Who among the following was the first to become a Jaina nun?

Who among the following was the first to become a Jaina nun? Correct Answer Chandana

• Jainism- The word Jain is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning conqueror.
• Jain Mahatmas are called Nirgrantha.
• Jain founders are called  Tirthankaras.

Note- The first to become a Jaina nun was Chandana.

• Over 25 centuries ago, Lord Mahavira, having established the final Tirtha of this declining era, attained Moksha in 599 BC. The Kalpa Sutra mentions that at that time Mahavira’s Sangha consisted of 14,000 monks,36,000 nuns,159,000 shravakas and 318,000 shavikas. Able Aryika Chandana, who was also known as Chandanabala, led the congregation of nuns.
• Chandana was born into a royal family. Tragically, as a result of war, she was taken into slavery and sold. She was purchased by Seth Dhanadatta for use as a domestic servant. When the seth’s wife saw Dhanadatta treat his slave kindly, she became jealous of the beautiful Chandana.
• While Dhanadatta was away, she had Chandana’s head shaved and her legs chained to the door of her slave quarters where she cried in anguish for days. When hungry, she was given half-cooked lentils in a flimsy bamboo container used for winnowing grain called a supa. 
• Lord Mahavira was a Jain monk, and Jain monks may often take a vow to accept food only when it is possible to observe a set of pre-determined special conditions.
• The practise originates with Mahavira himself. A few months before he attained Keval Jnan, continuously fast until offered food by only that individual who met 10 untold and seemingly impossible conditions.
• He would accept (1)only urad lentils,(2) offered in a winnowing basket, (3) given by a person standing sideways with one foot on the threshold of a dwelling place and the other foot outside, (4) who was a princess turned in to a slave, (5) who had a shaven head, and (6) whose legs were bound by chains. She had to be (7) a chaste woman, (8) at the time performing the penances of attham (3 days’s fast), and would serve him (9) only after all other mendicants had rejected her food offering, (10) with tears in her eyes.
• Many would have cherished the honour of giving food to Mahavira. Five months and 28 days lapsed, and no donor fulfilled his secret conditions.
• But Chandana, princes sold as a slave, shackled and humiliated by the jealous wife of a depraved merchant, fulfilled his secret conditions. 
• As Mahavira passed by, he turned his face away at the last moment without accepting her humble alms. Already tormented and abused, Chandana began to cry.
• And thus the final condition was met. To the amazement of onlookers including her captors, in his bare palms, Mahavira accepted the food Chandana offered from her simple winnowing basket, breaking his six-month fast with a small handful of the rough slave fodder that Chandana had been living on for weeks. Chandana was released and she joined Lord Mahavira’s monastic order.
• She thus became the first nun of the Mahavira Jain tradition and eventually the leader of thousands of Aryikas.
• The significance of Chandana’s leadership may be judged by comparing the order of Jain nuns with the Buddhist nun. Buddha agreed to ordain nuns only after considerable hesitation and persistent pressure from his aunt. Within a few centuries of Buddhist, nuns were completely done away within the Theravada sect.

Teachings of Mahavira

• Mahavira rejected the authority of the Vedas and objected to the Vedic rituals. 
• Three jewels of Jainism are, Right Faith, Right Knowledge, and Right Conduct.
• He advocated the ethical code of life.
• He followed non-violence.
• The practice of agriculture was considered sinful as it causes injury to the Earth, Worms, and animals.
• The doctrine of asceticism and renunciation can only be accompanied by the practice of starvation, nudity, and other-form of self-torture.