Early life of buddha and mahavira biography

EARLY LIFE OF MAHAVIRA

The preceding description of Indian society in 6th century B.C. has been given in such detail, for it is only with a full knowledge of that background that a correct evaluation of the noble work and achievements of Mahavira is really possible. Mahavira was born in the year 599 B.C. at Kundagrama, which was a suburb of the flourishing town of Vaisali, about twenty-seven miles north of Patna. His father Siddhartha was apparently the chieftain of the place and his mother, Trisala, was the sister of the Vaisali ruler, whose name has been given in the Jaina texts as Cetaka. According to the Jaina belief, Mahavira�s parents were worshippers of Parsva and followers of the Sramanas.

Tirthankara Parsva:

There is a Jaina tradition that Jainism is as old as the human race, that the religion shall remain in existence till eternity, and that it has been and will be revealed again and again in the endless succeeding periods of the world by innumerable Tirthankaras. In each of these periods there are twenty-four Tirthankaras, the first Tirthankara of present age being Rsabha and the last two being Parsva and Mahavira. Historical research in India was so crude and unorganized at one time that all these Tirthankaras, including Mahavira, were looked upon by the historians of ancient India as just mythical personages. The credit of recognizing the historical existence of Mahavira goes surprisingly enough, to a German scholar in the field of Indology, Professor Herman Jacobi, who made an English translation of the first Jaina Anga: Acaranga, and published it with a masterly introduction in the series called the �Sacred Books of the East� in 1884. Ancient historical research has made some progress since then, and today Indian historians are prepared to freely recognize not only that Mahavira was a historic personage but also that the twenty-third Tirthankara, Parsva, and some at least of his predecessors had historical e

24th tirthankara of Jainism

This article is about the 24th tirthankara of Jainism. For other topics, see Mahavira (disambiguation)

Mahavira (Devanagari: महावीर, Mahāvīra), also known as Vardhamana (Devanagari: वर्धमान, Vardhamāna), was the 24th Tirthankara (Supreme Preacher and Ford Maker) of Jainism. Although the dates and most historical details of his life are uncertain and varies by sect, historians generally consider that he lived during the 6th or 5th century BCE, reviving and reforming a proto-Jain community (which had possibly been founded by Parshvanatha), and he was an older contemporary of Gautama Buddha.

Jains regard him as the spiritual successor of the 23rd TirthankaraParshvanatha. According to traditional legends and hagiographies, Mahavira was born in the early 6th century BCE to a roy

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———. 1979. The Jaina Path of Purification. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

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Sometimes the mendicant life of Lord Mahavira and the Buddha brought them into the same vicinity. On at least three occasions, they were preaching in the same village at the same time, but destiny did not allow them to meet personally.

Because of their tremendous respect for each other, Lord Mahavira and Lord Buddha were both interested in each other's philosophies. They used intermediaries to send and receive messages from one to another.

There are more than sixty references to Lord Mahavira in Buddhist literature. This has added considerably to our knowledge of Mahavira's life.

Now, thousands of years after these two immortal spiritual lions lived on earth, their light has spread in different ways. Buddhism is found mostly outside India, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar and other places. But Jainism is found only within our Indian subcontinent.

We can say that Buddhism has gone out of India to spread India's lofty message of spirituality, whereas, Jainism has remained within the boundaries of India to proclaim India's spirituality.