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Mahâvîra and his Religion of Jainism
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and meditation. The legends also tell that as a child he defeated a god and was, therefore, called Mahâvîra by the other gods. He was also known by such names as Videha' (Kalpasutra-110), Vaishalika' (Sutra Kritanga commentary) and 'Sanmati'. Baudha writers have also termed him as 'Nigantha Nataputta. But the name Mahâvîra became the permanent epithet of Vardhamana, just as Buddha became the universal name of SiddharthaGautama.
In the Jaina tradition Mahâvîra, the human being, has emerged as a legendary figure with superhuman dimensions. Not only in the present birth, but in earlier births also Mahâvîra is believed to have enjoyed like a supreme ruler and then made the severest of penances to free himself from the effects of his own Karma. He had 'golden yellow colour', extremely strong bones, (Vajrarishabhanaracha), square-shaped body neither too long nor too short, of seven arm-length. The distinguishing mark of his head was that the centre-top was a bit elevated.?
According to the Shvetambara tradition Mahâvîra married a lady called Yashoda (belonging to the Kaundmya gotra), and a daughter was born to them named Anuja (Anojja) or Priyadarshana. The Digambara accounts differ widely on this. According to them, even when only a child of eight, Mahâvîra took the twelve vows which a Jaina layman may take. He always longed to renounce the world, and never married. Other Digambara accounts say that in his thirtieth year while meditating on his 'Self, he felt inspired to become a monk, and realized that he would live only seventy-two years in this life. It is at this stage that Mahâvîra was initiated into monastic life at the fourth Prahara (dusk period) of the day in a forest near Kundagrama. This initiation, all sects agree, took place when Mahâvîra was about thirty years of age, some time between 570 and 569 B.C. The Nyaya clan of monks to which he first belonged were followers of Parshvanatha, an ascetic who had lived some two hundred and fifty years before Mahâvîra. While the followers of Parshvanatha. despite all austerity, had accepted a little clothing to cover their body, Mahâvîra after thirteen months of initiation, renounced this last possession, gave up all clothing, plucked off his hair using the fist five times (panchalosthi), and went out in absolute nudity. It was under the shade of an Ashoka tree that he made the great
