History Of Lord Mahavir Jain , nbinspire

 Mahavira (Sanskrit: Mahavira), also known as Vardhamana, was the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd Tirthankara Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6th century BCE into a royal Jain family in Bihar, India. His mother's name was Trishala and his father's name was Siddhartha. They were lay devotees of Parshvanatha. 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 (omniscience). He preached for 30 years and attained Moksha (liberation) in the 6th century BCE, although the year varies by sect.

Historically, Mahavira, who preached Jainism in ancient India, was an older contemporary of Gautama Buddha.

Mahavira taught that observance of the vows of ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (chastity), and aparigraha (non-attachment) are necessary for spiritual liberation. He taught the principles of Anekantavada (many-sided reality): syadvada and nayavada. Mahavira's teachings were compiled by Indrabhuti Gautama (his chief disciple) as the Jain Agamas. The texts, transmitted orally by Jain monks, are believed to have been largely lost by about the 1st century CE (when the remaining were first written down in the Svetambara tradition). 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. His earliest iconography is from archaeological sites in the North Indian city of Mathura, and is dated from between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE. His birth is celebrated as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak and his nirvana (salvation) and also his first shishya (spiritual enlightenment) of Shri Gautama Swami is observed by Jains as Diwali.

Names and epithets

Surviving early Jain and Buddhist literature uses several names (or epithets) for Mahavira, including Nayaputta, Muni, Samana, Niggantha, Brahman, and Bhagavan.In early Buddhist suttas, he is referred to as Araha ("worthy") and Veyavi (derived) from "Vedas", but meaning "wise".He is known as Sramana in the Kalpa Sūtra, "devoid of love and hate".

According to later Jain texts, Mahavira's childhood name was Vardhamāna ("the one who grows") because of the kingdom's prosperity at the time of his birth. According to the Kalpasutras, he was called Mahavira ("the great hero") by the gods in the Kalpa Sūtra because he remained steadfast in the midst of dangers, fears, hardships and calamities. He is also known as a tirthankara.

Historical Mahavira

Map of India during the 6th century BCE

Ancient kingdoms and cities of India at the time of Mahavira

It is universally accepted by scholars of Jainism that Mahavira lived in ancient India.According to the Digambara Uttarapurana text, Mahavira was born in Kundalpur in the Kingdom of the Videhas; the vētāmbara Kalpa Sūtra uses the name "Kundagrama", said to be located in present-day Bihar, India. Although it is thought to be the town of Basu Kund, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Patna (the capital of Bihar), his birthplace remains a subject of dispute. Mahavira renounced his material wealth and left home when he was twenty-eight, by some accounts[20] (thirty by others), lived an ascetic life for twelve and a years In which he did not even sit for a time, attained Kevalgyana and then preached Jainism for thirty years. Where he preached has been a subject of disagreement between the two major traditions of Jainism: vētāmbara and Digambara traditions.

Mahavira was born in 599 BCE and died in 527 BCE. The Barli Inscription in Prakrit language which was inscribed in 443 BCE (year 84 of the Vira Nirvana Samvat), contains the line Viraya Bhagavat chaturasiti vase, which can be interpreted as "dedicated to Lord Vira in his 84th year", 84 years after the Nirvana of the Mahavira. However, paleographic analysis dates the inscription to the 2nd-1st century BCE. According to Buddhist and Jain texts they are believed to have been contemporaries which is supported by much ancient Buddhist literature.The Vira Nirvana Samvat era began in 527 BCE (with Mahavira's nirvana) and is a firmly-established part of Jain tradition.

The 12th-century Jain scholar Hemachandracharya placed Mahavira in the 5th century BCE.[25][26] According to Jain, the traditional date of 527 BCE is accurate; the Buddha was younger than Mahavira and "might have attained nirvana a few years later".The place of his nirvana, Pavapuri in present-day Bihar, is a pilgrimage site for Jains.

Jain tradition

See also: Panch Kalyanaka

According to Jain cosmology, 24 Tirthankaras have appeared on earth; Mahavira is the last Tirthankara of Avasarpiṇī (the present time cycle).

