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Lord Mahavira's Birthplace:
The Need for a “Denovo' Study
Gp. Capt. V. K. Jain
This article deals with the problem of location of birth - place of Lord Mahavira. It is a sort of an evaluation of the approach to the problem taken by modern scholars. He has mainly focussed on the analysis of the Videha as term and as a geopraphical area, in the light of original texts and its interpretation by modern scholarship. He emphasized the need to take all available evidences collectively and analyse it thoroughly before arriving at any conclusion which has not been done yet, hance the need of a new and concerted effort on this problem.
- Editor
Introduction:
Over the past many decades and more, a number of scholars, holy persons and others have written about the actual location of birthplace of Lord Mahavira, the 24th Jaina Tīrthankara. However there is no consensus on any place. Primarily there are three places which are claimed as the birthplace by different protagonists. Svetāmbaras by and large claim that “Kşatriyakunda', a part of Kundgrām near Lichhuar in Jamui Distt. is the birthplace. The Digambaras, on the other hand traditionally claim Kundpura or Kundalpura near Nalanda as the birthplace. A third group, cutting across Svetāmbara/Digambara divide, and primarily initiated by Western scholars like Jacobi and Hoernle believe that Kundpur/ Kollaga, the birthplace was a suburb of Vaishali Gaṇatantra. There is a tendency on the part of every protagonist to claim hoary tradition attached with the place of their choice without apparently producing any concrete evidence.
