________________
Jainism : The Cosmic Vision Mahavira was born in 599 B.C. in a royal family in Kshatriyakunda, a wellknown city of the ancient kingdom of Videha (modern Bihar). At the age of thirty, to find out the path to Ultimate Release from all misery, he renounced the world, embarked upon a spiritual career and lived a life of a Jain ascetic. After twelve years of severe spiritual discipline of selfcontrol, austerities and deep meditation, he exterminated attachment completely and attained omniscience (kevalajnana). He became a perfected soul and prophet (Tirthankara). During the next thirty years of his career as a prophet, he travelled on foot from place to place giving his message of peace and goodwill for the welfare of all living beings, without any discrimination of race, class, caste or sex. Eleven men accepted his spiritual leadership and became his chief disciples (ganadhara). He founded the order of nuns with Chandanabala as its first member. The number of male and female ascetics increased and reached upto about 50,000. The lay followers were about half a million.
Mahavira's parents were followers of Parshva, the penultimate Tirthankara, who lived about 250 years earlier in Varanasi. The historicity of Parsva is proved by the modern historians and scholars. So Mahavira was not the founder of Jain religion. He was the rejuvenator, propagator and exponent of Jain religion which had been taught by Parsva and other omniscient teachers of the ever present and imperishable Jain tradition.
Initially, the followers of Jainism lived throughout the Ganges Valley. Around the time of Ashoka (250 B.C.), most of the Jains migrated to the city of Mathura on the Yamuna river. Later, many travelled westward to Rajasthan and Gujarat and
2 For Private & Personal Use Only
Jain Education International
www.jainelibrary.org
