Mahavira and the Rise of Jainism in Ancient India

Mahavira, born Vardhamana, was the Indian religious teacher whom Jains revere as the 24th and last tirthankara, or “ford-maker”, of the present cosmic age. Living in the Ganges valley in the 6th or 5th century BC, at the same time as the Buddha, he taught that liberation could be won only through strict non-violence and renunciation. His preaching and the community he organised turned Jainism into one of the lasting religions of India.

The world of the Shramanas

Mahavira lived in the era of the Mahajanapadas, when new cities and states were rising in the eastern Ganges plain. It was also a time of religious ferment. Wandering ascetics, known as shramanas, rejected the authority of Vedic sacrifice and the Brahmin priests and sought release from the cycle of rebirth through meditation, self-discipline and teaching.

Several rival movements emerged, including the Buddhists, the Ajivikas and the followers of the Jina, the “conqueror”, a title applied to Mahavira. Buddhist texts call him Nigantha Nataputta, “the unbound one of the Nata clan”, and present him as one of six well-known teachers of the day.

Birth and early life

According to Jain tradition, Vardhamana was born at Kundagrama, near Vaishali in present-day Bihar, to Siddhartha, a Kshatriya chief of the Jnatrika clan, and Trishala, a princess related to the ruling Licchavi family of the Vajji confederacy. The traditional birth date is 599 BC.

Jain sects tell parts of his story differently. The Shvetambara tradition says that he married a woman named Yashoda and had a daughter, Priyadarshana. The Digambara tradition holds that he never married. Both agree that he grew up in comfort and that his parents were followers of the earlier teacher Parshvanatha.

Renunciation and enlightenment

At about the age of 30, after the death of his parents, Vardhamana gave up his home and possessions to become a wandering ascetic. For about twelve and a half years he practised severe fasting and meditation, enduring heat, cold and insults. Early Jain texts such as the Acaranga Sutra describe him wandering through the region of Radha, in what is now Bengal, where villagers set dogs on him. Shvetambaras say he wore a single cloth for a time before going naked; Digambaras say he was naked from the start.

For several years he travelled with Makkhali Gosala, who later became leader of the Ajivikas, before the two parted. At about the age of 42, while meditating under a sal tree near the village of Jrimbhikagrama on the bank of the Rijupalika river, he is said to have attained kevala jnana, complete and perfect knowledge. From then on he was known as Mahavira, the “great hero”, and as a Jina.

Teachings

Mahavira taught that the universe is eternal and uncreated, made up of living souls (jiva) and non-living matter (ajiva). Every soul is by nature pure and all-knowing, but it is weighed down by karma, which Jains understand as a fine physical substance that sticks to the soul because of passion and harmful action.

Liberation comes through the “three jewels” of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. Conduct centres on five great vows: ahimsa, non-violence toward all living beings; satya, truthfulness; asteya, not stealing; brahmacharya, chastity; and aparigraha, non-possession. Tradition holds that Parshvanatha had taught four vows and that Mahavira added chastity as a separate fifth.

Non-violence was taken further than in any other Indian tradition. Monks swept the ground in front of them to avoid treading on insects and strained their water. Lay followers took lighter versions of the same vows, which led many Jains into trade rather than farming, where harm to living things was harder to avoid. Later Jain philosophers developed the doctrine of anekantavada, “many-sidedness”, which holds that truth can be viewed from many standpoints.

The early community

Mahavira’s first and leading disciples were eleven Brahmins, the ganadharas, headed by Indrabhuti Gautama. Most of his teaching was passed on through Sudharman, regarded as the source of the surviving Shvetambara scriptures. Women joined in large numbers; the nun Chandana is remembered as head of the order of nuns.

Mahavira organised a fourfold community, or sangha, of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. Jain texts give large numbers for his followers at his death, such as 14,000 monks and 36,000 nuns, figures that are traditional and cannot be checked. Kings of the region, including Bimbisara (called Shrenika in Jain texts) and Chetaka of Vaishali, are named in Jain tradition as supporters.

After about thirty years of teaching, Mahavira died at Pava, identified with Pavapuri near Rajgir, at the age of 72. Jains call this his nirvana and celebrate it at Diwali. Tradition dates it to 527 BC.

Dates and evidence

The traditional date of 527 BC for Mahavira’s death rests on a later Jain calculation. Because he was a contemporary of the Buddha, and because many historians now place the Buddha’s death around 400 BC, some scholars move Mahavira later as well, to about 540–468 BC or into the 5th century BC. As with the Buddha, there are no inscriptions or other records from his lifetime; everything we know comes from scriptures transmitted orally for centuries.

The Shvetambara canon was finally written down at the Council of Valabhi in Gujarat in the 5th century AD, after earlier councils at Pataliputra and Mathura. The Digambaras do not accept this canon as genuine. The two main sects grew apart over centuries; tradition dates their split to the 1st century AD, but historians think the division hardened only gradually, by around the 5th century AD.

Myths, facts and legacy

A common misunderstanding is that Mahavira founded Jainism in the way that a prophet founds a new faith. Jains see him as the last of a long line of teachers who rediscovered an eternal path, and historians accept that at least Parshvanatha, his predecessor, was probably a real figure. Another is that Jains worship Mahavira as a creator god. Jainism has no creator; the tirthankaras are honoured as perfected souls who show the way to liberation, not as beings who answer prayers.

It is also sometimes said that Mahavira and the Buddha taught the same thing. They shared a world and some vocabulary, such as karma, nirvana and the rejection of Vedic sacrifice, but they disagreed on key points. Mahavira taught the existence of a permanent soul and stressed severe austerity, while the Buddha denied a permanent self and taught a middle way between indulgence and self-mortification.

Today Jains number several million, most of them in India, with communities in Europe and North America. Pilgrims visit the places linked with Mahavira’s life, above all Pavapuri, where a white marble temple stands in a lotus pond on the traditional site of his cremation. His birth is celebrated each spring as Mahavir Jayanti, a public holiday in India.

Timeline

• c. 9th–8th century BC: Probable lifetime of Parshvanatha, the 23rd tirthankara (dates uncertain).
• 599 BC: Traditional date of Vardhamana’s birth at Kundagrama.
• c. 569 BC: Traditional date of his renunciation at about 30.
• c. 557 BC: Traditional date of his enlightenment after twelve and a half years of austerity.
• 527 BC: Traditional date of his nirvana at Pava, aged 72.
• c. 3rd century BC: A council at Pataliputra tries to gather the Jain scriptures.
• 5th century AD: The Shvetambara canon is written down at Valabhi.

Why it matters

Mahavira gave Jainism the form in which it has survived for some 2,500 years, with its ethic of radical non-violence, its strict monastic orders and its supportive lay community. Jain ideas of ahimsa influenced Indian thought widely and, through figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, reached a global audience. His life also illuminates the remarkable religious creativity of the age of the Buddha.