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about one thousand years after Mahāvīra's Nirvāna. The edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BC) and of Kharvela (2nd century BC) mention Jaina as Nirgrantha Sangha.
From the texts of Rsibhāsita, Uttarādhyayana and Sūtrakrtānga, etc. it is known that sages like Nami, Bahuka, Kapila, Narayana (Tarayana), Angirasa, Bharadvaja, Narada etc. who were actually not sages of this tradition, have occupied a highly respectable place in Nirgrantha Dharma. They were also called Arhats like Pārśva and Mahāvīra, but when Nirgrantha sect got centered on Pārśva and Mahāvīra these sages were given a respectable place with the epithet of ‘Pratyeka-buddha'. But were considered different from their own tradition in a manifest form. Thus, we see that by 5th century BC Nirgrantha-sangha got limited to the tradition of Pārśva and Mahāvīra only. Further, it has to be kept in mind that the traditions of Pārśva and Mahāvīra were also separate in the beginning. Though the information available from the texts of Uttarādhyayana and Bhagavati we come to know that some of the Sramaņas of the Pārsva tradition joined Mahāvīra's Sangha, having been impressed by Mahāvīra's personality in his lifetime. But in Mahāvīra's lifetime the two traditions did not fully merge with each other.
From the description in Uttarādhyayana it seems that soon after Mahāvīra's Nirvāna, his chief disciple Gautama and his contemporary Ācārya Kesi of Pārsva’s tradition met in Śrāvasti and prepared the ground work for the merger of the two Sanghas. Though, today we do not have single evidence available on the basis of which it could be said that the Pārsva tradition fully merged into Mahāvīra's tradition, however, this much is certain that a major portion of monks of the Pārśva tradition joined Mahāvīra's tradition and Mahāvīra's followers also recognized Pārśva as the
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Jainism and its History
