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Jainism Upto the Last Victor
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Mahâvîra definitely a reformer of an existing faith, and the addition of a vow, the emphasis on nudity and a more systematic arrangement of its philosophical tenets may be credited to his reforming zeal. This fact is also brought out by the traditional life of Mahâvîra. We are told that unlike the Buddha, who at the beginning of his spiritual career lived with some teachers with whose teachings he became dissatisfied and finally found out the truth for himself, Mahâvîra followed a well established creed, obviously that of Pârsva equally significant is the absence in Jainism of anything equal to Buddha's insistence that his followers should remember well his first sermon, suggestive of its novelty. Above all, the early Buddhist literature makes it quite clear that it regarded Mahâvîra not as a founder of a new sect, but merely as a leader of an already existing religious community. 10
As the nature of pre-Mahâvîra Jaina doctrines is not fully known, some speculative thinking by modern scholars on this subject has been natural. 11 According to R. Williams some aspects of later Jainism may be regarded as ascribable to a pre-Mahâvîra and indeed a pre-Pârsva period. Among these he includes sallekhana (when the body is cast aside like leaves shed by a tree); the pursuit of an ascetic way of life characterised by nudity and posessionlessness but not by brahmacharya', the use of some forms of worship including the ritual posture of devotion called Kayotsarga and the observance of ahimsâ devolving from the postilations of forms of life such as prthvikayas, vayu-kayas, tejakayas and vanaspati kayas. These last elements, usually termed animistie, are the proof and measure of the antiquity of Jainism. Williams also believes that the ideals from which they evolved was particularly popular in Gujarat and were associated with a system of number magic in which the figure four was of paramount importance and the cult of sacred mountains, one of which, namely Girnar, was closely linked with Neminâtha. 12 Life of Mahâvîra
Mahâvîra was born in a suburb of Vaisâli, called Kundagrama, now known as Basukunda. His original name was Vardhamâna. The more popular name Mahâvîra is said to have been bestowed on him by the gods. He has also been given a number of epithets like Nayaputta 'a scion of the Naya clan',
