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series of great teachers was Vardhamana Mahavira ( 599-527 B.C. ). He was a senior contemporary of the Buddha who always spoke with respect of the Nigantha-Nataputta (Mahavira). Both these masters were the last great exponents of the Shramana or Arhat current of ancient Indian culture, which had ahimsa for its fundamental creed.
Bhagwan Mahavira, the greatest apostle of ahimsa and one of the greatest benefactors of mankind, was born on the 14th day of the bright fortnight of the Indian month of Chaitra 599 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, at Kundagram a suburb of Vaishali (in Bihar ). His father, Siddhartha, was the republican head of the Jnatrika clan, and his mother, Trishla, was the daughter of the Lichchavi chief Chetaka, the head of the Vajjian confederacy of republics, with his chief city as Vaishali Thus Vardhamana Mahavira was a scion of a highly respectable kshatriya family, born and nurtured in a free republican atmosphere. From his very childhood, he revealed in
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