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The Gods Named Him "Mahāvira", the Great Hero
133
The dharma which, at its start, was addressed, in the first place to ascetics and hermits, including those of their number who were former princes, received a fresh impulse when, in the course of the centuries, it began to enjoy the patronage of certain kings and their ministers. This patronage was partly beneficial but led also to compromise, so much so that material interests sometimes corrupted the purity of the original ideal.
In this very brief record of a long period of time, the names of sādhvis are rarely mentioned. Once the great movement was launched, the path to follow indicated, nothing remained but to follow it and unless there was some extraordinary personality or some particularly striking events, either good or bad, there was scarcely a reason to allude to them. They lived in anonymity, while constituting in fact an essential pillar of the samgha. Up till our own day and age it is a case of gleaning a few facts and names here and there.
The story goes how Arya Jambù, the last kevalin, called Jambu Svāmin, being much impressed by the words of Arya Sudharman, felt an attraction to the life of an ascetic and took a vow of chastity. On the urgings of his parents who had already promised him in marriage to eight maidens, he consented to the marriage, though fully determined to receive dikşå after the ceremony. One happening, the arrival of burglars the very night of the wedding, served to seal his decision. Not only he, but his eight spouses, their parents, his own parents and even the robber-chief received dikṣā!87
Ārya Sambhūvijaya had among his disciples Arya Sthūlabhadra, the one who presided at the Council of Pāšaliputra, and among his women disciples this latter's seven sisters: Yakśă, Yakşadattā, Bhūta, Bhūtadattā, Senā, Veņā, Renā.88 Nothing is known about them, except that they were the daughters of the minister of state of the king of
87 Cf. Parisiştaparva II; III; among other references II, 195-745; III, 1-275, where Jambû recounts one after another 19 stories in reply to the robber-chief Prabhava's objections concerning asceticism.
88 Cf. KS 208.
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