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Jamali His Life and point of difference from lord Mahâvîra
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by the Digambara sect of Jainas have not mentioned his name anywhere. It was a natural corollary that the Digambara Acaryas could not refer to him as nephew or son-in-law of Lord Mahâvîra; they did not believe that Mahâvîra had a sister or that he ever married. What an impartial student of Jaina literature fails to explain is that the name of Jamali is not mentioned by the Digambara Acaryas even as one of the disciples and fellow-workers of Mahâvîra who ended by opposing him. 2. Birth-place, parents and family circumstances
According to the Bhagavati, Jamali was an aristocratic and supremely gifted prince of Ksatriya-kundagrama, home-town of Lord Mahâvîra, situtated in the western direction of Brahmana-kundagrama. These towns lay not very far off from each other and were separated by Bahusala-caitya, which stood midway. Scholars differ in regard to the exact location of these towns and their proximity to Vaisali. It seems that they were either suburbs of Vaisali or were situated near this famous historical city, the capital of Videha."
Strangely the Bhagavati does not furnish any information regarding the names of Jamali's parents, though it is they who took him to Mahâvîra and requested the Lord to initiate him into his fold, when they found that Jamali was very keen on executing his resolve of renouncing the worldly life. According to a commentary on the Kalpasutra, Jamali was the son of 'Pravara-narapati'. There is a belief that Jamali had the privilege of being the nephew (sister's son) of Lord Mahâvîra. Now Mahâvîra had only one sister (of course, elder) named Sudarsana.9 Hence it can be concluded that she was the mother of Jamali.
Jamali's father was a person of great opulence and influence, who enjoyed deferential esteem and courteous regard from all quarters. One thousand healthy and handsome young men, all belonging to his family, offered their services at his command to carry the palanquin in which Jamali went to become the disciple of Lord Mahâvîra. He threw open his vast treasures on this auspicious occasion. The barber was rewarded with one lac of golden coins. Two lacs coins of gold were paid for a rajoharana10 and a mendicant's wooden bowl.
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