Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 510

Sec. 11
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
485
disease by taking cooked cock's flesh (kukkuța mārsa)*, brought by his disciple, Simha from the house of Revatī, a female householder of Mendhikagrāma on his instruction.
Lord Mahāvīra in Ullukatīra
The Master paid two sacred visits to the town of Ullukatīra, and stayed at the Ekajambuka Caitya. During the first one he explained the question raised by Gautama Indrabhūti whether the physician, operating on the piles of a meditating houseless monk or the said monk was effected by Kriya, while on the second occasion he dealt with the subject : prosperous gods, matter, transformed matter, the account of the former life of Gangadatta. devu as the king of Hastināpura, his initiation by Munisuvrata to Sramana Dharma, his rebirth as god in the heaven and his final liberation.' His visit to Visakha*
During his stay at the Bahuputrika Caitya in the city of Visakha Lord Mahāvīra narrated the accounts of the initiation of Kārttikadatta, the guild-president of Hastinapura, together with his eight-thousand fellow merchants, conducted by Munisuvrata to Sramana Dharma and their undertaking of the state of houselessness and attainment of monkhood, etc.
The life of Lord Mahāvīra as wandering teacher is also depicted in other Jaina texts4 where further accounts of his religious activities among the people are found in a graphic manner. He carried on his sacred mission by developing and systematizing the Nirgrantha religion on metaphysical grounds, preaching religion to the people, elevating and leading them to the path of freedom and liberation.
It is said that after thirty years of his missionary activities as venerable wandering religious teacher, he left this mundane world cutting asunder all the bondages of birth, decay and death,
1 BhS, 16, 3, 572.
23 Ib. 16, 3, 574. 4 Uvāsa gadasão. Vide 'Mahāvira'--His Life and Teachings'
Dr. B. C. Law, pp. 37-38. * The commentators explain the words as a particular kind of
vegetable - Editor.