Birth

Painting of Mahavira's birth

The birth of Mahavira, from the Kalpa Sūtra (c. 1375–1400 CE)

Tirthankara Mahavira was born into a royal Kshatriya family of King Siddhartha of the Ikshvaku Dynasty and Queen Trishala of the Licchavi dynasty.[33][note 2] The Ikshvaku Dynasty was founded by the First Tirthankara Rishabhanatha.

According to Jains, Mahavira was born in 599 BCE. His birthday falls on the thirteenth day of the rising moon in the month of Chaitra in the Vira Nirvana Samvat calendar era.[20][36][37] It falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar, and is celebrated by Jains as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak.

Kundagrama (the place of Mahavira's birth) is traditionally believed to be near Vaishali, an ancient town on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Its location in present-day Bihar is unclear, partly because of migrations from ancient Bihar for economic and political reasons.[1] According to the "Universal History" in Jain texts, Mahavira underwent many rebirths (total 27 births) before his 6th-century birth. They included a denizen of hell, a lion, and a god (deva) in a heavenly realm just before his last birth as the 24th tirthankara. Svetambara texts state that his embryo first formed in a Brahman woman before it was transferred by Hari-Naigamesin (the divine commander of Indra's army) to the womb of Trishala, Siddhartha's wife.The embryo-transfer legend is not believed by adherents of the Digambara tradition.

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 (consecration) on Mount Meru.[39] These events, illustrated in a number of Jain temples, play a part in modern Jain temple rituals.Although the Kalpa Sūtra accounts of Mahavira's birth legends are recited by Svetambara Jains during the annual Paryushana festival, the same festival is observed by the Digambaras without the recitation.

Early life

Mahavira grew up as a prince. According to the second chapter of the vētāmbara Acharanga Sutra, his parents were lay devotees of Parshvanatha. Jain traditions differ about whether Mahavira is married.[44][48] The Digambara tradition believes that his parents wanted him to marry Yashoda, but he refused to marry. The vētāmbara tradition believes that he was married to Yashoda at a young age and had one daughter, Priyadarshana, also called Anojja.

Jain texts portray Mahavira as tall; his height was given as four cubits (6 feet) in the Aupapatika Sutra. According to Jain texts, he was the shortest of the twenty-four tirthankaras; Earlier teachers were believed to have been taller, with Neminatha or Aristanemi —the 22nd tirthankara, who lived for 1,000 years—said to have been sixty-five cubits (98 feet) in height.

Home

See also: Jain monasticism

At age thirty, Mahavira abandoned royal life and left his home and family to live an ascetic life in the pursuit of spiritual awakening He undertook severe fasts and bodily mortifications, meditated under the Ashoka tree, and discarded his clothes.The Acharanga Sutra has a graphic description of his hardships and self-mortification. According to the Kalpa Sūtra, Mahavira spent the first forty-two monsoons of his life in Astikagrama, Champapuri, Prstichampa, Vaishali, Vanijagrama, Nalanda, Mithila, Bhadrika, Alabhika, Panitabhumi, Shravasti, and Pawapuri.[60He 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 491 BCE.

omniscience

See also: Samavasarana

According to traditional accounts, Mahavira achieved Kevala Jnana (omniscience, or infinite knowledge) under a Sāla tree on the bank of the River Rijubalika near Jrimbhikagrama at age 43 after twelve years of rigorous penance.The details of the event are described in the Jain Uttar -purāņa and Harivamśa-purāņa texts.The Acharanga Sutra describes Mahavira as all-seeing. The Sutrakritanga expands it to all-knowing, and describes his other qualities.Jains believe that Mahavira had a most auspicious body (paramaudārika arīra) and was free from eighteen imperfections when he attained omniscience.According to the vētāmbara, he traveled throughout India to teach his philosophy for thirty years after attaining omniscience. However, the Digambara believe that he remained in his Samavasarana and delivered sermons to his followers.

