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A Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism
transfer. Had Mahāvīra really been born of Devanandā, the Jain author would not had used such derogatory terms for the brāhmaṇas. The truth is that the embryo-transfer story is absolutely imaginary and it has no grain of historical truth. The intention of the author was simply to highlight the Kshatriya tradition and show his hatred for the brāhmaṇas and thereby the Brāhmaṇical tradition. We have shown elsewhere that the origin of Jainism is associated with the răjanya class. So far as the evidence of the Bhagawati Sūtra is concerned, Chatterjee has derived the conclusion from the expression 'puvva puttasineharāgeṇam'that Mahāvīra was the son of Devanandã. Had Mahāvīra been the son of Devanandã, there was no need to add 'puvva' before 'puttasineharāgenam'. Perhaps the intention of the author of the Bhagawati Sūtra was to tell that milk oozed from the breast of Devínandã after seeing Mahāvīra was because of her love and affection for her son in former life. The conjecture of receiving the inspration for the invention of embryo story by the Jain author from the story of Krisna's birth as told in the vaisnava literature 26 can be accepted only when chronological precedence of the latter is established over the former. Mahāvīra's embryo-transfer story may be earlier than the birth story of Krişņa.
There is a little controversy about the actual birthplace of Mahāvīra. The early texts of both the Digambara and the Svetambara traditions are unanimous on the point that Kundapur or Kundagrāma was his birthplace. While the Digambaras believe that Kundalapura near Nálandã is the ancient Kundapura the Svetāmbaras have identified it with Lachhuwāda or Lachhuāra in south Monghera. But the claims of both the traditions are not junstified as they are not keeping with the indications available from the early Jain texts. Mahāvīra belonged to the VidehaVaišãli region is evident from the fact that he was called by such names as Videhadiññ and Vesālia. As such his birthplace must be located somewhere in this region. Unfortunately both Lachhuwada and
