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Lord Mahavira Is Mahâvîra the founder of Jainism ?
Generally the historians believe that Mahâvîra was the founder of Jainism. In a way this statement is correct because when Vardhamana rejected his house-holder's life and became an ascetic, he did not join any of the religious orders. And when he became Kevali or the omniscient he organised his own order of religious persons who had already accepted his teachings or who were ready to accept them. For some time the ascetics and the house-holders belonging to the order of Parsva did not join the newly organised order of Mahâvîra. They were in a state of indecision. They, in group or singly, visited him and put questions to him. Those who were satisfied with the answers accepted him as their leader. And others who were not satisfied, never joined his order. The credit goes to Gautama, the chief disciple of Mahâvîra, for uniting the two orders-one of Parsva and another of Mahâvîra. This can be ascertained from Uttaradhyayana (Ch. 23).
But according to the traditions of the Jainas Mahâvîra is merely one of the 24 Tirthankaras and the last in the series. So he should not be accepted as the founder of Jainism. As the abovementioned two orders could get united it can legitimately be surmised that there was very little difference between the teachings of Mahâvîra and those of Parsva, the 23rd Tirthankara. So, we should accept the traditional view that Jainism as such did not originate in the times of Mahâvîra, And the Pali Pitakas of the Buddhist, testify to this fact by wrongly saying that Nirgrantha Nataputta preached four vows. Actually four vows were preached by Parsva and not by Mahâvîra as can be seen in the Uttaradhyayana (23) dialogue. This mistake of the Buddhists goes to prove the existence of the order of Parsva side by side with that of Mahâvîra in the times of Buddha. And these two orders were known by the common name Nirgrantha. So, we can surmise that the tradition of the Nirgrantha was not originated by Mahâvîra but was already prevalent in the times of Mahâvîra, and that tradition which came to be known by the term Jaina in later times was known by the terms Nirgrantha in olden days. Stories of Mahâvîra's past births
Stories narrating various incidents of Mahâvîra's previous births exemplify the theory of Karma which is the characteristic
