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LIFE OF LORD MAHĀVĪRA
(A Summary)
We are nearing the celebration of the 2500th year of the Mahāvīranirvana in 1974 A. D. The date of Nirvana of Lord Mahāvīra is not finally fixed but the traditionally accepted date of Nirvāna is considered true by the Jainas and they will celebrate the occasion accordingly. But it is a pity that no authentic life-story of Lord Mahāvīra is available even after two hundred years of modern research. Whatever is written on Lord Mahāvīra's life is not purely historical; most of it is mythological. Here I want to give the clues for the historical life-story of lord Mahāvīra.
The earliest life-story of Mahāvīra can be found in Ācārānga part I which is the oldest of all the canonical texts. And what we find in it is not the description of his early life but the description of his ascetic life only. Here he is simply referred to as 'Naisue' and 'Nayaputte'. (9.1.10). It is curious to note that all the four subsections of the 9th chapter are concluded with the verse :
एस विही अणुक्कन्तो माहणेण महमया ।
This shows that the author gives importance to the epithet 'Māhana' which he gives to Lord Mahāvīra. He is again and again referred to as 'Mahāvīra' (9.1.13; 9.2.1; 9.3.8; 9.3.13; 9.4.8.; 9.4.14) which became his name in later period. His proper name 'Vaddhamana' mentioned in later works is not found mentioned here. As regards his caste or parentage nothing can be known from this early portion of the Ācārānga, except that he was 'Nāisue' or 'Nāyaputta' and if the word 'Māhana' has any significance with regard to his caste we can conclude that he was a Brāhmin rather than a Ksatriya. And if we follow the Bhagavatī, again a text having earlier canonical portions, our conclusion is coroborated by it. There he himself clearly mentions Devānandā, the wife of a Brāhmin, as his own mother (Bhagavati 9.33). The epithets 'Nāisue' and Nāyaputte' in the earlier portion were interpreted in later works as having
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