In the eleventh year of his austerities an incident
occurred in the life of Mahavira which has become the subject matter of
great pathos and poetry in Jaina literature. As already noticed, the
incident is connected with the life of Candanabala who was the princess of
a king of Campa. After defeat of King of Campa in a battle, the princess
was taken as a slave and finally purchased by a wealthy merchant called
Dhanna, who mercifully treated her as his daughter. The merchant's wife,
however, suspected the intentions of her husband. So when the merchant had
gone to Kausambi, Candanabala was put in fetters, her head was shaved, and
was starved for three days, at the end of which she was given roasted
black grams to eat. In the meantime Mahavira, who was undergoing very
difficult penances, was moving from house to house to accept some alms to
eat to break his fasts of more than five months, but was returning back
from all houses without accepting anything. People were anxious to offer
anything, he wanted to break his fasts but he did not utter a single word
and returned back after seeing the situation and the food offered to him.
This attitude of the saint was very perplexing to the citizens of Kausambi
because, by that time his reputation as a great ascetic had spread far and
wide and it was considered a great honour for one whose offer of food was
accepted by him.
Mahavira's method of performing penances was very
peculiar. He often used to resolve to take only a particular type of food
if offered to him under particular circumstances by a particular person.
Others were knowing nothing about such resolves with the result that the
conditions under which the offer was to be accepted were not satisfied and
his fasts remained unbroken for a number of days. In fact, during the
course of 12 years of his penances he is said to have taken food only on
349 days. Idea was that if nature wanted him to remain alive, it was bound
to satisfy his resolutions. Now when Mahavira was in Kausambi in the
eleventh year of his penances, he had resolved to accept the offer of
roasted black grams from an unmarried princess in captivity with the
shaven head and locked in fetters and also with tears in her eyes. It was
obviously difficult to satisfy all these conditions at a time. For five
months and twenty-five days, the master wandered from one house to the
other in Kausambi and silently returned and went without food, his
conditions unfulfilled.
Candanabala knew this story of master's wandering and
after her own fasts for three days when she got roasted black grams to
eat, her first thought was to offer these grams to the master if he was
kind enough to accept the same. When she saw the master approaching her on
his usual visit to take alms, her joy knew no bounds as she offered the
rare Morsels of food which she got after three days. When the master
approached her, he found that all the conditions of his resolve, but one,
were fulfilled. The one condition which remained unfulfilled was the
absence of tears in the eyes of his donor. When he noticed this, he began
to retreat without uttering a word. This shocked the enthusiastic devotee
whose enthusiasm and joy evaporated. Deeply dejected, she began to cry and
tears rolled her check. A back glance at her, convinced the master that
all his resolves were fully satisfied. he returned back and accepted the
alms of roasted grams from her and broke his famous fast. This Candanabala
then renounced the world. She was freed by her master and she was made the
first head of the order of Jaina nuns.
This story of unstinted devotion has inspired the
imagination of many poets who have vividly described the masters fortitude
and a selfless surrender of a devotee.
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