Mahavira, known as Vardhaman, was the 24th tirthankara of Jainism.
49 Facts About Mahavira
Mahavira was the spiritual successor of the 23rd tirthankara Parshvanatha.
Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6th century BCE into a royal Kshatriya Jain family in ancient India.
Mahavira abandoned all worldly possessions at the age of about 30 and left home in pursuit of spiritual awakening, becoming an ascetic.
Mahavira practiced intense meditation and severe austerities for twelve and a half years, after which he attained Kevala Jnana.
Mahavira preached for 30 years and attained Moksha in the 6th century BCE, although the year varies by sect.
Mahavira taught that observance of the vows of ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and aparigraha are necessary for spiritual liberation.
Mahavira taught the principles of Anekantavada : syadvada and nayavada.
Mahavira's teachings were compiled by Indrabhuti Gautama as the Jain Agamas.
The surviving versions of the Agamas taught by Mahavira are some of Svetambara Jainism's foundation texts, but their authenticity is disputed in Digambara Jainism.
Mahavira is usually depicted in a sitting or standing meditative posture, with the symbol of a lion beneath him.
Mahavira's birth is celebrated as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak and his nirvana and his first shishya of Shri Gautama Swami is observed by Jains as Diwali.
Historically, Mahavira, who revived and preached Jainism in ancient India, was an older contemporary of Gautama Buddha.
Mahavira is known as Sramana in the Kalpa Sutra, "devoid of love and hate".
Mahavira renounced his material wealth and left home when he was twenty-eight, by some accounts, lived an ascetic life for twelve and a half years in which he did not even sit for a time, attained Kevalgyana and then preached Dharma for thirty years.
One view is that Mahavira was born in 540BCE and died in 443BCE.
Tirthankara Mahavira was born into a royal Kshatriya family of King Siddhartha of the Ikshvaku Dynasty and Queen Trishala of the Licchavi republic.
Jain texts state that after Mahavira was born, the god Indra came from the heavens along with 56 digkumaries, anointed him, and performed his abhisheka on Mount Meru.
At age thirty, Mahavira abandoned royal life and left his home and family to live an ascetic life in the pursuit of spiritual awakening.
Mahavira undertook severe fasts and bodily mortifications, meditated under the Ashoka tree, and discarded his clothes.
Mahavira is said to have lived in Rajagriha during the rainy season of the forty-first year of his ascetic life, which is traditionally dated to 491BCE.
Jains believe that Mahavira had a most auspicious body and was free from eighteen imperfections when he attained omniscience.
Mahavira's teachings became known as Gani-Pidaga, or the Jain Agamas.
Mahavira delivered fifty-five pravachana and a set of lectures.
Accounts of Mahavira's nirvana vary among Jain texts, with some describing a simple nirvana and others recounting grandiose celebrations attended by gods and kings.
In some texts Mahavira is described, at age 72, as delivering his final preaching over a six-day period to a large group of people.
The Jain Svetambara tradition believes that Mahavira's nirvana occurred in 527 BCE, and the Digambara tradition holds that date of 468 BCE.
Mahavira, says Moriz Winternitz, taught a "very elaborate belief in the soul".
Mahavira's teachings were compiled by Gautama Swami, his Ganadhara.
Mahavira's teachings were gradually lost after about 300BCE, according to Jain tradition, when a severe famine in the Magadha kingdom dispersed the Jain monks.
Later, some learned acharyas restored, compiled, and wrote down the teachings of Mahavira which were the subjects of the Agamas.
Mahavira is best remembered in the Indian traditions for his teaching that ahimsa is the supreme moral virtue.
Mahavira taught that ahimsa covers all living beings, and injuring any being in any form creates bad karma.
Mahavira taught that the soul exists, a premise shared with Hinduism but not Buddhism.
Mahavira taught that the soul is dravya, eternal, and yet temporary.
Enlightenment, to Mahavira, is the consequence of self-cultivation and self-restraint.
Mahavira's anekantavada doctrine is summarized in Buddhist texts such as the Samannaphala Sutta, and is a key difference between the teachings of Mahavira and those of the Buddha.
The Jain Agamas suggest that Mahavira's approach to answering metaphysical, philosophical questions was a "qualified yes".
Mahavira's Jainism co-existed with Buddhism and Hinduism beyond the renunciant Jain communities, but each religion was "highly critical of the knowledge systems and ideologies of their rivals".
Mahavira taught that a monk should avoid touching or disturbing any of them and never swim, light a fire, or wave their arms in the air; such actions might injure other beings living in those states of matter.
Mahavira is erroneously called the founder of Jainism, but Jains believe that the 23 previous tirthankaras espoused it.
Mahavira is placed in Parshvanatha's lineage as his spiritual successor and ultimate leader of shraman sangha.
Jain texts suggest that Mahavira's parents were lay devotees of Parshvanatha.
When Mahavira revived the Jain community in the 6th century BCE, ahimsa was already an established, strictly observed rule.
Two major annual Jain festivals associated with Mahavira are Mahavir Janma Kalyanak and Diwali.
Mahavira proclaimed in India that religion is a reality and not a mere social convention.
An event associated with the 2,500th anniversary of Mahavira's nirvana was held in 1974:.
Mahavira is usually depicted in a sitting meditative pose, with a lion symbol beneath him; each tirthankara has a distinct emblem, which allows worshippers to distinguish similar idols.
Many images of Mahavira have been dated to the 12th century and earlier; an ancient sculpture was found in a cave in Sundarajapuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu.