Mahavira

“ It may be thence inferred that the Pûrvas related controversies held between Mahâvîra and rival teachers. The title pravâda, which is added to the name of each Pûrva, seems to affirm this view. Besides, if Mahâvîra was not the founder of a new sect, but as I have tried to prove, the reformer of an old one, it is very likely that he should vigorously have combated the opinions of his opponents, and defended those he had accepted or improved. The founder of a religion has to establish his own system, he is not so much in danger to become a mere controversialist as a reformer. ”

“ This occurs in every Indian work after the 6th century. The problem about two travellers meeting on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle occurs some ten centuries later in exactly the same form in Mahāvīra's work.
The Sun-Tsū Suan-ching is an arithmetical treatise of about the first century. It indulges in big numbers and elaborate tables like those contained in Mahāvīra's work; it gives a clear explanation of square-root and it contains examples of indeterminate equations of the first degree. The example: "There are certain things whose number is unknown. ”

“ Buddha, Tathâgata, Sugata, and Sambuddha are common titles of Sâkyamuni, and are only occasionally used as epithets of Mahâvîra. The case is exactly reverse with regard to Vîra and Mahâvîra, the usual titles of Vardhamâna. More marked still is the difference with regard to Tîrthakara, meaning prophet with the Gainas, but founder of an heretical sect with the Bauddhas. What then may be safely inferred from the peculiar choice which either sect made from these epithets and titles? That the Gainas borrowed them from the older Buddhists? I think not. ”

“ For, as I shall try to prove in the sequel, the Kshatriyas were the most likely of all to become what the Brâhmans would call 'untrue ascetics.'
We shall now put side by side the principal events of Buddha's and Mahâvîra's lives, in order to demonstrate their difference. Buddha was born in Kapilavastu, Mahâvîra in a village near Vaisâlî; Buddha's mother died after his birth, Mahâvîra's parents lived to see him a grown-up man; Buddha turned ascetic during the lifetime and against the will of his father, Mahâvîra did so after the death of his parents and with the consent of those in power ”

“ Mahâvîra, or the great hero, is the common designation of the twenty-fourth Jina but his personal name was Vardhamâna. He was a contemporary of the Buddha but somewhat older and belonged to a Kshatriya clan, variously called Jñâta, Ñâta, or Ñâya. His parents lived in a suburb of Vaiśâlî and were followers of Parśva. When he was in his thirty-first year they decided to die by voluntary starvation and after their death he renounced the world and started to wander naked in western Bengal, enduring some persecution as well as self-inflicted penances. ”

“ The varsa situate on the outside of Mānosattara is called Mahavira and the one situate inside is called Dhataki: they are both frequented by the celestials and Dānavas. And in that island of Pushkara there is neither truth nor falsehood. And in that insular continent divided into two portions there is no other mountain nor river. All men and celestials here have the same form and dress. There is no distinction of caste or order; they do not perform rites and the three Vedas, Puranaa, ethics, polity and the laws of service are unknown there. ”

“ The play was performed on the occasion of the festival of the idol of Mahāvira at the Kumāravihāra, or temple erected by Kumārapāla, at Thārāpadra, where the author seems to have been governor or resident.
The play begins with an invocation in three stanzas of the Tīrthakaras, Ṛṣabha, Pārçva, and Mahāvīra, followed by the usual dialogue of the Sūtradhāra and the actress, his wife. Then are introduced Kumārapāla with the Vidūṣaka, to whom enter Jñānadarpaṇa, the Mirror of Knowledge, the spy who has been sent to report on the affairs of King Confusion. ”

“ The time had now come when men could no longer accept their beliefs on authority. Religion must for all equally be a matter of the personal experience, and there is no reason to doubt the claim made by the Jainas, that Buddha was the disciple of the same guru as Mahavira. We know the age of a heresy by the tenets it contradicts, and in repudiating the authority of the Vedas, Jainism proves itself the oldest form of nonconformity in India. ”

