________________
Lord Mahâvira
between the cosmological ideas of Parshva and a more rigorous form of orthopraxy advocated by Mahâvîra, with the relationship between the two teachers eventually being formalised within the evolving fordmaker lineage.29 It is noteworthy that later Jain writers did not see Parshva's monks as precursors of their own tradition. Starting with the Sutrakritanga where the Parshvites are associated with failure to think through the implications of a life based on non-violence (SKS 2.7), Shyetambaras came by medieval times to view them, long after they had disappeared, as pseudo-ascetics who gained their livelihood from the dubious practices of magic and Astrology,30
290
Such speculations about the connections between the two fordmakers are a matter of irrelevance for the majority of Jains. For them, Parshva, as the fordmaker who removes obstacles and has the capacity to save, is the greatest focus of devotional activity within the religion and is indeed the most popular of all the fordmakers, as a census of images in Jain temples throughout India would clearly demonstrate. According to a famous story which does not appear in literary form until the eighth century, Parshva in his previous birth saved a snake which was being burnt in a brahman's sacrificial fire. Reborn as the twenty-third fordmaker, Parshva, sunk in meditation, was attacked by the brahman, now in demonic form, with fire and rocks, but the snake, also reborn, this time as a mighty cobra prince called Dharanendra, shielded Parshva by spreading his hoods over his head.31
A historian might point to the existence of images of Parshva with a canopy of cobra's hoods which date from just before and after the common era as evidence for Jainism's early assimilation of popular snake cults.32 More significant is the way that various ethical themes in Jain teaching come together in the figure of this fordmaker: compassion, non-violence, fellowship with all living creatures, rejection of the Vedic sacrifice and awareness of the fact that actions have consequences which bind individuals together. Mahavira's Enlightenment
Until his enlightenment, Mahâvîra was imperfect and still subject to the occluding effects of karma. Finally, at the end of the thirteenth year after his renunciation, in a field belonging to a farmer called Samaga which was situated near a small village on
