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Lord Mahavira but that “mustard seeds” were eatable by an ascetic if devoid of life and given by another.
Similarly in answer to a question on the edibility of masa (a kind of cereals), he said that if the word meant "a month” (Masa), it could not be an article of consumption, nor if it meant a "standard of weight” (Masa). Again, were Kulattha edible? Certainly not, he replied, if it meant “members of a respectable family” (Kulasthah), but if it meant the cereal of that name, then it was edible, of course under the approved conditions.3
Mahâvîra's discourses were very elaborate. It is said that he spoke in Ardhamagadhi," and that everyone of his hearers, no matter what their mothertongue might have been, understood him.5 Although this latter characteristic gift is regarded in Samavaya, p.60 B, as one of the occult and superhuman qualities possessed in common by all Buddhas and Arhats, yet in its natural setting it can be taken as meaning that Mahâvîra's manner of discourse was not pedantic but such as would be understood by every average person. The elaborate, repetitive and exhaustive style, features so characteristic of the canon, might have been inspired by Mahâvîra's own style of discourse—a style that would have to convince and convert men of average intelligence.
The strong leaning towards classification and division which we find is the Canon, may be traced back to Mahâvîra and may be accounted for by his method of analytically treating any subject that came under discussion. In this analytical process, enumeration naturally played an important part for setting down with precision the various ways in which an object of conception was capable of being divided. Everyone familiar with the literature of the Jainas knows how extensively the Jaina scholiasts applied this method of classification and how intensively they pushed their zeal for enumeration.
“The questions and answers between his interrogators and Mahâvîra have been preserved in the Canon mostly as matter-offact enumerations, but yet it is not impossible to obtain from them some glimpses of the manner of speaking adopted by him. Of very great importance in this connection are the large number of similes which Mahâvîra used in explaining his meaning to his hearers, and which have been recorded so prosaically in Thana IV, as well as in Viyahapannatti. The intention of these similes
