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Mahavira and His Life
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pandita and grew extremely vain of his learning. One day, however, an old man appeared and asked him to explain a certain verse to him. Mahävira had, the old man said, rcpeated the Śloka to him, but had immediately afterwards become so lost in meditation that he could get no explanation of it from the saint, and yet he felt that he could not live unless he knew the meaning. The verse contained references to Kāla and Dravra, Pancha Astikāya, Tattva and Lešjā, not one of which could Gautama understand, but being too true a scholar to pretend to a knowledge which he did not possess, he sought out Mahāvīra to ask for an explanation. The moment he was in the presence of the great ascetic, all his pride in his fancied learning fell from him, and he besought Mahāvira to teach him. He not only became a convert himself, but took over with him his five hundred pupils and his three brothers, 1 In the Digambara Jaina Pattavalis, Sudharınă comes after Indrabhūti, and Sudharmā was also known by the name of Loh rya.
One significant fact about these Ganadharas is that all of them were Brahmins , which proves that among the Brahmins also an ideological revolution was taking place and compelling them to give up their traditional grooves of thoughts advocating ritualism. Further, it was this intelligentsia that predominantly included the Bralımins who helped him spread his faith.
FOUR ORDERS OF THE JAINA COMMU.VITY (SHNIGH:1)
Mahāvīra possessed a unique power of organization. By his wonderful personality and organizational skill, le attracıed a large number of people, both men and women, to be his disciples. From them therefore grew the four orders of his community: monks, nuns, layıcn, and layıromen.
The chief among his followers were the fourteen 116usand monks placed under the charge of Indrabhūii Gautama. Mahavira resolved to comba: by regulations and organization those special icmptations and dangers which besc: ascctics in thcir wandering life. For this purpose, he divided fouriren
1. Ssirs, po. 61-62.
