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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
Buddhistic love also stylized itself accordingly The realistic life of Lord Buddha was clouded by such myths. Jain masters, stuck to rationalism for a while But the urge for popularity was likely to come to the fore Jain authors were also taken in by this mythological strain The realistic idol of Mahavira was heaped up with bonguets of myths and marvels Here are some of the typical ones
(1) The birth of Lord Mahavira synchronised with the shaking of Indra's throne He could divine the cause viz Mahavira's birth It caused him a great happiness and he came to greet the Lord at his native place with his retinue of gods and goddesses He showed respect to the Lord's mother and took the Lord to the top of the golden Meru mountain When the gods stood in attendance to bathe the holy infant with one thousand and eight pitchers of water, Indra had his misgivings regarding the capacity of the infant to stand so much of water The Lord could follow Indra's fear Since his strength was truly Herculean, he pressed the mountain top a bit with his toe and the vast range began to shaka as in a quake Indra realised his ignorance He begged his forgiveness and poured holy waters over his head
The incident is not recorded in the canonical literature nor in the respective commentaries It is found in poetical literature The poetic truth is at variance with the factual truth. Poetic truth owes its birth to the poet's fancy The richer the poet's fancy, the keener the truth Who fancied this myth is impossible to trace Vinod Suri in 'Paumchariu,' Ravishesh in 'Padmapuran, and Hemchandra in 'Trishashtishalakapurushacharitra' mention it
Whoever the poet was who grafted this myth to Mahavira's biography must have had the desire to show him stronger than Krishna Once Indra put the shepherds in a great jeopardy To protect them adolescent Krishna lifted the Govardhan mountain up in his hand and kept it so for full seven days Krishna of 'Bhagwat' is an adolescent while Mahavira of Paumchariu' is a justborn infant Gowardhan
