Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 25

The Jain Idea of Biography.
It is amazing that historical scholars should have ever been inclined to doubt the existence of Mahavira. Jain literature, particularly Jain canonical literature, which is avowedly older than the classical Sanskrit literature and which vies in its antiquity with the oldest books of the northern Buddhists, is replete with the facts of Mahavira's life. Jacobi is of the view that European scholars were confounded by the similarities 'between Buddhism and Jainism and between Buddha's and Mahavira's life and that they came to this conclusion due to their lack of study on the subject. The punterous names and appellations by which these two porphets were called Jina, Arhat, Mahavira, Sugata, Savajna, Tathagata, Siddha, Buddha, Sambuddha, Parinivsta, Mukta, etc., and the fact that both of them were given the same titles' and epithets further confused historical scholars. But, as Jacobi has stated, with the exception of Jina and perhaps Sramana, which were quite commonly used by both the sects, the Buddhists and the Jains made a preferential selection of certain titles, only. Thus, Buddha, Tatha-gata, Sugata and Sambuddha are common titles of Sākyamuni and are only occasionally used as epithets of Mahavira. On the other hand, Mahavira is often referred to in the Jain Agama as Vardhamana, because of the 'increCase that had taken place in the silver and gold, the intensity of liberality and the popularity of his parents ever since the moment he had been begotten', still more often as Jñātņputra. The Buddhist texts refer to him as Nātaputta, and it was not until quite late that Jacobi identified the term Nātaputta to be a variation of Jñatrputra. He is also called Vira, Ativīra, Sanmati and by a host of other names in the later literature of the Jains.
These names are clearly qualitative names, that is to say, they are meant to draw attention to certain qualities possessed by Mahavira ; and they are all indicative of a distinct point of view which underlay the