Lord Mahavira Vol 02

Author(s): S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

Page 65

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Lord Mahavira centres of Brahmanical influence. This latter fact may well explain in the case of Mahâvîra, as also in the case of Buddha, why his attitude towards Brahmanic religion was not quite friendly. Marriage According to a Svetambara tradition, Mahâvîra, no less than Buddha, fully entered into the experience of the world in that he married Yasoda, a ksatriya lady, and thus experienced what 'striveda or “amorous enjoyment is. A daughter was born to them, Anojja or Priyadarsana by name. She was married to Jamali, a ksatriya 'who, after becoming one of Mahâvîra's followers and fellow-workers, ended by opposing him.' Renunciation Parsvanatha and Mahâvîra All the Jaina authorities agree in relating that when Mahâvîra was about thirty years old, he withdrew himself from the world. There are good reasons to believe that he joined at first, and remained for a year with, the religious order founded by Parsvanatha, who is said to have lived some two hundred and fifty years before Mahâvîra. The members of this ancient order used to cover their nakedness by wearing clothes, and were noted for their fourfold vow (caujjama).5 Gosala and Mahâvîra We learn from the Kalpa-sutra that Mahâvîra was a mere learner during the first twelve years of his monkhood, and that in the second year he became a naked monk. In the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavatisutra we are told that in the second year Mahâvîra received Gosala Mankhali-putta as a disciple at Nalanda. They lived in concord for six years, after which they separated on account of a doctrinal difference. After this separation they never met in sixteen years but once in Savatthi. Gosala predeceased Mahâvîra by some sixteen years, and it follows from the account in the Kalpa-sutra that he was recognised as a teacher at least two
years before the latter. Another discrepancy between the accounts · of the Bhagvatî and the Kalpa-sutra is pointed out by Dr. Hoernle
as follows : “According to the former, Mahâvîra spent six years in Paniyabhumi (in the company of Gosala), while the latter gives him only one year in that place, but six years in Mithila. "6
The inference from these two somewhat contradictory