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Biography of Vardhamana Mahavira
Name: Vardhamana Mahavira
Birth Date: 599 B.C.
Death Date: 527 B.C.
Place of Birth: Vaardhamana, India
Nationality: Indian
Gender: Male
Occupations: ascetic
Vardhamana Mahavira
Vardhamana Mahavira (599 BC-527 BC), called the Jina, was an Indian ascetic philosopher and the principal founder of Jainism--one of the major religions of the Indian subcontinent.Vardhamana Mahavira was born in northern India during the turbulent religious and political upheavals of the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. He was a contemporary of the Buddha, and in many respects their lives are similar. Mahavira's father was chief of the Jnatrika clan, an indigenous oligarchical tribe. Mahavira's tribal affiliation is reflected in one of his later epithets, Nigantha Nataputta, which means literally "the naked ascetic of the Jnatrika clan."Despite his royal upbringing, his religious sensibilities drove Mahavira inexorably to renounce his worldly ties at the age of 30 and embark on a search for ultimate spiritual truth. Traditional religious practices were centered in an archaic magical and sacrificial cult dominated by a hereditary priestly elite. But for Mahavira and …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…but it stressed, as did early Buddhism, the necessity of virtuous self-discipline as a moral precondition for legitimate rule. Further Reading Because of the difficult problems of historical reconstruction, there is no work on the life of Mahavira. Background works on Jainism include Hermann Jacobi, trans., Gaina Sutras, "Sacred Books of the East Series," vols. 22 and 45 (1894 and 1895; repr. Delhi, 1964); Margaret Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism (1915); Jagmandar Jaini, Outlines of Jainism (1916); and Chimanlal J. Shah, Jainism in North India, 800 B.C.-A.D. 526 (1932). Indian sources include Herbert Warren, Jainism in Western Garb (Madras, 1912); Nathmal Tatia, Studies in Jaina Philosophy (Benares, 1951); and Mohan Lal Mehta, Outlines of Jaina Philosophy (Bangalore, 1954). For general background consult W.H. Moreland and Atul Chandra Chatterjee, A Short History of India (1936; 3d ed. 1953); A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (1937; rev. ed. 1963); J.C. Powell-Price, A History of India (1955); and Michael Edwardes, A History of India (1961).
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