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MAHAVIRA: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
LIFE
Modern historical research establishes beyond doubt that Mahāvīra, well known as the founder of Jainism, is not a mythical figure like so many of his predecessors in the tradition of the Tirthaikaras Pārsva or Supārsva, who too has been proved to be a historical person, was the immediate predecessor of Mahāvīra. There is, of course, no other evidence than literary to prove the authenticity of the Jain traditions regarding Mahāvīra and his predecessor Pārsva. The Jain inscriptional evidence is so far remote from the age in which they had flourished that nothing can be definitely built upon it But as early as the 3rd century B.C, we have mention of the Niganthas in the Seventh Pillar Edict of Asoka as a distinct class of Indian recluses. The Niganţhas mentioned in this famous epigraph were no other than the followers of Mahāvīra. This very class of recluses has been honoured in the Hathigumphā inscription of Khāravela as the
