India GOMahavira: the Great Hero of the Jains
महावीर
Vardhamana, the last of the twenty-four (a reformer, not a founder), who gave Jainism its final shape; the lion marks his statues.
Mahavira, born Vardhamana, is the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara, the “ford-maker” of the Jains, for this age. He did not found Jainism but reformed a community already led by teachers before him, and the vows, the monastic order and the stress on non-violence that Jains live by today come down through him. By tradition he lived from 599 to 527 BCE, in the same region and decades as the Buddha.
Story
A prince of the Jnatrika clan, he left home at thirty, gave away even his clothes and wandered for twelve years in silence, sitting so still that villagers set dogs on him and beat him, and he did not stir; at forty-two he reached omniscience under a sal tree. To Parshva's four vows he added chastity and set out the order of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen that still stands; a contemporary of the Buddha, he was seventy-two when he died at Pavapuri. Jains light the lamps of Diwali for that night. His name means Great Hero: the victor over himself.
सव्वे पाणा सव्वे भूया सव्वे जीवा सव्वे सत्ता ण हंतव्वा
“No breathing, living, sentient being may be killed, oppressed, enslaved or tormented. This is the pure, eternal law.”
Acharanga Sutra 1.4.1
Places linked to them
Kulpakji Jain Temple (Kolanupaka) · Hyderabad Nareli Jain Temple (Shri Gyanodaya Tirth Kshetra) · AjmerLife, as the traditions tell it
Vardhamana was born at Kundagrama, identified with the Vaishali area of today's Bihar, to Siddhartha, a chief of the Naya clan, and Trishala of the Licchavi republic. Here the two Jain traditions part for the first time: the Shvetambaras say he married Yashoda and had a daughter, Priyadarshana; the Digambaras say he never married.
At thirty (twenty-eight in some accounts) he renounced everything, and after twelve and a half years of fasting, silence and wandering, he reached kevala jnana, omniscience, under a sal tree on the bank of the Rijuvalika river. He taught for some thirty years and died at Pavapuri in Bihar, at seventy-two. The dates 599–527 BCE are the Shvetambara reckoning (the Digambaras date his death to 510 BCE); historians place him in the 6th or 5th century BCE, and some later still, depending on how the Buddha's dates are fixed.
What he taught
Jain teaching rests on five great vows: ahimsa (not harming any living being), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (chastity) and aparigraha (non-attachment to possessions). Mahavira's predecessor, Parshvanatha, had taught four; Mahavira made chastity a vow of its own. Monks and nuns keep the vows absolutely, lay people in a gentler form, and the fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen he organised is the one that still stands.
Two further ideas shape how Jains think. Anekantavada, “many-sidedness”, holds that any truth looks different from different sides and no single view holds all of it. And there is no creator god: the universe has no beginning or end, and every soul can reach liberation by its own effort, as the twenty-four Tirthankaras, from Rishabhanatha to Mahavira, did.
Where to meet him, and when
His image is recognised by the lion carved on the pedestal. At Kulpakji (Kolanupaka), some 80 km east of Hyderabad off the Warangal road, one of the oldest Jain tirthas of the south, the revered Mahavira is cut from jade-green stone, with Rishabha and Neminath beside him. At Nareli outside Ajmer, twenty-four small shrines, one for each Tirthankara, climb the hillside behind a modern white marble temple, his among them. At both, shoes come off and leather items are usually left outside.
Mahavir Jayanti, his birthday, falls on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Chaitra: 19 April in 2027 and 7 April in 2028, with temple rites and chariot processions in Jain neighbourhoods. His nirvana is remembered at Diwali: Jains light the lamps for the night he died at Pavapuri.
❓ FAQ
Who came first, Mahavira or the Buddha?
They were contemporaries, active in the same kingdoms of Magadha under Bimbisara and Ajatashatru. Which of them was older is debated, because the dates of each are worked out partly from the other.
Who is the real founder of Jainism?
Jains do not see it as founded by one person: it is taught anew by each of 24 Tirthankaras, the first being Rishabhanatha. Mahavira, the last, gave the tradition its present shape.
Did Mahavira believe in God?
Not in a creator god. Jainism holds that the universe is eternal, and that liberated souls, the Tirthankaras among them, are worshipped as examples, not as creators or judges.
When is Mahavir Jayanti?
On Chaitra Shukla Trayodashi, between late March and late April: 19 April 2027 and 7 April 2028. It is a central government holiday.
What is Mahavira's symbol?
The lion, carved on the pedestal of his images; it is how you tell him from the other Tirthankaras, who otherwise look alike.