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CHAPTER III
LIFE OF LORD MAHĀVĪRA
Lord Mahavira, the last Tirthankara of the Jainas, is described as a supreme personality and acknowledged as 'a great Brāhmaṇa', 'a great guardian', 'a great guide', 'a great preacher', 'a great pilot', and 'a great recluse'.1 Around his personality there gathered a large number of men and women belonging to different castes and classes. His disciples and followers sincerely believed that their master was, whether walking or sitting, gifted with a supreme knowledge and vision of the summum bonum. It is this earnest belief in the greatness of the Teacher that induced them to repose their trust in him and in his words. To them, he stood as a living example of highest human virtue and perfection. His life was to them a perennial source of light and inspiration. His sufferings and forbearance kept them steady in all their trials and tribulations. And his teachings and instructions were for them not ordinary words but utterances of one who saw the light of truth and was able to lead others along the path to enlightenment.
HIS CLAN
'Mahavira' or the Great Hero was not the personal name of the religious teacher. He was better known to his contemporaries as Nigantha, Nata-putta-Nigantha of the Näta or Naya clan. This name is composed of two separate epithets, Nigantha and Nataputta, the first of which is religious and the second secular. He was Nigantha (Nirgrantha) in a literal as well as in a figurative sense-unclothed without and free from all worldly bonds and ties within. He was called Nataputta because he was a scion of the Naya, Nata2 or Jnatri clan of the Kshatriyas. Just as the Buddha was called Sakyaputta because he was a scion of his clan, so
1. Uva, VII.
2. SBE, XXII, pp. 80, 248.
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