
The work of Parsva was very successful according to the Kalpasutra, which records that he won 164,000 men and 327,000 women as lay adherents, and 16,000 men and 38,000 women as monks and nuns. His Ganadharas or chief disciples were eight number, Subha (or Subhadatta), Aryaghosha, Vasishta, Brahmacari, Saumya, Sridhara, Virabhadra and Yasas. Of these Subha become the leader of the church after the death of the master, and was followed in turn by Haridatta, Aryasamudra, Prabha and Kesi. 31 Mahâvîra
Concerning the life of Mahavira we have an extended and legend-embellished account not only in the Kalpasutra32 but also in the Acarangasutra.33 In these sources we learn that Mahâvîra was a native of Kundagrama, which was a suburb of Vesali and is probably represented by the modern village of Basukund. 34 He was going to be born of a Brahman mother, Devananda, a highly legendary portion of the narrative relates, but through the intervention of the god Sakra (Indra) an embryonic transfer was accomplished as he was born of a Kshatriya mother named Trisala. The latter was the wife of a certain Kshatriya named Siddhartha,
