Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi

Page 26

Parsva and Mahavira
SINCE the historicity of Pārsva and Mahāvīra has been more or w less authentically established it is interesting to inquire whether Mahāvīra modified the teachings of Pārśva in any respect. That Pārśva was the twenty-third Tīrthankara and Mahāvīra, the twentyfourth, has been conclusively proved by scholars but regarding the dates of Pārsva and Mahāvīra differences of opinion still persist. One view is that Pārsva was born about 872 B.C. and attained nirvana around 772 B.C. and that Mahāvīra was born in 598 B.C. and died in 526 B.C. Another is that Pārsva was born in 817 B.C. and Mahāvīra, in 599 B.C.
The Jaina source-books contain distinct references to the differences between the teachings of Pārsva and Mahāvīra. The Bhagavati-Sūtra draws the distinction between the four vows of Pārśva and the five vows of Mahāvīra. The reference is to a dispute between a follower of Pārśva and another of Mahāvīra. The passage concludes with the words that the former begged permission of the latter to stay with him “after having changed the law of the four vows for the five vows enjoining compulsory confession."
Jacobi finds evidence for such a distinction in a Buddhist text Sāmaññaphala Sutta. Writing on the sūtra : Catuyama Saṁvara samvuto Jacobi maintains : “It is applied to the doctrine of Mahāvīra's predecessor, Pārśva, to distinguish it from the reformed creed of Mahāvīra, which is called pañcayāma dharma."2 The five
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11. 76 2 1.A.; IX, p. 160