YJA Convention 1994 07 Chicago IL First

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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injury, truth, non-stealing and non-possession) and five vows (chastity added) and came to the conclusion that fundamentally they are the
same.
Historicity of Parshva:
The historicity of Lord Parshva has been unanimously accepted. He preceded Mahavira by 250 years. He was the son of King Asvasena and Queen Vama of Varanasi. At the age of thirty he renounced the world and became an ascetic. He practiced austerities for eighty-three days. On the eighty-fourth day he obtained omniscience. Lord Parshva preached his doctrines for seventy years. At the age of one hundred he attained liberation on the summit of Mount Sammeta (Parsnath Hills).
The four vows preached by Lord Parshva are: not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, and not to own property. The vow of chastity was without a doubt, implicitly included in the last vow, but in the two hundred and fifty years that elapsed between the death of Parshva and the preaching of Mahavira, abuses became so abundant that the latter had to add the vow of chastity explicitly to the existing four vows. Thus, the number of vows preached by Lord Mahavira was five instead of four.
Neminatha:
Neminatha or Aristanemi, who preceded Lord Parshva, was a cousin of Krishna. If the historicity of Krishna is accepted, there is no reason why Neminatha should not be regarded as a historical person. He was son of Samudravijaya and grandson of Andhakavrsni of Sauryapura. Krishna had negotiated the wedding of Neminatha with Rajimati, the daughter of Ugrasena of Dvaraka. Neminatha attained emancipation on the summit of Mount Raivata (Girnar).
Other Tirthankars:
The Jain tradition believes in the occurrence of twenty one more Tirthankars. They preceded Neminatha. Lord Rishabha was the first among
Jain Education Intemational
them. It is not an easy job to establish the historicity of these great souls.
Mahavira:
Mahavira was the twenty-fourth, i.e., the last Tirthankars. According to the Pali texts, he was a contemporary of Buddha but they never met. The early Prakrit texts do not mention the name of Buddha. They totally neglect him. This indicates that Mahavira and his followers did not attach any importance to Buddha's personality and teachings. On the other hand, in the Pali Tripitaka, Mahavira is regarded as one of the six Tirthankars of Buddha's times. This shows that Mahavira was an influential personality and a leading venerable ascetic.
According to the tradition of the Shvetambar Jains the liberation of Mahavira took place 470 years before the beginning of the Vikrama Era. The tradition of the Digambar Jains maintains that Lord Mahavira attained liberation 605 years before the beginning of the Saka Era. By either mode of calculation the date comes to 527 B.C. Since the Lord attained emancipation at the age of 72, his birth must have been around 599 B.C. This makes Mahavira a slightly elder contemporary of Buddha who probably lived about 567-487 B.C.
There are many references in the Buddhist canon to Nataputta and the Niganthas, meaning Mahavira and the Jains. The Buddhist canon refers to the death of Nataputta at Pava at a time when Buddha was still engaged in preaching. According to Hemachandra, Mahavira attained liberation 155 years before Chandragupta's accession to the throne. This leads to a date around 549-477 B.C. for Mahavira and places his death slightly later than that of Buddha. Some scholars support this view.
There is no doubt that Parshva preceded Mahavira by 250 years. The Jain canon clearly mentions that the parents of Mahavira were followers of Parshva whose death took place 250 years before that of Mahavira (527 B.C.). Since Parshva lived for one hundred years, his
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