Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 12

LIFE
by a person in course of his wanderings. Lastly, these texts of the Buddhists coupled with those of the Jains enable us to breathe very atmosphere of thought and of life in which Mahāvira moved with his Nirgrantha followers.
Nigantha Nātaputta is the name by which Mahāvīra was and has been known to the Buddhists. It is undoubtedly the name by which he was known to his own followers as well as to his other contemporaries The name is composed of two separate epithets, Nigaộtha and Nātaputta, the first of which is religious and the second secular. He was nigantha (nırgrantha) in a literal as well as in a figurative sense outwardly unclothed and inwardly unfettered. His followers were accordingly known as Niganthaputta (Nurgranthaputras), or simply Niganthas (Nurgranthas) And his lay followers became known as Nigantha-sāvakā.
The Buddhist texts and commentaries do not definitely explain why he was called Nātaputta. With the aid of the Jain literature, however, we at once know that he was called Nātaputta because he was a scion of the Nāya, Nāta or Jñātr clan of Ksatriyas. Just as the Buddha was called Sākyaputta because he was a scion of the Sakya
i Culla-Niddesa, p 173