“ The country is for the most part an undulating plain, broken by detached ranges of hills, one of which, the Mahavira range, possesses a very remarkable appearance, springing abruptly from the plain in an irregular wall of tilted and disrupted rock, with two flanking peaks. ”

“ It becomes the standard philosophy for all time and generally leaves its indelible impression upon the subsequent religious and philosophical thought in India. With the exception of some materialistic systems of philosophy of the type of the Charvaka which taught pure Hedonism, the various schools of thought generally agreed in their estimate of life upon earth as a life of woe. Buddha and Mahavira, who founded their great religions at short intervals during the sixth century b.c., had their minds saturated with the pessimistic view of man's life upon earth. ”

“ Brahmagupta gives a fairly complete set of rules dealing with the cyclic quadrilateral and either he or the mathematician from whom he obtained his material had a definite end in view—the construction of a cyclic quadrilateral with rational elements.—The commentators did not fully appreciate the theorems, some of which are given in the works of Mahāvīra and S'rīdhara; and by the time of Bhāskara they had ceased to be understood. Bhāskara indeed condemns them outright as unsound. "How can a person" he says "neither specifying one of the perpendiculars, nor either of the diagonals, ask the rest? ”

“ Life of Mahâvîra.
Mahâvîra, the last prophet of the Jains, was a K@sattriya of the Jñâta clan and a native of Vais'âli (modern Besarh, 27 miles north of Patna) . He was the second son of Siddhârtha and Trîs'alâ. The S'vetâmbaras maintain that the embryo of the Tîrtha@nkara which first entered the womb of the Brahmin lady Devanandâ was then transferred to the womb of Trîs'alâ. This story the Digambaras do not believe as we have already seen. His parents were the worshippers of Pârs'va and gave him the name Varddhamâna (Vîra or Mahâvîra) . He married Yas'odâ and had a daughter by her. ”

“ The sea of milk, O Brahman, is again encircled on all sides by the insular continent of Pushkara, which is twice the extent of Sāka-dwipa. The king Savala of Pushkara had two sons; one was named Mahavira and the other Dhataki; and the two varsas were named after them. O great sage, there is only one mighty range of mountains, named Mānosattara, which runs in a circular direction like an armlet. It is fifty thousand yojanas in height and the same in breadth, circular on all sides, and divides the island in the middle, as if like a bracelet into two divisions. ”

“ The Jains, a very curious sect found in India proper to-day, and known only to the learned in Europe as the sole representatives in Hindostan of the once-numerous adherents to the tenets of Buddhism in that region, hold an intermediate place between Buddhists and Brahmans, but approach more closely to the Buddhists. They hold that Mahavira the hero, their greatest teacher, and the last of a number of deified spiritual legislators called by them Tirthankaras, was the preceptor of the great Gautama, the Buddha, whose followers embrace nearly three-fourths of the human race even to-day. ”

“ In the following pages I shall try to destroy this prejudice, and to vindicate that authority and credit of the sacred books of the Gainas to which they are entitled. We begin our discussion with an inquiry about Mahâvîra, the founder or, at least, the last prophet of the Gaina church. It will be seen that enough is known of him to invalidate the suspicion that he is a sort of mystical person, invented or set up by a younger sect some centuries after the pretended age of their assumed founder. ”

“ In feudal societies family ties are very strong and long remembered. [9] Now we know for certain that Buddha at least addressed himself chiefly to the members of the aristocracy, that the Gainas originally preferred the Kshatriyas to the Brâhmans. [10] It is evident that both Mahâvîra and Buddha have made use of the interest and support of their families to propagate their order. Their prevalence over other rivals was certainly due in some degree to their connection with the chief families of the country. ”

“ Mahâvîra did not stay longer than one night in a village or five nights in a town. [33] 'He shall beg late (after people have finished their meals) , without returning twice. [34] ' The Gaina monks collect food in the morning or at noon, probably to avoid meeting with their rivals. They generally but once in a day go out begging; but one who has fasted for more than one day may go a begging twice a day. ”

