The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c18.36

v1.c18.36

Twelve years spent in self-penance and meditation were not fruitless; for in the thirteenth year Mahāvīra at last reached supreme knowledge and final deliverance from the bonds of pleasure and pain. The *ipsissima verba* of an old text will perhaps best show us how the Jains themselves have described this the most important moment of the prophet's life: 'during the thirteenth year, in the second month of summer, in the fourth fortnight, the light (fortnight) of Vaiçākha, on its tenth day, called Suvrata, while the moon was in conjunction with the asterism Uttara-Phalgunī, when the shadow had turned towards the east, and the first wake was over, outside of the town Jṛimbhikagrāma, on the northern bank of the river Ṛijupālikā, in the field of the householder Sāmāga, in a north-eastern direction from an old temple, not far from a Sāl tree, in a squatting position with joined heels exposing himself to the heat of the sun, with the knees high and the head low, in deep meditation, in the midst of abstract meditation, he reached *nirvāṇa*, the complete and full, the unobstructed, unimpeded, infinite and supreme, best knowledge and intuition, called *kevala* (total). When the venerable one had become an Arhat and Jina, he was a *kevalin*, omniscient and comprehending all objects, he knew all conditions of the world, of gods, men, and demons; whence they come, where they go, whether they are born as men or animals, or become gods or hell-beings; their food, drink, doings, desires, and the thoughts of their minds; he saw and knew all conditions in the whole world of all living beings¹.'¹