Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi, the Rarh of to-day in Bengal, and learned to bear with equanimity great hardships and cruel ill treatment at the hands of the inhabitants of those districts.  Besides these he imposed upon himself the severest mortifications; after the first year he discarded clothes and devoted himself to the deepest meditation.  In the thirteenth year of this wandering life he believed he had attained to the highest knowledge and to the dignity of a holy one.  He then appeared as a prophet, taught the Nirgrantha doctrine, a modification of the religion of Par[’s]va, and organised the order of the Nirgrantha ascetics.  From that time he bore the name of the venerable ascetic Mahavira.  His career as a teacher lasted not quite thirty years, during which he travelled about, as formerly, all over the country, except during the rainy seasons.  He won for himself numerous followers, both of the clergy and the lay class, among whom, however, in the fourteenth year of his period of teaching, a split arose—­caused by his son-in-law Jamali.

The extent of his sphere of influence almost corresponds with that of the kingdoms of Sravasti or Kosala, Vidcha, Magadha, and A[.n]ga,—­the modern Oudh, and the provinces of Tirhut and Bihar in Western Bengal.  Very frequently he spent the rainy season in his native place Vai[’s]ali and in Rajag[r.]iha.  Among his contemporaries were, a rival teacher Gosala the son of Ma[.m]khali—­whom he defeated in a dispute, the King of Videha—­Bhambhasara or Bibbhisara called Sre[n.]ika, and his sons Abhayakumara and the parricide Ajata[’s]atru or Ku[n.]ika, who protected him or accepted his doctrine, and also the nobles of the Lichchhavi and Mallaki races.  The town of Papa or Pava, the modern Padraona [Footnote:  This is General Cunningham’s identification and a probable one.—­Ed.] is given as the place of his death, where he dwelt during the rainy season of the last year of his life, in the house of the scribe of king Hastipala.  Immediately after his death, a second split took place in his community. [Footnote:  Notes on Mahavira’s life are to be found especially in Achara[.n]ga Sutra in S.B.E. Vol.  XXII, pp. 84-87, 189-202; Kalpasutra, ibid. pp. 217-270.  The above may be compared with Jacobi’s representation, ibid. pp. x-xviii. where most of the identifications of the places named are given, and Kalpasutra introd. p. ii.  We have to thank Dr. Hoernle for the important information that Vardhamana’s birthplace Ku[n.][d.]apura is still called Vasukund:  Upasakada[’s]a Sutra p. 4.  Note 3.  The information on the schisms of the Jainas is collected by Lemmann in the Indische Studien, Bd.  XVII, S. 95 ff.]