Disciples

Jain texts document eleven Brahmins as Mahavira's first disciples, traditionally known as the eleven Ganadharas.Indrabhuti Gautama is believed to have been their leader,[66] and the others included Agnibhuti, Vayubhuti, Akampita, Arya Vyakta, Sudharman, Manditaputra, Mauryaputra, Acalabhraataa , Metroya, and Prabhasa. The Ganadharas are believed to have remembered and to have verbally transmitted Mahavira's teachings after his death. His teachings became known as Gani-Pidaga, or the Jain Agamas.According to Kalpa Sutra, Mahavira had 14,000 sadhus (male ascetic devotees), 36,000 sadhvis (female ascetics), 159,000 sravakas (male lay followers), and 318,000 sravikas (female lay followers).[9][69][70] Jain tradition mentions Srenika and Kunika of Haryanka dynasty (popularly known as Bimbisara and Ajatashatru) and Chetaka of Videha as his royal followers.Mahavira initiated his mendicants with the mahavratas (Five Vows). He delivered fifty-five pravachana (recitations) and a set of lectures (Uttaraadhyayana-sutra).Chandana is believed to be the leader of female monastic order.

Nirvana and moksha

Large, white temple on the water

Lord Mahavira's Jal Mandir (water temple) in Pawapuri, Bihar, India

According to Jain texts, Mahavira's nirvana (death)[note 6] occurred in the town of Pawapuri in present-day Bihar.His life as a spiritual light and the night of his nirvana are commemorated by Jains as Diwali at the same time that Hindus celebrate it. His chief disciple, Gautama, is said to have attained omniscience the night that Mahavira achieved nirvana from Pawapuri.

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. According to the Jinasena's Mahapurana, heavenly beings arrived to perform his funeral rites. The Pravachanasara of Digambara tradition says that only the nails and hair of tirthankaras are left behind; the rest of the body dissolves in the air like camphor. 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 crowd falls asleep, awakening to find that he has disappeared (leaving only his nails and hair, which his followers cremate).

The Jain vētāmbara tradition believes that Mahavira's nirvana occurred in 527 BCE, and the Digambara tradition holds that date of 468 BCE. In both traditions, his jiva (soul) is believed to abide in Siddhashila (the home of liberated souls).Mahavira's Jal Mandir stands at the place where he is said to have attained nirvana (moksha).Artworks in Jain temples and texts depict his Final liberation and cremation, sometimes shown symbolically as a small pyre of sandalwood and a piece of burning camphor.

Previous births

Mahavira's previous births are recounted in Jain texts such as the Mahapurana and Tri-shashti-shalaka-purusha-charitra. Although a soul undergoes countless reincarnations in the transmigratory cycle of saṃsāra, the birth of a tirthankara is reckoned from the time he determines the causes of karma and pursues ratnatraya. Jain texts describe Mahavira's 26 births before his incarnation as a tirthankara.[60] According to the texts, he was born as Marichi (the son of Bharata Chakravartin) in a previous life.

Teachings

Main article: Jain philosophy

Colonial-era Indologists considered Jainism (and Mahavira's followers) a sect of Buddhism because of superficial similarities in iconography and meditative and ascetic practices. As scholarship progressed, the differences between the teachings of Mahavira and the Buddha were found so divergent that the religions were acknowledged as separate. Mahavira, says Moriz Winternitz, taught a "very elaborate belief in the soul" (unlike the Buddhists, who denied such elaboration). His ascetic teachings have a higher order of magnitude than those of Buddhism or Hinduism, and his emphasis on ahimsa (non-violence) is greater than that in other Indian religions.

Anekantavada

Main article: Anekantavada

Mahavira taught the doctrine of anekantavada (many-sided reality).Although the word does not appear in the earliest Jain literature or the Agamas, the doctrine is illustrated in Mahavira's answers to questions posed by his followers.[118] Truth and reality are complex, and have a number of aspects. Reality can be experienced, but it is impossible to express it fully with language alone; human attempts to communicate are nayas ("partial expression[s] of the truth").[118] Language itself is not truth, but a means of expressing it. From truth, according to Mahavira, the language returns—not the other way around. One can experience the "truth" of a taste, but cannot fully express that taste through language. Any attempt to express the experience is syāt: valid "in some respect", but still a "perhaps, just one perspective, incomplete". Spiritual truths are also complex, with multiple aspects, and language cannot express their plurality; however, they can be experienced through effort and appropriate karma.

