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Lord Mahavira
town of Sauripura. He was named Arishtanemi as his mother saw in a dream a nemi, the outer rim of a wheel, which consisted of rishta stones flying up to the sky. He was a cousin of Krishna, the Lord of Bhagvvadgita. Because of the cruelty of Jarasandha, the Yadavas left Sauripura and settled in Dvaraka. Krishna negotiated his marriage with Rajamati, the daughter of Ugrasena but Neminatha taking compassion on the animals which were to be slaughtered in connection with the marriage feast, left the marriage procession suddenly and renounced the world.
The Chhandogya Upanishad13 refers to sage Krishna, son of Devaki, as a disciple of the Risi Ghora of the Angirasa family who instructed him about tapas (ascetism), dana (charity), arjava (simplicity or piety), ahinsa (non-injury), and satyavachana (truthfulness), the same virtues are extolled by Krishna in the Gita. As Jaina tradition make Vasudeva-Krishna a contemporary of Tirthankara Arishtanemi who preceded parsvanatha, some scholars identify Ghora Angirasa with Neminatha. We may place Neminatha around 100 B. C., as he was a contemporary of Lord Krishna, the hero of Mahâbhârata war. If the historicity of Lord Krishna is admitted, we may as will admit that Lord Neminatha is not a mere myth. The historicity of Neminâtha is doubtful because we have no contemporary evidence of the existence of Neminâtha. The identification of Ghora Angirasa with Neminátha is also not correct.
It has been propounded by some scholars that Jainism is a pre-Vedic religion. G. C. Pandeyl4 has tried to show that the antiritualistic tendency within the Vedic fold is itself due to the impact of an asceticism which antedates the Vedas. Jainism represents a continuation of this pre-Vedic stream. Some of the relics25 found from the excavations of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are related to Sramana or Jaina tradition. The nude images in Kayotsarga i.e. standing posture lost in meditation have close similarity with the Jaina images of the Kushana period. Kayotsarga is, generally, supposed to be the Jaina tradition. There are some idols even in Padmasana pose. Some images found at Mohenjodaro have heads of serpents. They probably belonged to the Naga tribe which is probably pre-Vedic. The image of the seventh Tîrthankara Lord Suparsva has a canopy of the heads of serpents.
Even after the destruction of the Indus Civilization, the straggling culture of the Sramanas most probably going back to
