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Mahavira: The founder of Jainism was also known as Vardhaman!

MAJOR KULBIR SINGH. Dated: 6/24/2017 11:41:04 AM

‘At the age of 30, he left his home in pursuit of spiritual awakening, abandoned all worldly possessions, and became an ascetic. For the next twelve-and-a-half years, Mahavira practiced intense meditation and severe austerities, after which he is believed to have attained Kevala Jnana (omniscience). He preached for 30 years, and is believed by Jains to have died in the 6th-century BC. Outside the Jain tradition, scholars such as Karl Potter consider his biographical details as uncertain, with some suggesting he lived in the 5th-century BC contemporaneously with the Buddha. Mahavira died at the age of 72, and his remains were cremated’.

Major Kulbir Singh
Mahavira (Mahāvīra), also known as Vardhamāna, was the twenty-fourth Tirthankara (ford maker) of Jainism. In the Jain tradition, it is believed that Mahavira was born in early part of the 6th-century BC into a royal family in what is now Bihar, India. At the age of 30, he left his home in pursuit of spiritual awakening, abandoned all worldly possessions, and became an ascetic. For the next twelve-and-a-half years, Mahavira practiced intense meditation and severe austerities, after which he is believed to have attained Kevala Jnana (omniscience). He preached for 30 years, and is believed by Jains to have died in the 6th-century BC. Outside the Jain tradition, scholars such as Karl Potter consider his biographical details as uncertain, with some suggesting he lived in the 5th-century BC contemporaneously with the Buddha. Mahavira died at the age of 72, and his remains were cremated. After he gained Kevala Jnana, Mahavira taught that the observance of the vows ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (chastity) and aparigraha (non-attachment) is necessary to spiritual liberation. He gave the principle of Anekantavada (many sided reality), Syadvada and Nayavada. The teachings of Mahavira were compiled by Gautama Swami (his chief disciple) and were called Jain Agamas. These texts were transmitted by an oral tradition by Jain monks, but are believed to have been largely lost by about the 1st-century when they were first written down. The surviving versions of the Agamas taught by Mahavira are some of the foundational texts of Jainism. According to Paul Dundas, a professor of Sanskrit known for his publications on Jainism, the earliest layer of Jain literature such as the Acaranga Sutra makes no mention of the names Vardhamana or Mahavira, nor the equivalent of “fordmaker”. The term Jina for him is rare in early Jain texts. The first book of Sutrakritanga uses the name Mahavira. The early Jain and Buddhist literature that has survived into the modern era uses other names or epithets for Mahavira. These include Nayaputta, Muni, Samana, Niggantha, Brahman and Bhagavan. In early Buddhist Suttas, he is also referred to by the names Araha (meaning “worthy”), and Veyavi (derived from the word “Vedas”, but contextually it means “wise” because the Mahavira did not recognize the Vedas as a scripture). Buddhist texts refer to Mahavira as Nigaṇṭha Jnataputta. Nigaṇṭha means “without knot, tie, or string” and Jnataputta (son or scion of Natas), refers to his clan of origin as Jñāta or Naya (Prakrit). He is also known as Sramana, states the Jain text Kalpasutras, because he is “devoid of love and hate”.According to later Jain texts, Mahavira’s childhood name was Vardhamana (“the one who grows”), because of the increased prosperity in the kingdom at the time of his birth. According to the Kalpasutras, he was called Mahavira (“the great hero”) by the gods because he stood steadfast in the midst of dangers and fears, hardships and calamities. Mahavira is also called a Tirthankara. According to the Kalpasutra, Mahavira was born at Kundagrama in the state of Bihar, India.[5] This is assumed to be the modern town of Basu Kund, which is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Patna, the capital of Bihar. However, it is unclear if the ancient Kundagrama is same as the current assumed location, and the birthplace remains a subject of dispute. Mahavira renounced all his material wealth and left his home when he was 28 by some accounts, or 30 by others, then lived ascetic life and performed severe austerities for 12 years, and thereafter preached Jainism for a period of 30 years. The location he preached has been a subject of historic disagreement between the two major sub-traditions of Jainism – the Svetambaras and the Digambaras. Though it is universally accepted by scholars of Jainism that Mahavira was an actual person who lived in ancient India, the details of Mahavira’s biography and the year of his birth are uncertain, and a subject of considerable debate among scholars. The Jain Śvētāmbara tradition believes he was born in 599 BC and he died in 527 BC, while the Digambara tradition believes 510 BC as the year he died. The scholarly controversy arises from efforts to date him and the Buddha, because both are believed to be contemporaries according to Buddhist and Jain texts, and because unlike Jain literature there is extensive ancient Buddhist literature that has survived. Almost all Indologists and historians, state Dundas and others, accordingly date Mahavira’s birth to about 497 BC, and death to about 425 BC. However, the Vira era tradition that starts in 527 BC and places Mahavira in the 6th-century BC is a firmly established part of the Jain community tradition. The 12th-century Jain scholar Hemachandra placed Mahavira in the 5th-century BC. According to Kailash Jain, Hemachandra made an incorrect analysis that, along with attempts to establish Buddha’s nirvana date, has been a source of confusion and controversy about Mahavira’s year of nirvana. Kailash Jain states the traditional date of 527 BC is accurate, adding that the Buddha was a junior contemporary of the Mahavira and that the Buddha “might have attained nirvana a few years later”. The place of his death, Pavapuri (now in Bihar), is a pilgrimage site for Jains. According to the Jain texts, twenty-four Tirthankaras have appeared on earth in the current time cycle of Jain cosmology.
Mahavira was the last Tirthankara of Avasarpiṇī (present descending phase or half of the time cycle). A Tirthankara (Maker of the River-Crossing, saviour, spiritual teacher) signifies the founder of a tirtha which means a fordable passage across the sea of interminable cycles of births and deaths (called saṃsāra). In Jain cosmology, twenty-four Tirthankaras appear in every time cycle, Mahavira was the 24th for the current cycle.