orig. Vardhamana
born traditionally с 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 ).
Mahāvīra enthroned, miniature from the Kalpa-sūtra, 15th-century western ...
By courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.