Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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religious bias is made difficult by the very nature of the sources from which the information has to be gleaned.
What I have attempted above is a bare outline of Mahavira's biography. If it is difficult, or beyond the means of historical study, to know all about Mahāvīra, in my humble opinion, it is more important to understand and put into practice the principles preached by Mahavira than to discuss this detail or that about his personal life.
In this connection, I would make a little digression on some aspects of Vaiśāli (spelt as Vaishali), the birthplace of Mahāvīra. The town was at its height of prospertiy, and by its association with Mahavira it became far-famed in the religious world of India. Teachers from Vaishali preached great principles for the uplift of humanity and lived an austere life of fasts and penances: and Mahāvīra stood out as the most prominent of his contemporaries.
According to the Mahā-vastu, Buddha sought his first teachers in Alara and Uddaka at Vaishali and 'even started his life as a Jain under their teachings.' After discovering his Middle Path, he became more and more honoured at Vaishali, receiving even royal reception; the city built for him a kūṭāgāra-sālā, a pinnacled rest house, in its suburban park known as the Maha-vana. It is at Vaishali that the Second Buddhist Council was held; and it came to be looked upon as a holy spot where differences in the Sangha could be ironed out. His celebrated disciple Amra-pāli was a resident of Vaishali at which place she bequeathed her park to Buddha and the community.
Vaishali had its political significance too. It had a republican government, and king Ceṭaka, the Licchavi republican president, organized a federation of republics comprising Mallakis, and 18 gana-rājas of Kāśī-kosala, besides the 9 Licchavi republics.' The working of the Vajjian confederation, so vividly described in the Digha-nikāya, is an unique example of its king and essentially contributed to the efficiency and solidarity of the republic. Further, Vaishali was a commercial
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