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What is the message of Jainism or for the matter of that what do the colossal statue of Bahubali at Sravana Belgola and elsewhere and of the figures of the 24 Tirthankaras reveal ? Jainism, so called because its founder was a Jina or Victor', attempts to raise man to godhood and to inspire him to reach it by steady faith, right perception, perfect knowledge and above all by a spotless life. Jainism believes in godhood and speaks of innumerable gods The story of the religion founded by Lord Mahavira is a story of 25 centuries, spreading over the whole of India, with its centres of activity still maintained in Gujrat, Mathura, Rajasthan, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Deccan, Mysore and South India While saints and scholars ennobled the religion, the Jaina merchants vied with each other in erecting myriad temples, some of which are the glories of the religious architecture of India
Vardhamana or Mahavira and the earlier Tirthankaras spread, like Lord Buddha, in India a gospel of Moksha or liberation free from ritual and based on love and reason The advent of these teachers synchronised with a mighty political revolution that shook entire India, that replaced clans by states, and prepared the way for an Empire transcending States. Mahavira, founded an ascetic order or brotherhood, governed by a system of rules and standing on the sheet-rock of an edifying doctrine of absolute sanctity of life, called Ahimsa Ahimsa doctrine-Ahimsa paramo dharamah
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