254 SKETCH OF THE 



During the six years expended in this manner, Mahavira visits a number 

 of places, most of which appear to be in Behar and the adjacent provinces, 

 as Hdjagriha, Sravasti near Oude, Vaisdli, which is identified with the 

 capital of Behar, and others. 



Proceeding on his peregrinations, Mahavira voluntarily exposed him- 

 self to be maltreated by the M lech ha tribes of Vajrabh unit, Suddhibhumi, 

 and Ldt, or Ldr, the countries apparently of the Gonds, who abused and 

 beat him, and shot at him with arrows, and baited him with dogs, to all 

 which he offered no resistance, and indeed rejoiced in his sufferings, for 

 however necessary to personal purification, it is not the duty of a Jain 

 ascetic to inflict tortures upon himself — his course of penance is one of 

 self-denial, fasting and silence, and pain however meritorious its endurance, 

 must be inflicted by others, not himself. At the end of the ninth year, 

 Mahav!ra relinquished his silence in answer to a question put by Gosala, 

 but continued engaged in the practice of mortification and in an erratic 

 life. His squire having acquired from him the possession of the Tfjalesya, 

 or power of ejecting flame, and having learned from certain of the disciples 

 of Parswanath, what is technically termed the Mahdnimilta of the eight 

 Angus, intending probably their scriptural doctrines, set up for himself 

 as a Jina, and quitted his master. 



Indra having declared that Mahav!ra's meditations could not be 

 disturbed by men or gods, one of the inferior spirits of heaven, indignant 

 at the assertion, assailed the Sage with a variety of horrors and tempta- 

 tions, but in vain. MahavIra's pious abstraction was unbroken. He then 

 wandered about and visited Kausdmbi, the capital of Satdnika, where he 

 was received with great veneration, and where his period of self-denial 

 ended in perfect exemption from human infirmities. The whole of the 

 time expended by him in these preparatory exercises was twelve years 

 and six months, and of this he had fasted nearly eleven years. His various 



