Mahavira and his Teaching

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

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period between the later half of the 8th century A.D. and the earlier half of the 9th century A.D.1
DR. MISS. V. MUTHUCCUMARU
This work deals with the story of Jivaka, one of the twenty four Kamadēvas. Through the life history of Jivaka the poet depicts the spiritual progress of a soul which has been already fettered with Karmas. The motif of this paper is to show how Mahavira's teachings are integrated and explained in this work having Jivaka as the main character.
Jivaka, when born in this world, was fettered by Karmas which he had already acquired in his previous birth by separating a young swan from its mother for sixteen days.2 As a result of it, in this birth he lives away from his mother for sixteen years. His father Caccantan was killed in battle by his own minister, Kaṭṭiyankaran and his mother renounces the world and joins the nuns when Jivaka is taken by the merchant, Kantotkaṭan, in the cemetary where Jīvaka is born.
Jívaka lives as a good Jaina householder and attains salvation as an ascetic. All the struggle he undergoes in this world to get rid of his Karmas are described in the work. The fourteen Guņasthānas through which a soul passes before its liberation are well explained by the poet through the different phases of Jívaka's life. The Ratnatraya, or the Gunatraya which comprises the the right belief (Samyagdarśan) right knowledge (Samyagjñāna) and the right conduct (Samyagcāritra) were his torches on his way to
1. After a careful comparative study of the books dealing with the Jivaka story in Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, and Prakrit and from the available external evidence regarding the date of the Jivakacintāmaṇi, the author of this paper has concluded that this work should have been composed in the period stated above:
Refer V. Muthuccumaru "A Study of Jivakacintamani: particularly from the point of view of the influence of Sanskrit language and literature on Tamil". A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford, England, 1972.-chapter 1. Jivakacintamani verses 2859-2888.
2.