Mahavira His Life and Teachings

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

Page 47

40 MAHĀVĪRA : HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
The Ugras and Bhogas are repeatedly mentioned in several of the professedly oldest sacred books as being among the most prominent of the earliest converts '1 '. In so old a Buddhist text as the MajjhimaNikāya, we have mention of a great many (sambahula) Nirgrantha recluses who, following the instruction and example of the Tirthankara, practised a rigorous form of penance on a ridge of Mt Rsigin, near Rājagrha ? The same work introduces to us two Nirgrantha recluses, Dārghatapasvi : and Satyaka of Agniveśyāyana gotra, and to one Wanderer (parıvrājaka) who was much influenced by the teaching and personality of Mahāvīra 5 The Buddha is said to have met Dīrghatapasvī at Nälandā and Satyaka at Vaiśālī in the land of the Vrji-Licchavis. 1 According to the Kalpa-Sutra, Mahāvira in his lifetime had an excellent community of fourteen thousand recluses with Indrabhūtı at their head, thirty-six thousand female recluses with Candanã at their head, one hundred and fifty
1 Uvāsaga-clasão, Introduction, p XIV 2 Majjluma, I, P 94 3 Ibid , I, P 371 4 Ibid , 1, p 237 5 Ibid , II, PP 1, 29