MAHAVIRA


Meaning of MAHAVIRA in English

orig. Vardhamana

born traditionally 0441; 599, Kshatriyakundagrama, India

died traditionally 527 BCE, Pavapuri

Indian reformer of the Jain monastic community, last of the 24 Tirthankara s, or saints, who founded Jainism .

Born into the warrior caste, he renounced the world at age 30 for a life of extreme asceticism. He had no possessions, not even rags to cover his body or a bowl for alms or food, and after 12 years he attained kevala , the highest stage of perception. An advocate of nonviolence and vegetarianism, he revived and reorganized Jain doctrine and established rules for its monastic order. His followers made five vows of renunciation (see Jain vrata ).

Mah 0101; v 012B; ra enthroned, miniature from the Kalpa-s 016B; tra, 15th-century western ...

By courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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