The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.194

Language: English

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Kundagâma—It is another name for Vaisâlî (modern Besarh) in the district of Mozaffarpur (Tirhut), in fact, Kundagâma (Kundagrâma) now called Basukunda was a part of the suburb of the ancient town of Vaisâlî, the latter comprising three districts or quarters: Vaisâlî proper (Besarh), Kundapura (Basukund), and Vâniagâma (Bania), inhabited by the Brahman, Kshatriya, and Bania castes respectively Under the name of Kundagâma, the city of Vaisâlî is mentioned as the birth place of Mahâvîra, the Jaina Tîrthankara, who was also called Vesali or the man of Vesali It is the Kotigâma of the Buddhists (Prof Jacobi's Jaina Sutras, Introduction in SBE, XXII, p xi) It is also said that he was born at Kollaga, a suburb of Vaisâlî, where the Nâya or Nâta clan of Kshatriyas resided, and in which was a temple called Chaitya Duipalâsa (Dr Hoernle, Uvasagadasao, p 4, and his Jainism and Buddhism) Mahâvîra is said to have been conceived at first in the womb of the Brâhmanî Devanandâ, but Indra caused the embryo to be transferred to the womb of the Kshatriyâ Trisalâ who was also with child, through the agency of his deer headed general Harineyameshi, who is no doubt the same as Naigamesha or goat-headed god of the Brâhmanas (Ep Ind, vol II, pp 316, 317, Kalpasûtra in SBE, vol XXII, p 227) Mahâvîra or Varddhamâna was the son of Siddhârtha, a chief or “king” of Kundapura, by his wife Trisalâ who was a sister of Chetaka, king of Vaisâlî, Chetaka's daughter, Chellanâ, or the Videha Devî as she was called, was married to Bimbisâra, king of Magadha, and she was the mother of Ajâtasatru or Kunika, who married Vajirâ, the daughter of king Prasenajit of Srâvastî, the brother of his step mother, the Kosalâ Devî, but according to other accounts Ajâtasatru was the son of Kosalâ Devî Mahâvîra died at Pâpâ (Pâvâpurî) at the age of 72 in B C 527, or according to Mr Prinsep in 569 B C, at the age of 70 (Prinsep's Useful Tables, pt II, p 33), i e, 26 years before the death of Buddha (see Papa).

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According to Dr. Hoernle, Mahāvīra was born in 599 B.C. and died in 527 B.C. at the age of seventy-two (Jainism and Buddhism). Mahāvīra had a daughter named Anojjā or Priyadarśanā by his wife Yaśodā (Jacobi's Jaina Sūtras in SBE., XXII, p. 193; Dr. Bühler's Indian Sect of the Jainas, pp. 25-29). Nigrantha Jñātiputra or Jñātaputra or Nātaputta, one of the celebrated sages who lived at Rajagṛiha at the time of Buddha, has been identified with Mahāvīra of the Jainas; he also resided at Śrāvastī when Buddha lived there (see Mahāvagga, VI, 31). Hence Buddhism and Jainism were two contemporary systems. Mahāvīra wandered more than 12 years in Lāḍa in Vajjabhumi and Subhabhumi, the Rāḍha of to-day in Bengal. In the thirteenth year of his wandering life, he attained Jinahood and taught the Nigrantha doctrines, a modification of the religion of Pārśvanātha (Bühler's Indian Sect of the Jainas, p. 26). The Nigranthas are mentioned in a pillar edict of Aśoka issued in the 29th year of his reign. During the famine which lasted for twelve years in the reign of Chandragupta, king of Magadha, Bhadrabāhu, was then at the head of the Jaina Community, emigrated into Karṇāṭa (or Canarese) country with a portion of the people, and Sthūlabhadra became the head of the portion that remained in Magadha. At the council held at Pāṭaliputra towards the end of the famine, the Jaina books consisting of eleven Aṅgas and fourteen Pūrvas (which latter are collectively called the twelfth Aṅga) were collected.

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All the Jainas wore no clothes before, but during the famine, the Pāṭaliputra Jainas commenced wearing clothes. Hence Bhadrabāhu's followers after their return refused to hold fellowship with them and to acknowledge as sacred the books collected by them, that is the Aṅgas and the Pūrvas. The final separation between the two sects as Śvetāmbara and Digambara took place in 79 or 82 A.D. At a council held at Valabhi in Gujarāt under the presidency of Devarddhi, the sacred books were again settled; this took place in 154 A.D. (Hoernle's Jainism and Buddhism).