Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c20.s1.17

c20.s1.17

Mahāvīra renounced the world when he was thirty years old It is said that for a little more than a year Mahāvīra went about with a robe and afterwards wandered naked. Leading a life of severe asceticism for over twelve years, he is said to have attained omniscience on the bank of the Ujjuvaliyā outside the city of Jambhiyagāma. Mahāvīra spent his last rainy season in Pāvā in the office of the survey-ministers (rajjugasabhā) of the king Hatthivāla and died on the fifteenth day of dark half of kārtika at the age of seventy two. The night Mahāvīra died, the eighteen confederate kings of Kāsī and Kosala are said to have observed posaha and made an illumination At the time of his death Mahāvīra is said to have preached fifty five discourses on the result of good deeds, the same number on the result of bad deeds and thirty six discourses on unasked questions 11