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Lord Mahâvîra
conversion form an important part of his post-enlightenment biography.
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No specific context for Mahâvîra's preaching is given in the earliest strata of his biography. It is in the Aupapatika (Aup) that there occurs an elaborate description which gives some sense of what early Jain tradition felt the experience of Mahâvîra's public teaching involved, the prelude to which, written in a form of highly poetical rhythmic prose (vedha), was to provide for other Shvetambara scriptures the standard textual example of such occasions. Significantly, the scene of this event is on the outskirts of the city of Campa at the shrine (caitya) of a tree-spirit (yaksha) called Purnabhadra which is suggestive of an early Jain strategy of incorporation of local cults, already alluded to in passing with reference to Parshva. The sermon itself was, according to this source, delivered in front of a vast throng of ascetics and lay people, including the king and queen of Campa, as well as the gods who descended from heaven to hear the fordmaker preach.
The details of this stylised account eventually became generalised into the literary and artistic idea of the samavasarana, a term which approximates to 'place of assembly'. As envisaged in the Universal History,34 the samavasarana is a kind of circular open air preaching arena which the gods repeatedly reconstruct when each fordmaker is about to give his First sermon. It has a pavilion and a sacred tree at its centre which is surrounded by a series of concentric and richly caparisoned balustrades, linked by gateways, within which the audience can take their places. The fordmaker faces east and the gods magically create three replicas of him facing the other directions so that the assembly of humans, gods and animals can hear the sermon perfectly.35
Artistic representations of the samavasarana abound in Jainism, providing a focus for contemplation of the universality of Mahâvîra's message. Every Jain temple is regarded as being a replication of the fordmakers' preaching assembly and entry to this sacred space is thus envisioned as bringing about contact with what is implied in the true teachings. Certain stories (e.g. DhMV 84) describe how brahman sacred space was encompassed and surpassed by the discovery of images of fordmakers buried underneath Vedic sacrificial enclosures. While in the Vedic sacrifice the gods assemble to watch and approve human priests