“ Mahāvīra, 14, 19, 21, 23, 39; 40, 48–49, 52–63, 68.
Mikami, Yoshio, 38, 41, 70.
Muhammad b. Mūsā, 41–42, 70.
Muhammad b. Ahmed, Abu '1-Rihau el-Bīrūnī, 35–36, 41–42, 43, 69.
Müller, Max, 4.
Mūsā (see M. b. Mūsā) ,
Nau, F., 31. ”

“ There is little individuality in hero or heroine, though the shy modesty of the latter contrasts with the boldness of Madayantikā, who flings herself at Makaranda’s head. A friend of Mādhava, Kalahaṅsa, is asserted later11 to be a Viṭa, but has nothing characteristic, and probably the assertion is without ground.
The Mahāvīracarita lacks the novelty of the Mālatīmādhava, [194] but Bhavabhūti’s effort to give some unity to the plot is commendable, though it is unsuccessful. The fatal error, of course, is the narration of events in long speeches in lieu of action. ”

“ And when on the morrow these dreams were told to Prajapati, she rejoiced with them, no thought of envy to cloud the crystal of her soul. And when they were laid before the dream-readers, they could presage nothing but good, and being called in before the Maharaja where he sat in state with his Maharanis, they spoke as follows:
“A lord of men shall be born, a great and awful ruler. Let the soul of the Maharaja be exalted, and the heart of the Maharani rejoice and triumph, since to their house is given a son whose kingdom is the earth and the fullness of it.” ”

“ So the Maharaja, receiving him in his arms, blessed his son, rejoicing in his happy fate who was the father of such a one as the world could not show the like. And in his ears the voices of prophecy made a changing music of pride and triumph. And the Maharani, overweighted with gladness, like a lily surcharged with dew, was borne to her noble couch of ivory and gold; and Prajapati watched each breath she drew, so great were her love and fear. ”

“ The holy one said, 'Verily, Drona's son had sought the aid of that highest of all the gods, the eternal Mahadeva. It was for this that he succeeded in slaying, single-handed, so large a number of warriors. If Mahadeva be gratified, he can bestow even immortality. Girisha can give such valour as will succeed in checking Indra himself. I know Mahadeva truly, O bull of Bharata's race! I know also his various acts of old. He, O Bharata, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all creatures. This entire universe acts and moves through his energy. ”

“ I then sought the protection of Maheswara. The great Deity said unto me,—'Thou shalt be freed from disease of every kind, and besides immortality shall be thine. Grief shall never afflict thee. Thy friendship with Indra shall remain unchanged, and let the sacrifices of both Indra and thyself increase.' The illustrious and puissant Mahadeva favours all creatures in this way. He is always the great dispenser and ordainer in the matter of the happiness and sorrow of all living creatures. That illustrious Deity is incapable of being comprehended in thought, word, or deed. ”

“ The Maharaja is a Hindu of the Hindus, and is no believer in the advantage of educating youths to doubt and despise the system under which they have to live their own Jives, and in which all those around them live and move and have their being. Upon the marriage question he is content with what Nature prescribes for India, and does not yearn to substitute for it systems Providence provided for wholly different circumstances. ”

“ The gods assigned unto Mahadeva all the libations of clarified butter as the share of great deity. O monarch, when Mahadeva had become angry, the whole world had thus become agitated: when he became gratified everything became safe. Possessed of great energy, the god Mahadeva was gratified with Ashvatthama. It was for this that thy sons, those mighty car-warriors, could be slain by that warrior. It was for this that many other heroes, the Pancalas, with all their followers, could be slain by him. Thou shouldst not suffer thy mind to dwell on it. ”

“ His son moved before him, beautiful exceedingly, perfect in duty not only to his father and his foster-mother, Prajapati the fair and noble, but also to all with whom he had to do, quick to smile and reply, glad in a boy’s sports and games, and yet—apart. As a man, looking down through the clear crystal of a lake, may behold beneath it groves of strange leafage where silver fish dart and disappear in a life unknown to him, so the Maharaja, looking through the translucence of his son’s eyes uplifted to his, knew that they revealed yet hid a world in which he had no part. ”