Prakrit Proper Names (Agamic Index I) v2.c8.s2.650

v2.c8.s2.650

Mahāvīra lived thirty years as a householder. When his parents died and his pledge was fulfilled, he distributed, with the permission of his elders, all his wealth among others during a whole year and made up his mind to renounce the world.³⁸ On the tenth day of the dark half of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa when the moon was in conjuction with the Htthuattarā constellation and the shadow had turned towards the east in the second quarter of the day (pauruṣī) after observing fast for two days without taking water³⁹ and having put on one garment, Mahāvīra left for the park of Nāyasaṃḍa in palanquin named Caṃdappabhā(4).⁴⁰ There he caused the palanquin to stop under an Aśoka tree, decended from it, took off his ornaments, with his own hands, plucked out his hair in five handfuls, and with one divine garment (devadūṣya)⁴¹ he entered the state of houselessness, i.e. took to asceticism.⁴² He was alone when he renounced the world.⁴³