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APPENDIX 1
extremely proud of his knowledge. Through this encounter Gautama became his chief disciple (ganadhara). Eventually he had eleven ganadharas as his inner circle. He had a great natural organisational ability and as his followers grew in number, he formed "tirtha" (the order) of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. Also his daughter, Priyadarsanā, who was married to Jamāli, eventually became a follower of Mahavira.
To distinguish his ideas clearly from the prevalent influence of Hinduism, he developed a very versatile talent for coining new terminology, e.g. the lay followers were called śrāvaka, those who are attentive (right) listeners, and monks were called śramaņa, that is, labourers on the spiritual path. He vigorously reaffirmed the concept of autonomous self-responsibility, that is, removing the idea of a God who influences the day to day activities of everyone. Further, he claimed “Every man has a right to and could attain nirvana by his own effort without the help of any supreme authority or mediatory priest".
He preached equality to all living beings, including the equality of all mankind, i.e. abandonment of slavery, the caste system, animal sacrifices etc. In fact, the leader of the order of nuns was a slave named Candanā. At the other extreme, one of the kings of that time, Bimbisāra, became a staunch follower. (See, H.L. Jain & Upadhye, 1974.)
One of the revolutionary contributions of Maha vira was to change the Hindu recommendation that monkhood should not commence before the latter part of one's life. He introduced the idea that there is no particular time for worldly renunciation, with gradual transformation advocated for those who are not ready for total renunciation at an early age.
One of the outstanding features of Mahavira was that he was the perfect living image of compassion towards all forms of life. An example quoted is of a cobra called Chandkosiā, which had been withstanding all who had tried to cross its path. One day, the cobra bit Mahavira, but such was his knowledge that he could see, through the cobra's past lives, how it had developed such a nature and he had great compassion for it. Such was his compassion, rather like a mother for her child, that it was as though milk flowed through the wound and the injury became secondary to the concern that Ma ha vira had for the cobra's well-being.
Ultimately, Gosāla turned against Mahavira and challenging Ma havira, he tried to intimidate him with a curse, saying that he would die of a fever within six months. Mahavira did become ill but eventually recovered. The death of Gosāla shortly afterwards gave
