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Lord Mahâvîra
Kasava on account of his gotra, Vesâliya after his place of birth, and Vedehadinna after his native country. The Nâya clan to which he belonged is known as Nâta (or Nata) in Pali and Jnâtr in Sanskrit. His parents were Siddhartha, a wealthy nobleman, and Trisala, also called Priyakârini and Videhadattâ, sister of Cefaka, the Lichchhavi chief. According to the Svetâmbara tradition his embryo was transferred from the womb of the Brahmania lady Devânanda13 wife of Rshabha, to that of Kshattriyani Trisala. Since a Brâhman or a woman of any other low family was not worthy to give birth to a Tirthankara. As the Kalpasutra states the king of gods on learning of the descent of Mahâvîra into the womb of Devârandâ reflected, "It never has happened, nor does it happen, nor will it happen that Arhats, Chakravartins, Baladevas or Vasudevas, in the past, present or future should be born in low families, poor families, indigent families, beggars' families or Brahmanical families. 14 In the Canon Mahâvîra himself speaks of Devânandâ as his mother and of the role of Harinegamesi in the transference of the embryo. A sculpture from Mathura also represents this scene.15
At the normal age Mahâvîra was married to Yasodâ (daughter of King Samaravira of Vasantapura or of King Jitasatru of Kalinga) who gave birth to a daughter called Anojja or Priyadarsana. She was married to his sister's son Jamali, whose name is not found in older sources. It may have been due to the ignominous role he played in the first schism of the Jaina Church. As he did not wish to grieve his parents, Mahâvîra renounced the world only after their death and that too after taking the permission of his elder brother Nandivardhana. He was at that time 30 years old. After entering the life of houselessness he wore clothes for a year and a month and then walked about naked. For more than 12 years he neglected his body and practised extreme self mortification. The Âchârânga gives us a beautiful picture of the way in which he performed his meditation and spent his days in austerities, and also of the treatment he received from the unfriendly people of the neighbouring countries. He was born with three types of knowledge. During the 13th year outside the town Jrmbhikâ grâma on the bank of the river Rupâlikâ, not far from an old temple, in the field of the householder Samaga, under a sala tree he obtained the fourth type of knowledge or
