Jain Remains of Ancient Bengal
by Shubha Majumder | 2017 | 147,217 words
This page relates ‘Life History of Tirthankara Mahavira’ of the study on the Jain Remains of Ancient Bengal based on the fields of Geography, Archaeology, Art and Iconography. Jainism represents a way of life incorporating non-violence and approaches religion from humanitarian viewpoint. Ancient Bengal comprises modern West Bengal and the Republic of Bangladesh, Eastern India. Here, Jainism was allowed to flourish from the pre-Christian times up until the 10th century CE, along with Buddhism.
Life History of Tīrthaṅkara Mahāvīra
Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth and last Tīrthaṅkara was born in Kuṇḍagrāma, a suburb of Vaiśālī (modern Basarh in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar) in 599 BCE (Jacobi 1884: XXII, pt. I intro.: X-XI &:189191; Dey 1899:107; Law 1937: 19; Bhattacharyay 1939/1974: 60-61 and Shah 1987: 2). Therefore, he was called Veśālie, an inhabitant of Vaiśāli. His father was king Siddhārtha and mother was Triśalā, sister of king Vaiśālī (according to Śvetāmbara Jain tradition) or Priyakāriṇī (according to Digambara Jain tradition) (Rapson 1922: 40; Nahar & Ghosh 1917/1988: 8; Shah, 1987: 2; Shah 1989: 27-28 and Jain 2010: 74-88;).
At the age of thirty Mahāvīra relinquished his worldly life[1] and he wandered from place to place suffering great hardships and molestations from 256), people of Rāḍha, etc., and practiced severe penance[2]. At last he attained kevalajñāna on the bank of the river Ṛjupālikā[3] near Jambhiyagāma. During attainment, he was sitting with upright knees like a milkman sitting while milking the cow (godohikāsana). At the age of seventy-two, Mahāvīra obtained Nirvāṇa at Pāvā, modern Pāvāpuri, in Nalanda district of Bihar[4] (Shah 1987: 3).
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
This was the 10th day of the month of mārgasīrṣa, when the moon was once more in conjunction with Uttaraphalgunī, after permission from elders (Kalp-Sūtra 1879: Mahāvīra left for the park of Ṇāyasaṃḍa (Ācārāṅga Sūtra 1884: 199; KalpaSūtra 1879: 259), which is situated near his home-town and he left his common life. In this place under an Aśoka tree (Kalpa Sūtra 1879: 256) he took all his ornaments and finery and then plucked out his hair in five handfuls (Ācārāṅga Sūtra 1884: 199; Kalpa-Sūtra 1879: 259). According to the Kalpa-Sūtra (Ibid: 259-60) Mahāvīra retained his cloth for 13 months and then he wandered about naked.
[2]:
According to the Ācārāṅga Sūtra (ibid: 84) after his departure from home, Mahāvīra was wanderings 12 years before his Kevalajñāna. In that time he visited some places which were also mentioned in Ācārāṅga Sūtra. According to this Sūtra, during his second year of wanderings, he came in contact with Maṅkhaliputta Gośāla at Nālandā, a famous suburb of Rājagṛha (See also Chatterjee 1978: 23).
[3]:
[4]:
The Kalpa-Sūtra (1879) states that “The venerable ascetic Mahāvīra lived thirty years as a householder, and then twelve years and six months and a full half month more a sage only in outward guise (Chadmastha, that is, an ascetic, not yet possessed of perfect knowledge); thirty years less six a holy month in the exercise of perfect wisdom, altogether having lived seventy-two years”.