The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.194.2

c5.s9.194.2

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.