Mahavira's anekantavada doctrine is also summarized in Buddhist texts such as the Samaññaphala Sutta (in which he is called Nigantha Nātaputta), and is a key difference between the teachings of Mahavira and those of the Buddha. The Buddha taught the Middle Way, rejecting the extremes of "it is" or "it is not"; Mahavira accepted both "it is" and "it is not", with reconciliation and the qualification of "perhaps".

The Jain Agamas suggest that Mahavira's approach to answering metaphysical, philosophical questions was a "qualified yes" (syāt). A version of this doctrine is also found in the Ajivika school of ancient Indian philosophy.

According to Dundas, the anekantavada doctrine has been interpreted by many Jains as "promot[ing] a universal religious tolerance ... plurality ... [and a] ... benign attitude to other [ethical, religious] positions"; however, this misreads Jain historical texts and Mahavira's teachings. Mahavira's "many pointedness, multiple perspective" teachings are a doctrine about the nature of reality and human existence, not about tolerating religious positions such as sacrificing animals (or killing them for food) or violence against nonbelievers (or any other living being) as "perhaps right". The five vows for Jain monks and nuns are strict requirements, with no "perhaps".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" .

Gender

An historically contentious view in Jainism is partially attributed to Mahavira and his ascetic life; he did not wear clothing, as a sign of renunciation (the fifth vow, aparigraha). It was disputed whether a female mendicant (sadhvi) could achieve the spiritual liberation of a male mendicant (sadhu) through asceticism.

The major Jain traditions have disagreed, with Digambaras (the sky-clad, naked mendicant order) believing that a woman is unable to fully practice asceticism and cannot achieve spiritual liberation because of her gender; she can, at best, live an ethical life so she is born as a man. According to this view, women are seen as a threat to a monk's chastity.

Mahavira had preached about men and women equality. The clothes-wearing Svetambaras have interpreted Mahavira's teaching as encouraging both sexes to pursue a mendicant, ascetic life with the possibility of moksha (kaivalya, spiritual liberation).

Festivals

Two major annual Jain festivals associated with Mahavira are Mahavir Janma Kalyanak and Diwali. During Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, Jains celebrate Mahavira's birth as the 24th and last tirthankara of avasarpiṇī (the current time cycle).[38] During Mahavir JanmaKalyanak, the five auspicious events of Mahavira's life are re-enacted.Diwali commemorates the anniversary of Mahavira's nirvana, and is celebrated at the same time as the Hindu festival. Diwali marks the New Year for Jains.

Iconography

Statue of Mahavira in a meditative pose

Mahavira iconography is distinguished by a lion stamped (or carved) beneath his feet; a Shrivatsa is on his chest.

Mahavira is usually depicted in a sitting (or standing) meditative pose, with a lion symbol beneath him;each tīrthankara has a distinct emblem, which allows worshipers to distinguish similar idols. Mahavira's lion emblem is usually carved below his legs. Like all tirthankaras, he is depicted with a Shrivatsa in Shetamber tradition.[note 9] The yoga pose is very common in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Each tradition has had a distinctive auspicious chest mark that allows devotees to identify a meditating statue to symbolic icon for their theology. There are several srivasta found in ancient and medieval Jain art works, and these are not found on Buddhist or Hindu art works.[155][156] and downcast eyes in digamber tradition while in Shetamber tradition it is wide open.

Mahavira's earliest iconography is from archaeological sites in the north Indian city of Mathura, dated from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE.The srivatsa mark on his chest and his dhyana-mudra posture appears in Kushana Empire-era artwork. Differences in Mahavira's depiction between the Digambara and Svetambara traditions appear in the late 5th century CE. According to John Cort, the earliest archaeological evidence of Jina iconography with inscriptions precedes its datable texts by over 250 years.

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. K. Ajithadoss, a Jain scholar in Chennai, dated it to the 9th century.