202 THE INDIAN served the injunctions of P iirsvan a, t h a concerning dress, which Pilrsvaniitlia ad¬ mitted, but Mahaviraon the contrary entirely rejected; therefore the adherents of the prede¬ cessor are called Svetdmbara, i. c. white-dressed, whilst those of M a h a v i r a are, on account of their nudity, called Digambaras. Afterwards M aha vira roamed through various regions of Central India, but especially through the countries on the middle course of the Gangft, in the neighbourhood of which the town Kausambi is situated*. Here he devot ed himself during nearly eleven years to the strictest asceticism and to the hardest privations, whereby hoattained the highest degree of wisdom and sanctity. Thus he awakened the envy and hatred especially of the Brahmans in M a g a d h a. Three sons of the Brahman Vasubhut ij born in this country, of the Gautama family, called 1 n d r a b h u t i, A g n i b h fi t i, and V a y u - b h u t i, imagined they could refute the doc¬ trines of Mahavira, but were vanquished by him and became the most zealous adherents of their former antagonists The latter be¬ took himself after this brilliant success to the court of king II a s t i p a 1 a in Apapapuri or Papapurior Pavapnri, in the vicinity of the ancient capital R a j a g r i h a, where, at the age of 72 years, he terminated his eventful life. After his death his corpse was solemnly burnt. J If P a r s v a n a t h a is to be considered as the real founder of the Jaina doctrine, V ardh a- mana or Mahavira must be regarded as the propagator thereof. His chief tenets were that he attributed a real existence to jiva, the soul, and supposed that it imparts life to individual bodies, and is destined to bear all the pains and troubles of migration through many various forms, until it gets liberated from these bonds
- On the position of this town see Ind. Alt. III. 200,
note 2. Wilson, As. Res. XVTI. p. 256 seqq., who communicates several statements about these three and the eight re¬ maining disciples of M a h ft v i r a from the commentary of Hemachandrn to his Dictionary, and justly notices that Buchanan Hamilton is mistaken in sissumimr, in the Trans, of the R. As. S. I. p. 53S, that Iudra I* li ii t i, who is, on account of his descent of course, also called Gau¬ tama, is no other than ti a u t a m a B u d d h a himself, llomachandra enumerates, 1. v. 31 seqq. p. 7, the 11 Ganddhipas or presidents of tlle assemblies, who bear tho following names :— I n d r a b h u t i, A g n i b h u t i, and VAynbhfiti: these three brothers were tiautamas; M a n d i t a and Maur y a p u t r a were stop-brothers and respectively descendants of the Vedic Kishis V a s i s h- t h a and Kasyapa; V y a k t a, Sudharma, Akam- pita,Achalabhrfttri, Metarya, and Prabbiiga, ANTIQUARY. [September, 1S73. through the deepest insight into the true nature of things and by the most perfect virtue. § He further maintained that matter is a reality, and thereby rejected two fundamental doctrines of Buddhism, according to which all existences are without contents and substance, and the first cause of all things is avidyd, i. e. non-existence and untruth.* Mahavira acquired many adherents, as the following statements will prove. The nnmber of the holy men or SSdd/tus amounted to 1-1,000, and of the Sddhris or holy women to 30,000 ; the Sramanas, i. e. pious men acquainted with the sacred scriptures calk'd Pdrva, amounted to 300. The number of the Avadhijndnin, orsnch priests as are acquaint¬ ed with the limits of the injunctions was just as considerable. There were 700 Kevalin, i. e. pious men who abstained from works and devoted themselves entirely to contemplative life, and 500 Manovid, i. c. possessors of wisdom. By tbe name Vddin, men are designated who are skilled in carrying on disputations: their number was 400. The number of Sr&cakas or laymen amounted to 51,000, and that of tho Srdcihis or women of this kind was stated to be 300,000, an evident exaggeration. Of the eleven most prominent disciples of Mahavira, only Indrabhftti and S u- dliarmaor Sudharman survived him. In favonr of the view that Mahavira was the real propagator of the Jaina doctrine, it may be adduced that the writer of the Satrunjaya- mdhdtmya makes him the author of his book. That this doctrine was propagated from M a - g a d h a, or,if it so pleases, from Southern Bihar, to the other parts of India, becomes almost cer¬ tain from the circumstance that Mahavira botained his most important triumphs just in that country, and that he, as well as his predecessor Parsvanatha, died and was buried there. To wore likewise descendants of ancestors of Brahmanic fami¬ lies. X Kalpasutra, vi. p. 81 seqq.; Colebrooke, Misc. Es¬ says, II. p. 215, and Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 261. Tht» statement here made, that Mahavira died 1669 years before tho conversion of the C b ft 1 u k y a king K u in raj) Ala to the doctrine of the Jainas, is just as worthless as the information that the Kalpasutra was first publicly read 9S() jears after that event; this monarch began, according to Ind. Alt. III. p. 567, to reign in 1171, so that Ma h ftv l ra would have died 495 ears before Christ. § Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 259. || .See Ind, Alt. II. 461. «j[ Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 260. He properly observes that S&dhu is not. a general name for Jaina priests, but only for one division of them ; this conception of the name is pre¬ ferable to that given by J. Stevenson (see above, p. 200. n. §). On the title Rurva sue above, p. 199.
