Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 320

THE ASCENDENCY & ECLIPSE OF BHAGAVĀN MAHĀVĪRA’S CULT 313
frequent. As almost all the earlier Alwars and Saivite saints were hailing from the lands of the Choļas and Pallavas, the inevitable process of regionalism also worked and it became easy for the leaders of the then Jaina church to get into the favour of the Pāndya court. Arikesari-māra-varman, one of the most powerful monarchs of the Pandya line, embraces the Jaina faith. Some of the later Hindu chronicles declare that even the famous MīnāksiSundareśvarar temple was closed for a long period.
41. But the Pāņdya king had married a Choļa princess, who was a staunch Saivite. Her elderly Chamberlain too was of the same faith. The chronicles inform us that they sent a secret letter to the boy-saint. Gnānasambandha of Sīyāli, inviting him to Madhurai. He had been making whirl-wind tours all over the Chola and Pallava lands, singing hymns in Tamil and even dancing them in ecstacy before the presiding deity of each shrine he visited. There were instrumentalists also to accompany him during his recitals. And these were interspersed with the performances of miracles also.
42. The arrival of the boy-saint at Madhurai, with all his retionue, synchronized with an attack of a mysterious fever on the Pāņdya himself, which could not be cured either by medicine or by incantations. The desparate ruler had no other go but to accept the advice of his queen to invite Gnānasambandha to the palace. The guest sang a few hymns in praise of Siva, administering a few pinches of holy ashes and a few spoons of holy water to the ailing king. The effect was miraculous. The monarch was cured within a couple of days.
43. It was the flawless logic of Bhagavān Mahāvira's philosophy that has captivated the intellect of the strong-willed Pandya and it had no place for a personal God interfering with human affairs. As a Jaina, he had been convinced that the laws of karma and re-birth could be made inoperative by severe penance and mortification of the flesh. But the spectacular cure of his illness was explained by the boy-saint himself as the direct result of the M.M.-40