Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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OUTLINES OF JAINISM
Vardhamāna, who had been from the beginning of a reflective turn of mind, bade a final farewell to his home and kindred, and retired into the solitude of the forests, very likely the Mahā-vana, which skirted the village of his birth on its northern side. There he meditated upon the misery which filled the earth, and sought to discover the means to a permanent release from the grasp of this eternal and inevitable suffering. After fourteen years of asceticism Malāvira felt that he had solved the riddle of human misery, and was prepared to preach it to the world as Jainism. This he did during a wandering life extending over thirty years from 557 B.C. to the year of his nirvand, or final liberation, 527 B.C., at Pāvā-puri in modern Behar. Pāvā-puri is a place of pilgrimage: it is reached from Bakhtiarpur, a station on the East Indian Railway. The country abounds in clumps of tall palm-trees, which stand prominent and majestic against a calm and mild sky. A small river, now dried up, called the Paimār, is in the middle of the road to Pāvā-puri. Crossing the Paimār, we come in sight of the Pancha Pahārī, the five hills on the site of the ancient city of Rāja-griha, which also is a resort of Jaina pilgrims visiting Pārā-puri. About 3 miles from the Paimār the journey is ended, and we near the calm and beautiful temples which constitute Pāvā-puri. It is a small place, rendered attractive by its simple surroundings and its sacred traditions. There are several resting-houses for Jaina pilgrims, and about half a dozen temples erected by pious Svetāmbaras
i Traditional dates : see preceding page, note 1.